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This quick video is an example of a ideology that I have adapted into my lifestyle. Being frivolous and enjoying life is my secret to happiness. I like to enjoy the simple things and laugh at the funny things and whenever I am upset I just have to remember this. Life is too short to be doing something I don't want to do, I am going to enjoy it, and I am going to enjoy it now, not later. I hope you enjoy my video!

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Exercise is one of the most natural and efficient ways to increase your happiness and a whole spectrum of benefits. The main take away from this article is that exercise triggers a stress response, this releases endorphins and a brain delivered neurotic factor (BDNF) which protects you against whatever stress you're experiencing. After you've finished exercising you then relax and your body feels a sense of euphoria and also most likely a sense of completion. People can use this system to their advantage and exercise everyday (something simple like walking for 20 minutes) and achieve a natural cycle of "feel good" hormones that will overall make you happier as a healthier and active human.

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Exercise has been touted to be a cure for nearly everything in life, from depression, to memory loss, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and more. At the same time, similar to the topic of sleep, I found myself having very little specific and scientific knowledge about what exercise really does to our bodies and our brains.

"Yes, yes, I know all about it, that's the thing with the endorphins, that makes you feel good and why we should exercise and stuff, right?" is what I can hear myself say to someone bringing this up. I would pick up things here and there, yet really digging into the connection of exercise and how it effects us has never been something I've done.

Inspired by a recent post from Joel on what makes us happy I've set out to uncover the connection between our feeling of happiness and exercising regularly.

Most of us are aware of what happens to the body when we exercise. We build more muscle or more stamina. We feel how daily activities like climbing stairs becomes easier if we exercise regularly. When it comes to our brain and mood though, the connection isn't so clear.

The line around our "endorphins are released" is more something I throw around to sound smart, without really knowing what it means. Here is what actually happens:

If you start exercising, your brain recognizes this as a moment of stress. As your heart pressure increases, the brain thinks you are either fighting the enemy or fleeing from it. To protect yourself and your brain from stress, you release a protein called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor). This BDNF has a protective and also reparative element to your memory neurons and acts as a reset switch. That's why we often feel so at ease and things are clear after exercising and eventually happy.

At the same time, endorphins, another chemical to fight stress, is released in your brain. Your endorphins main purpose is this writes researcher McGovern:

These endorphins tend to minimize the discomfort of exercise, block the feeling of pain and are even associated with a feeling of euphoria.

Overall, there is a lot going on inside our brain and it is in fact oftentimes a lot more active than when we are just sitting down or actually concentrating mentally:

So, BDNF and endorphins are the reasons exercise makes us feel so good. The somewhat scary part is that they have a very similar and addictive behavior like morphine, heroine or nicotine. The only difference? Well, it's actually good for us.

Now here is where it all gets interesting. We know the basic foundations of why exercising makes us happy and what happens inside our brain cells. The most important part to uncover now, is of course how we can trigger this in an optimal and longer lasting way.

A recent study from Penn State university shed some light on the matter and the results are more than surprising. They found that to be more productive and happier on a given work day, it doesn't matter so much, if you work-out regularly, if you haven't worked out on that particular day:

"Those who had exercised during the preceding month but not on the day of testing generally did better on the memory test than those who had been sedentary, but did not perform nearly as well as those who had worked out that morning."

New York Times best-selling author Gretchen Reynolds has written a whole book about the subject matter titled "The first 20 minutes". To get the highest level of happiness and benefits for health, the key is not to become a professional athlete. On the contrary, a much smaller amount is needed to reach the level where happiness and productivity in every day life peaks:

"The first 20 minutes of moving around, if someone has been really sedentary, provide most of the health benefits. You get prolonged life, reduced disease risk - all of those things come in in the first 20 minutes of being active."

So really, you can relax and don't have to be on the look-out for the next killer work-out. All you have to do is get some focused 20 minutes in to get the full happiness boost every day:

"On exercise days, people's mood significantly improved after exercising. Mood stayed about the same on days they didn't, with the exception of people's sense of calm which deteriorated." ( University of Bristol)

Now, that's all nice to hear you might say, starting to exercise regularly or even daily is still easier written than done. At end of the day, there is quite a lot of focus required to help you get into the habit of exercising daily. The most important part to note first, is that exercise is a "keystone" habit according to Charles Duhigg, New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. This means that daily exercise can pave the way not only for happiness, but also growth in all other areas of your life.

In a recent post from Joel, he wrote about the power of daily exercise for his everyday life. Coincidentally, he follows the above rules very accurately and exercises daily before doing anything else. He writes:

By 9:30am, I've done an hour of coding on the most important task I have right now on Buffer, I've been to the gym and had a great session, and I've done 30 minutes of emails. It's only 9:30am and I've already succeeded, and I feel fantastic.

I've spoken lots to Joel about his habit of exercising and here are some of the most important things to do, in order to set yourself up for success and make your daily exercise fun:

Put your gym clothes right over your alarm clock or phone when you go to bed:
This technique sounds rather simple, but has been one of the most powerful ones. If you put everything the way you want it for the gym before you go to sleep and put your alarm under your gym clothes, you will have a much easier time to convince yourself to put your gym clothes on.

Track your exercises and log them at the same time after every exercise: When you try to exercise regularly, the key is to make it a habit. One way to achieve this is to create a so called "reward", that will remind you of the good feelings you get from exercising. In our big list of top web apps, we have a full section on fitness apps that might be handy. Try out Fitocracy or RunKeeper to log your work-outs. Try to have a very clear logging process in place. Log your work-out just before you go into the shower or exactly when you walk out of the gym.

Think about starting small and then start even smaller: Here is a little secret. When I first started exercising, I did it with five minutes per day, three times a week. Can you imagine that? Five minutes of timed exercise, three times a week? That's nothing, you might be thinking. And you are right, because the task is so easy and anyone can succeed with it, you can really start to make a habit out of it. Try no more than five or 10 minutes if you are getting started.

There are lots more great ideas for how you can create a habit from Joel in his post on the exercise habit, be sure to check it out, it might be a lot of help here. I am sure that if you dedicate just very little time, you can get into an awesome exercise routine that makes you happier, more productive and relaxed than ever before.

As a quick last fact, exercise, the increase of the BDNF proteins in your brain acts as a mood enhancer. The effects are similar to drug addiction one study found. So when you start exercising, the feeling of euphoria is the highest:

"The release of endorphins has an addictive effect, and more exercise is needed to achieve the same level of euphoria over time." ( McGovern)

So this means that if you have never exercised before or not for a long time, your happiness gains will be the highest if you start now.

Exercise and how it affects our level of happiness is an absolutely exciting topic for me. Have you played around with this too and seen any results? I would love to hear your thoughts on how exercise and happiness work together.

Photo credit: katapulsemusic

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What Happens To Our Brains When We Exercise And How It Makes Us Happier

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Exercise has been touted to be a cure for nearly everything in life, from depression, to memory loss, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and more. At the same time, similar to the topic of sleep, I found myself having very little specific and scientific knowledge about what exercise really does to our bodies and our brains.

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Something that I feel was a significant similarity between Gatsby and happiness was Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson proved something that a lot of us believe to be directly correlated. Happiness and love. When Wilson is described a lot of people see him as this sad and anemic man, but how could someone who is happily married be sad? Some people believe that finding a partner in life will solve all the problems of sadness. I believe that Mr. Wilson shows that through marriage, though you may have a partner, you do not instantly have a solution. Husbands and Wives are meant to be there for their significant other in their times of need and live the struggles of life together. Mr. Wilson is stuck on the reality that Myrtle is his life and that she is the solution. When Mr. Wilson finds out she's been cheating he instantly loses this false happiness and goes insane. In the text it states, “I spoke to her,” he muttered, after a long silence. “I told her she might fool me but she couldn’t fool God. I took her to the window—“ With an effort he got up and walked to the rear window and leaned with his face pressed against it, “—and I said ‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me but you can’t fool God!’ “ (Fitzgerald 159). Marriage and happiness are connected in ways that some people will rely on their significant other in times of need. This is necessarily a bad thing, but dedicating all of your happiness and meaning of life into one certain thing or object can be devastating on one's mental health and may forever obstruct their view of happiness.

