Worrybirds,
Last time, we went over the first half of Yale’s Happiness Blueprint.
Today, we’re looking at Yale’s recommended actions to enhance well-being.
Also, the Get Afraid Journal is now available through Books-a-Million!
For any new subscribers, my name’s Jed. If you want to get in touch, hit reply.
Happiness Habits
Yale’s Science of Well-Being course asked us to try two of the following “rewirements” daily per week.
They offer an app called ReWi (ios android) to track your habits. You can also track with pen and paper.
Gratitude
Practicing gratitude can increase mood, health, and social connections. You can do it by documenting things you’re grateful for in a journal or photo album.
Kindness
Simple gestures like making pancakes, putting coffee on, or cleaning the car can be impactful for both parties. Small donations can also boost mood.
Exercise
Exercise is a great way to improve mood and sleep.
Sleep
A full night’s rest helps mood and cognitive performance. Knowledge retention is also better after sleeping on it.
Setting Goals
Be specific ( e.g. Where will I meditate? With whom? When?).
Visualizing your goal and creating an if/then plan can help overcome obstacles.
Savoring
Focusing attention on the present can help us remember the good things in life. Paying attention to all of your senses thwarts mind-wandering and increases gratitude.
Social Connection
Voice chat is better than text for connection. Tiny exchanges including eye contact, a smile, or a wave can provide an uptick in well-being. Even random connections on a train, bus, or waiting room can make you feel more positive. This one is so hard during a pandemic.
Meditation
Meditation focuses on breath, sensations, or specific thoughts. It can be helpful to shut down your mind’s noisy default network.
If meditation doesn’t feel “productive” it may slip in priority. This happens a lot and sleep usually wins out. There’s an abundance of guided meditation apps and videos to help you stick with it.
The Final Challenge
After four weeks of lectures and tasks with Professor Laurie R. Santos, I was asked to choose one rewirement to try for four weeks.
I picked savoring and set a daily phone reminder to “🤪 Savor something!”
It was refreshing to go on a walk and pay attention to the environment. Stay in the conversations I was having. Put distractions on the backburner.
I started out looking for specific moments to savor and I logged my progress in a Bullet Journal.
Mowing lawn. Grassy scent, breezy, 70’s.
Pancakes. Blueberry, choc chip, plain
Shower + shave w/ new razor
Pulling weeds off bushes and making blackberry lemonade
After three weeks, I ran out of novel things to savor. Nevertheless, I successfully savored something 21 out of the 28 days.
I felt better connected and more appreciative of things (especially the flavor and texture of food), but the process felt repetitive after a while. Almost like, “Savoring is just doing everything super slowly.”
The biggest lesson I learned from the experiment is that I don’t need to plan ahead or seek out novel experiences.
A better approach might be to set a random reminder to appreciate whatever is happening right when the alert goes off.
In Conclusion
It’s not realistic to do all eight of these rewirements every day forever and ever.
Instead, focus on one or two and try to practice them as often as you can.
If you haven’t yet, I would recommend trying the course if you have time. It definitely opened my eyes and gave my happiness a bit of a boost.
— Jed
Thanks again for reading. Have you been following the NBA bubble? It’s so weird to see millionaires playing basketball on makeshift courts in hotel ballrooms.
See you fearly soon. 🙄
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