In this post I suggest the best resources I’ve come across so far. I think these are the most promising practical methods to become happier and everyone should try them.
As a really brief explanation of my views, I think there are three general approaches to increasing your happiness:
1. Changing your external circumstances (i.e. become richer, thinner, more successful)
2.Changing how you spend your time
3. Changing how you think
Typically, people try to do the first one, and not the second or third. I think this is a mistake: most external changes have a surprisingly limited impact because we adapt to them. Instead I think focusing on changing how we think and spend our time are the better options (if you want a longer explanation, see this interview into my research I did with Oxford University).
Further good news is that trying to change how you think and how you spend your time is easy (a few minutes a day) and free.
On that basis, I think the four ways mentioned below are the best currently available out there. I should say no one is paying me to recommend these (although maybe I should start asking them to…) In rough order, I’d start with the following :
1. Learn Mindfulness
What is it?
A bit like meditation, but don’t be scared by that (here’s the wikipedia page). It’s really effective and allows you to accept, rather than fight, your own thoughts and so reduce the badness of negative thoughts. I feel like I’ve been given a secret super-power since learning it.
What are the best resources?
Best apps are Headspace and Breathe. Best book I’ve read is Mindfulness: A guide to finding peace in a frantic world.
Is there any good evidence it works?
Yes. Check out this meta-analysis (a study of other studies).
2. Teach yourself Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
What is it?
CBT teaches you to understand how you think, spot unhelpful or untrue negative thoughts and so break bad thinking patterns (wiki page).
What are the best resources?
MoodGym is a good online course that runs you through various thinking and re-thinking exercises. You could go and see a trained psychotherapist to be taught the same thing, but you’d be paying £50+/hr. There are loads of books on this but I don’t have any I can personally recommend.
Is there any good evidence it works?
Yes. Again, here’s a meta-analysis. I’ve put CBT below mindfulness because mindfulness is a bit more straight-forward to do: typically you just sit and listen to a guided meditation for 10 mins a day, whereas CBT requires more effortful thinking on your part.
3. Practice positive psychology
What is it?
Whilst the first two are mostly aimed at removing negative thoughts, positive psychology is about finding more positive thoughts and emotions, such as by encouraging people to be grateful, forgiving, or engaging in things that give you fulfilment (wiki page).
What are the best resources?
There’s an app called Happify which is a collection of positive psych based games. The basic version is free and you get more if you pay. If you want a more detailed but less swish option, there’s this book of positive psychology interventions which you can just do in your own time for free.
Is there any evidence it works?
Once more yes. Meta-analysis here. I’ve got some doubts about the rigour of some positive psych research which is why I’ve put it third.
4. Track your happiness
What is it?
Happiness tracking allows us to overcome and our memory flaws and ability to trick ourselves into believing we liked things that we really didn’t. When you know what actually makes you happy(/unhappy) you can then change how you spend your time accordingly. I say a bit more about this in the interview I mentioned before.
What are the best resources?
Try Trackyourhappiness or Mappiness (both iPhone only). The former is a Harvard researcher’s project (you can see his TED talk here) and the latter from LSE academics. I should also plug my own app, Hippo (android only).
Is there any evidence it works?
Using apps to track happiness is newer and less tested, which is why it’s fourth. If there are any papers on whether just self-tracking by itself increases happiness, I haven’t seen them (if you’ve seen them, send them to me please!). That said, I’m quite optimistic happiness tracking can improve happiness if people actually change how they spend their time (e.g. do more of what you like, less of what you don’t).
There’s some evidence that using happiness tracking and then prompting people to do stuff does work though. (Incidentally, this is where I’d like to go with Hippo: at the moment we’re working on some cool new features to give you smart, on-demand suggestions on how to be happier, but that’s a work in progress).
5. Understand the science on happiness
You weren’t expecting a fifth, were you? This is a bonus. The four above are all practical resources. If you want greater knowledge about happiness I’d suggest “Stumbling on Happiness” by Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert. It’s very well written and you don’t need a degree in social science to understand it. It does a good job of explaining some of the surprising challenges of finding happiness and what to do about them.
That’s all folks. Happiness suggestions that anyone can do, you probably haven’t thought of and might genuinely work. Let me know how you get on!