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Everyday I see more and more people walking into school looking absolutely exhausted. Students and teachers both have something in common that could greatly increase their happiness in a variety of ways.
Sleep!
Sleep is essential for developing minds like teenagers and young people. Teachers and adults are able to get away with getting less sleep but I am sure that they would also love to get an extra few hours every night. The question is, why are students not treating sleep as something as important as eating and being on their phone? Sleep should be treated as one of the top 3 most important things in a teenagers life. We all know that sleeping is great and when we don't get enough of it... some of us get a little cranky or irritable. Now how do we get more sleep? Time management is insanely important for teenagers, not only as a life skill, but also for getting in those essential Z's. Teens need to spend their time being productive in order to get a healthy 8 hours or more. Once sleep is regulated in your life, you can begin to realize benefits such as better focus, better mood, and overall a better quality of life!

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As one of the most dynamic and confusing age groups in the world. Teenagers are one of the most depressed age groups in 2019. But why? A certain study asks some specific questions on happiness and compares them to questions based on unhappiness.
The top three things that teens say make them "happy" are "Family, Friends, and Free time playing games and laughing" (Elmore). Now comparing what makes teens happy to what makes them unhappy is quite the difference. The tops three things that make teens unhappy are Anxiety, Entitlement, and the fear of missing out. Something that I noticed about happiness is that teens enjoy being with others. Togetherness is something that is key to being happy and if a teen is to spend all of their time inside playing video games or on their phone; it then brings on the thing that makes them unhappy which is "the fear of missing out". I believe, in order to start taking a step in the right direction, teens need to start putting their phones down and instead of looking at videos of everyone else having fun, they themselves can go and have a good time with their friends and family.

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Not long ago, I read the results of a study on happiness, which focused on children under 18 years old. I was immediately enraptured with this global report because I assumed with all the resources and technology we have at our fingertips, American kids would likely be the happiest kids in the world.

Ugh. No.

Our students are not the happiest. They're not even number two. Or three. Or even four. Some of the statistics were surprising as they revealed counter intuitive insights about what our students are going through and how they feel about it.

Surprising Numbers on American Children's and Teen's Happiness

Check out three results from this report from the "Global Kids Happiness Index."
1. Compared to the world, American kids are not the happiest by far.
While most define themselves as relatively "happy," kids in countries like Mexico, Spain, Brazil and Germany are happier than U.S. kids. So while today's parents work harder at it than past generations, our kids just aren't as happy as they used to be.
2. White, affluent kids are less happy than minorities.
Of the four largest ethnic populations in America, the happiest are African-Americans followed by Asians and Hispanics. Coming in fourth are Caucasians. So, while the majority of American wealth is enjoyed by whites, it doesn't equate to happiness.
3. Kids are far more worried about recession and global problems than school.
Thanks to ubiquitous technology and information, today's teens are more stressed and distressed than past teen generations. Awareness of global problems results in students feeling more angst about global conflict than their own homework.

Wow. As a teen, my biggest worries were math and making the baseball team.

Three of the Greatest Sources of Happiness

Like me, you might be wondering-what did students say was their greatest source of happiness? In other words, what actually made them happy? To this question, there was a wide array of responses, but topping the list were these three:

Family - Time with family (extended and immediate) was the top answer.

Friends - Time with peers they enjoy, at school, evenings or on-line.

Free Time - Time to play, make up games, relax, and laugh.

