Here’s a great video on the importance of happiness! In prescribing happiness, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is not talking about indulgence and hedonism. He is talking about fulfillment, purpose, connectedness, and love. Happy people have decreased cortisol (the “stress hormone”), stronger immune systems, more favorable heart rates and blood pressures, lower inflammatory markers.
You don’t have to be Homer Simpson to know that circumstances can and do affect short term happiness (D’Oh!) but long-term happiness is driven more by how we process life events than by the events themselves.
Research tells us that we can create happiness:
- By practicing gratitude exercises (increases happiness, allows for better sleep, and more)
- Meditating (reduces stress and increases happiness)
- Exercising
- Establishing social connectedness