If so, you’re not alone. We all feel stressed out at one time or another. It’s a natural reaction to what goes on in our lives, especially during this busy holiday season. Recent research on the subject of stress and happiness indicates that we can handle stress better, live longer, be more successful, suffer less burnout, be smarter and be more productive by just training our brains to choose happiness. In his book ‘Before Happiness’, Shawn Achor writes about some steps we can take to help train our brains to choose happiness. In addition to regular exercise and meditation he suggests the following:
- ‘Three Gratitudes’: each day for 21 days, write down three things that your grateful for
- Journaling: each day write about one positive experience from the past 24 hours
- ‘Random Acts of Kindness’: each day write one positive email, text or social media post praising or thanking someone in your social support network
- What positive experience, from the past 24 hours, could you write about to start training your brain to choose happiness?
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Feeling stressed out?