Three of the Greatest Reasons for Student's Unhappiness

Beyond this report on student happiness, I consulted the results from our 2016 Focus Groups with Generation Z. We met with four communities of middle school and high school students and made discoveries about their habits, attitudes and interests. Below are my conclusions on the biggest sources of unhappiness:
1. Anxiety
I have written much on the angst today's teens and twenty-somethings feel. Despite their random posts on Instagram, many worry over world problems because they're exposed to them on social media. They have a higher rate of depression and anxiety than generations who were unexposed.
2. Entitlement
A second source of unhappiness is obvious. Our generation (young and old) feels more "entitled" to possessions and perks than we did in the past. When we feel entitled to something, it's easy to feel unhappy when things don't go our way. Today, we have more "stuff"-but we have more expectations too.
3. FOMO
Finally, our young feel the tangible " fear of missing out." Because they can see on their screens all that's going on among friends, the social media posts can create unhappiness because they're not in the middle of all the fun, all the time. This gives new meaning to the old phrase-"ignorance is bliss."

Steps We Can Take with Students

If you spend time with teens who appear unhappy, why not talk to them about it. Get them to acknowledge why they are unhappy. Then, try suggesting three simple tasks. These are pretty timeless. I've seen them work as recently as last month.
1. Make a Gratitude List
The quickest way out of feeling down is to recall what's going right in our life. Have students actually make a list of the people and realities they're grateful for. Then, discuss them. Gratitude is closely related to happiness and smiling.
2. Mono-Task and Solve One Problem
Our unhappiness is often due to being overwhelmed. What if we suggest our students set aside most of what worries them, and focus on just one problem to solve. Then, mono-task-instead of multi-task. Achievement feels good.
3. Focus on "Controllables"
Lastly, students can beat unhappiness by focusing on what's in their control and not what's beyond it. There's little more common for any generation than fretting over things we can't change. We're happiest when we take responsibility for our "controllables."

Remember-the Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. We have to catch it ourselves.

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Three Reasons for Teen Unhappiness and What to Do About It

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Not long ago, I read the results of a study on happiness, which focused on children under 18 years old. I was immediately enraptured with this global report because I assumed with all the resources and technology we have at our fingertips, American kids would likely be the happiest kids in the world.

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I feel that something that has helped me throughout my life to be and remain happy is having a positive mindset. Now, just telling someone to have a positive mindset isn't going to change anything but I can offer some examples:
1. Start the day with something good
This could be anything that makes you happy or active like working out, eating a healthy breakfast, or organizing your papers. Also giving yourself enough time so you don't feel rushed.
2. Don't say "This day is going to suck"
The minute you think or say that any certain day is going to be a bad one, then it will be. Think about what you are going to do in the day and give yourself a plan to overtake it.
3. Spend at least one hour with family or friends
Human interaction with people you love is always a sure way to feel better or to remain happy. Hang around those who give you positive vibes!

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We all have those days when you're just in the mood for some sad music, maybe a good cry, or maybe just not having the best day. Nothing that Adele and JuiceWRLD can't fix by playing some sad tunes that really portray your mood. But what if this becomes a habit. For most people, this can be a healthy action and provide some psychological benefits down the line for dealing with tough times. However, when this twirls into an unhealthy habit of identifying with the chronic struggling and pain. In the article it states, "For a person who is already severely, possibly clinically depressed, listening to music that makes you feel worse could be quite dangerous" (Garrido).  To put it simply, sad music is not something that you should be listening to all the time and connecting with those lyrics. Everyone goes through those tough times, and if someone were to be going through those tough times their whole life through identifying with the artificial pain brought on by music, that could be a dangerous road. Overall, listening to sad music can make you feel better by having someone who relates to the pain, and once you get all the sadness out, it can have some good benefits in the future for dealing with sadness and pain in a healthy manner, overall making you a stronger, and more resilient person to sadness, thus making you happier.

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Depression and suicide are major concerns in the 21st century. The World Health Organisation estimates that over 800,000 people die by suicide each year, with the 15-29 age group particularly affected.

