Do you ever feel like the more you seek out happiness, the sadder you feel? A new study sheds light on the paradoxical nature of chasing happiness and what you can do about it.
is an evidence-based strategy to increase one’s happiness,” she said. “If people are able to recruit useful strategies to reach their goal of feeling happy, then the pursuit is much more likely to be successful.”If you value happiness, it’s only natural that you’ll feel disappointed when negative things happen. Notice how you react to negative feelings. “Typically, feeling badly about something can help motivate us to pursue our goals more successfully,” Zerwas said.
However, this principle doesn’t apply when our goal is happiness. “Feeling badly about our emotions during the pursuit of happiness is counterproductive to the goal of feeling happy and makes attaining happiness less likely,” she said.Think about what you’re doing in your pursuit of happiness — are you actually doing things that will lead to happiness? As an example: “Most people believe that should promote happiness but empirical research suggests the opposite,” Zerwas explained.
“Perhaps the biggest takeaway from our work is the importance of mindfulness and acceptance during the pursuit of happiness”If you are actively pursuing a happy life, you may feel like you’ve failed at your goal if you experience sadness from time to time. “Research suggests this is not the case,” said Zerwas. “Work with a therapist to find a proactive way to pursue happiness
If you’re struggling to find effective strategies to manage your expectations and pursue happiness in a productive way, Zerwas suggests working with a therapist.“Perhaps the biggest takeaway from our work is the importance of mindfulness and acceptance during the pursuit of happiness,” said Zerwas. Introduce a mindfulness practice into your routine to accept sadness or frustration when it comes and, within time, let it go.
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