We all aspire to be happy, but the pandemic over the past two years made things especially difficult for us all. As we look towards the future, we must consider making smart choices for our happiness and well-being. You may be wondering how you can make these changes. According to science, if we do some things regularly, they can not only transform our well-being, but also of those living around us at home, the office and so on. In fact, we can train our brains to cultivate mental and emotional well-being.

What is the happiness index?

The happiness index measures life’s satisfaction, the feeling of happiness among other happiness aspects, such as physical and psychological well-being, community, social support, education, work, arts and culture, environment and so on.

You can follow these simple steps to excel in the happiness index…

Develop Awareness

Experts say awareness is sharp attentiveness towards your surroundings, thoughts and feelings, along with bodily sensations. Studies also show that people with increased awareness have improved well-being, while people who are distracted may feel unhappy and stressed. To begin with, you can simply close your eyes, focus on your breath and then count up to 10. Or, the next time you visit the park alone, try to listen to all the sounds around you and identify each one of them. Basically, whatever you are doing, try to concentrate on that particular work only for that moment.

Develop Connections

Try to connect with friends and loved ones or colleagues over chat, email, or text. This can be a good start to help you get feelings of affinity. Researchers believe that, if you grow kindness towards others, it can help boost your sense of connection. They also suggest that kindness and meditation can reduce one’s feelings of distress and enhance positive feelings.

Learn to be Grateful

According to science, one can train one’s brain to be happy. You can try to write down at least three things every day that make you feel grateful. Continue this for 21 days without a break. As you increase your positivity level, your brain will perform much better than when you were feeling negative or stressed. Studies show this can increase productivity by more than 30%, the possibility of promotions by about 40% and so on.

Learn to Forgive Others

All of us have been hurt by the actions or words of others at some point of time or the other in our lives—either at work, or at home. These lead to common behaviors, such as anxiety, bitterness, anger, or vengeance. But we should not let these feelings linger because they can have disturbing consequences.

So, what can be done to overcome these? We can learn to forgive. Yes, forgiveness is seldom formally spoken about in the corporate world. But a study of more than 200 employees revealed that forgiveness was connected to increased productivity and fewer health issues, as well as reduced absenteeism. When we adopt this practice, forgiveness can be an effective way to bring back trust while setting things right with everyone around us and making us feel happy and content.

You can practice the steps discussed here to improve your happiness index. But, at the same time, you should also try to be more patient. During a crisis, every situation may seem like an emergency and speeding things up can lead to chaos and confusion. With patience, we can process our emotions and take in various inputs from people around us that can provide better results in the long run. A recent study showed that people exhibiting patience made better progress towards their goals and were satisfied when they achieved them.