Interestingly, it is also when we are in our teens and twenties that music seems to play its most important role in our lives. Studies show that adolescents listen to music for approximately two to three hours per day, especially when feeling distressed.

This link between music use and depression in young people has led to music being blamed for the suicide of several youths. For example, in 2007 two teens in Melbourne committed suicide after months of posts on a social media site that documented their fascination with emo music along with their downward trajectory of negative thinking.

Reuters/Nicky Loh

For most people, listening to music - even music expressing negative emotions like sadness or anger - can be an effective way to deal with their emotions. Across several studies involving more than 1,000 people, my colleagues and I have found that there are many ways that people can use sad music to help themselves feel better.

Some seem to just really get into the music and enjoy the emotional journey. Others can use the music for catharsis, to feel emotional connection with others, to help them work through feelings of sadness or think about how to overcome difficulties. Sadness is, after all, a healthy emotion to experience in response to sad events in our lives. It motivates us to think carefully about our situations and to make changes to improve our lives.

Depression is different, however. Instead of feeling motivated to make changes, depression tends to cause people to lose motivation. Rather than making them think more clearly, people with depression show diminished cognitive functioning on several domains.

The evidence suggests that people with tendencies to clinical depression also respond to music differently. We conducted experiments in which we asked people to listen to a self-selected piece of music that made them sad and another that made them happy. We then measured their response to the music.

We found that rather than feeling better after listening to sad music, people with high scores in rumination reported feeling more depressed.

Rumination is the tendency to become stuck in patterns of negative thinking and to find it difficult to shake negative thoughts about events or one's feelings. It usually goes hand-in-hand with depression. Our research shows that when people are ruminators, listening to sad music seems to perpetuate these cycles of negative thinking, often prompting sad memories and negative thoughts.

For example, a person who has had a recent break-up might listen to Adele's Someone Like You, have a good cry, and then walk away feeling better, focusing on thoughts of moving on and becoming stronger through their experiences.

A person with a tendency to depression, however, might listen to the same song but focus on thoughts of how love never works out for them, or how they will never be able to fall in love with anyone else. Thus, instead of feeling better, their negative thought patterns are only deepened by listening to such a song.

In our study, all participants felt more depressed after listening to the sad song they had nominated.

For a healthy person this feeling is probably no more than a minor blip in their day and may even help them obtain some important psychological benefits along with way. For a person who is already severely, possibly clinically depressed, listening to music that makes you feel worse could be quite dangerous.

On the other hand, when we then asked our participants to listen to a piece of music that they knew made them feel happy, even those with high levels of depression felt much better.

Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

For instance, one participant who suffered from a negative body image and negative self perception found that listening to the song What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction, made her focus on positive aspects of herself.

Why don't we just listen to happy music when we feel depressed then? Our study showed that even when people reported feeling more depressed after listening to sad music, they still tended to argue that the music had helped them. Other studies too have shown that some people persist in listening to music that is actually making them feel worse.

A lack of understanding about the effect of behaviour on mood is quite common in people with depression. In fact, people tend to argue that they are benefiting from ruminative behaviour in general, despite the strong evidence that it exacerbates depression.

However, our studies have found that some people - especially young people for whom music is so important - may benefit from therapies that help them become more conscious of the effect that music can have.

What this research shows us is that when we feel depressed, we may need to be careful about the music we listen to.

Pharrell Williams might be the last thing we feel like listening to when we are feeling down, but finding music that connects us with happy times in our lives or that emphasises positive messages could be just what we need to renew our energy and help us cope better.

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Depression and suicide are major concerns in the 21st century. The World Health Organisation estimates that over 800,000 people die by suicide each year, with the 15-29 age group particularly affected. Interestingly, it is also when we are in our teens and twenties that music seems to play its most important role in our lives.

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Pets are known to lower stress and depression! Anytime you are feeling overwhelmed, a quick five minute break to watch some funny dogs can never hurt. It can also keep you grounded when anxious and distract you from the stress at the moment.

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Super Happy Dogs | Funny Dog Video Compilation 2017