The Happiness Advantage

Well we just had an incredible speaker at my school and I must share his life changing insight!

Shawn Anchor is a positive psychology expert. He shared with us incredible scientific discoveries that can change our lives and the lives of those around us for the better.

Some of what he shared seems like common sense, but he has years of scientific research to prove that what he says is true.

The basic premise is that when we are happy, we are more intelligent, healthier with increased immune systems, we do better in school, are more productive at work and in our personal lives, and that it causes a ripple effect in the people we interact with. In fact he said there are 15 ways to test intelligence and using every single one of those, it has been proven that people with a positive mind frame are more intelligent than those in a neutral or negative mind frame. The converse is true, that when people are neutral, depressed, stressed, or negative they do worse in school, at work, etc.

He also gave very simple things we can all do to increase our happiness and therefor our performance which I will tell you about at the end.

One interesting thing he talked about was part of our brain called mirror neurons. He said that we are hard wired for empathy. Of course we all know that when we watch a video of someone getting hurt we cringe and flinch, or we cry when we see others sad, smile when we see others happy, we even yawn when we see others yawn. His studies has shown that when we see someone experience something, our brain fires up mirror neurons and our brain actually experiences that feeling as if it were happening to us. So when we see someone else yawn when they are tired - our brains actually think we are tired and therefor we yawn too.

This has profound implications, for this means we have the power to effect the moods of those around us and our moods are effected by those around us as well. Someone who is anxious about a test will make other students anxious, while someone who is visibly at ease about a test with make others at ease. The brain actually produces these experiences without us even thinking about them. So being happy will make those around you happier, being stressed will make those around you stressed. Makes perfect sense but it is important to understand that this is our brain working the way it is programmed to do.

Also he pointed out that your brain remembers and changes so that if you make a habit of seeing the bad things in life, your brain actually trains itself to see only the bad things, likewise, if you focus on the positive things in life, your brain trains itself to do just that.

So we are more intelligent, productive, and healthier when we are happy and those around us are influenced by our moods as well.

So how do we increase our positive frame of mind, how can we train ourselves to see the glass half full? Even just realizing this you can take steps to increase your performance when it is needed. Let's say you have a test or a big day at work when you have tons to get accomplished. by doing something you love to do before you go to work or take the test will improve your ability to perform. Just thinking about your happiest moment before doing a task has been proven to significantly increase your performance. And of course, if you are stressed or around others who are stressed or negative, you will perform worse, so don't hang around with the crowd before the test or in the coffee room that is being all negative.

Shawn also made the point that if you do something everyday for 21 days in a row, it will become a habit. He said they have done research and had people do something that make them happy for 21 days in a row and by the end they performed better on intelligence tests. But, he said, after the 21 days they stopped requiring the subject to do the activity and they tested then after 6 months and found that their scores on the tests rose even more significantly as they had created habits of mind that had a positive influence on their mood and therefor their performance.

So he suggests choosing from a basic list of five things that will make you a happier person. Choose one to do for 21 days in a row and see the changes. After 21 days you may not keep doing it everyday, but you will miss it when you don't, it will be a habit for you.

The five things are:
1) exercise - start your day with some exercise, do it for 21 days and make it a habit.

2) three things you are grateful for: start you day by writing down three things you are grateful for. Choose three different things each day and do it for 21 days.

3) journal for 3 minutes about a positive experience. Write a journal entry about something that happened that made you happy. When our brains relive an experience we actually get the same physiological benefits in our brains that we did when we actually experienced it the first time.

4) practice random acts of kindness: send nice emails to people, pay the toll for the car behind you, whatever. Not only will you feel great but the people around you will begin to feel happier and research shows that the number one factor in trying to determine the success of an individual is the community by which they are surrounded. So make that a happy community.

5) meditate for two minutes. We are constantly multi tasking and our brains suffer for it. Shawn says that if we spend two minutes doing nothing but thinking about our breathing - paying attention only to our breath going in and out, that it make profound changes in the brain.

So Shawn suggested making a chart for your wall for the 21 days so you can keep track to be sure to do your thing everyday.

He also said that we are stopped by tiny "activation times". For instance he wanted to play the guitar every day but the 20 seconds it took to take the guitar out of the case prevented him from doing it. So he bought a guitar stand and put the guitar next to the couch where he sits. This can also be used to break bad habits. He said he used to plop down on the couch and use the remote to turn on the the TV. He took the batteries out of the remote and put them in his bedroom. Then he put a book he had been wanting to read by the couch. Once sitting on the couch, it was easier to pick up the book than to go get the batteries for the remote.

How this applies to my teaching. Well of course teaching this to my students will be such a gift to them. I teach about the brain which is the perfect time to incorporate this into my curriculum. I can even give them a homework assignment to do one of the things for 21 days. But also as teachers we can start the day with something to set the mood in a positive light - a joke or good news story. Also before students take a test you can have them all think of a happy memory - what if that was the first question on every test you give.

It also applies to us as teachers and faculty. I remember last year people were bummed that in the faculty lounge the topic of conversation was so often complaining and negative. You can see how this brings moral down but in light of Shawn Anchor's research there is actually scientific evidence to explain why.

Personally I also think about the fact that I often inform people of "bad news" stories because I think we should all be informed about the world around us. But I will now, focus more than ever, on choosing the good news stories to share. I want to help everyone I know take advantage of the advantages in life that come with being happy.

Shawn was an engaging speaker, here is pretty much the same speech he gave to us I found on youtube:



Shawn Anchor speaking Part 1:



Part 1:



Part 3: