So You Think You Know What Will Make You Happy

According to Daniel Gilbert who wrote Stumbling on Happiness, our imaginations can be very misleading when it comes to predicting what will make us happy.

There are 3 mistakes we often make when we are contemplating our future.

Error 1. What Is Will Be.

For instance being depressed and unable to conceive of anything that would bring you happiness.

Error 2. Tricked By the Good Old Days

When our recollection of something in the past is incomplete, we let our imagination fill in the blanks. If we make a choice for the future based on a more imagined than real memory, we may be setting ourselves up for disappointment or avoid examining a better option.

Error 3. Imagination Runs Wild

After about a year lottery winners are no happier than the average person. ”Nough said.

Here are 3 tips to help you decide what will really make you happy.

Tip 1. When Intuition Tells You to Trust Your Gut, Don’t.

Test your gut feelings by getting a second opinion from somebody who knows you. “I see myself moving to the Maine coast in a couple of years. What do you think?” Ask yourself why did I come with this now?

Tip 2. Stop Mulling and Start researching

If you have never been to the Maine coast, vacation there for a week or two before even thinking about moving.

Tip 3. Talk to Somebody Who Has Been There

It’s helpful to talk with somebody who has been there and done that. If you are thinking of switching careers from accounting to driving for NASCAR, interview somebody who has been on the circuit for awhile.

Our imagination has built-in blind spots. Our present circumstances, faulty memory and the excitement of contemplating a future without facts can steer us in the wrong direction. We need to counter our own biases with a dose of reality; by testing your intuition, doing some research and talking with people who’ve been there.

Credible Edibles Help Prevent Depression

At last some credible information about food and depression appears in The Economist’s article Cognition Nutrition: Food for Thought . I have been quite skeptical about some nutritional and alternative claims made on the internet; however the Economist is a trusted source. Instead of interviewing some one who survives on nuts and berries in the forest, the article discusses the work of a respected neuroscientist and other professionals.

Depression prophylactics include spinach and fish.

• “…evidence that folate deficiency is associated with clinical depression, suggests eating spinach, orange juice and Marmite, which are all rich in folic acid.”
• “the benefits of omega-3 [oil] include resistance to depression.”
• “there is a strong negative correlation between the extent to which a country consumes fish and its levels of clinical depression.”

The piece mentions other foods which can protect the brain from damage and delay the effects of age. Some edibles, including foliates and omega-3, enhance cognitive abilities.

In no way should any food be thought of as treatment for depression. I’ve tried it more than once which happens to be the definition of insanity. If you are depressed get medical treatment.

How to Stop Emotional Eating

Here are some practical tips to help you get out of the emotional eating habit. For me emotional eating is a combination of immediate gratification and apathy about health consequences.

Your Wellbeing Diary Can Help Moderate Depression

A simple nightly diary can help you be less depressed and cultivate a sense of wellbeing. At most, it takes 5 to 10 minutes a day.

Professor Martin Segilman of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvannia, conducted a study with extremely depressed people. Participants were asked to remember 3 positive things that happened that day and write them down They could be things like: you ran into a friend, you started a book you really enjoy, you found a missing piece of jewelry.

By the simple act of writing these things down, 94% of the patients experienced significant relief from their depression. The most startling result was that participants went from “severely depressed” to “mildly to moderately depressed” in fifteen days.

I’ve taken this concept and created my wellness diary in which I make entries every night. Entries for the day include:

• Accomplishments;
• Acts of kindness extended to others;
• Acts of kindness extended to me;
• Occurrences for which I am grateful;
• And things I am looking forward to.

I have found this to be extraordinarily helpful in shifting my mood in a positive direction and keeping it there.

Little Things Can Make Your Mood More Positive

An article in the Huffington Post offers some tips to cultivate personal happiness.

A tip from one of the happiness gurus is that you be aware of what you are grateful for. Sonja Lyubomirsky, PhD, author of the book The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want suggests you make a daily list of things that you are grateful for. This is important to people with depression become more conscious of positive things in life.

I would take Professor Lyubomirsky’s suggestions are couple of steps further. I would also

• Focus on small incidental things such as maybe a pleasant conversation with somebody you don’t really know such as a store clerk, some driver stopped and let you pull into traffic. If something fabulous happens great put it down but also focus on the little things
• LIst acts of kindness that I extend to others; holding a do for someone, taking the time to help somebody carry something to their car.

Kindness is just as important as graditude.

Here is the full article from the Huffington Post.