The Huffington Post offers up a well reserched list, firmly based on science, on what happy people do…consistently. While all the list makes a great deal of sense, I am surprised that actually using their strengths does not make the list. Certainly some strengths are mined in their featured list of Habits:
They devote some of their time to giving –practicing Graitude and Kindness
They spend money on other people –practicing Graitude and Kindness
They look on the bright side-–Use hope & optimism and positivty
They LOL –Draw on Humor
They appreciate simple pleasures –practicing Graitude
They nix the small talk for deeper conversation –Relying on their Empathy, relating and communication talents
They make a point to listen. –Because they are strong at relating and communication
They uphold in-person connections.–Focuses the Capacity to love and be loved. relating
They get spiritual.–would be leveraging their own Spirituality and Belief and Connectedness
They walk the walk.–Certainly sounds like they are calling on Zest and positivty
But they do not actually state: Happy people live and use their strengths regularly! Research shows that
People who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged on the job. You wonder what engagement at work has to do with Happiness? Gallup has the answer: A clear majority of engaged workers — 86% — said they very often felt happy while at work. Among low-engagement respondents, only 11% of actively disengaged and 48% of not-engaged employees stated that they, too, were very often happy at work.
Psychologists in the US found that people who tried using their strengths in new ways each day for a week were happier and less depressed six months later.
Another study in the UK recently showed that people who felt they were using their strengths have more positive emotion, greater vitality and self-esteem, compared with people who did not feel they used theirs.
From the VIA institute on Character education:
- Using one’s signature strengths in a new way increased happiness and decreased depression for 6 months (Gander, Proyer, Ruch, & Wyss, 2012).
|
|
- Using one’s signature strengths in a new way increased happiness for 6 months and decreased depression for 3 months (Mongrain & Anselmo-Matthews, 2012).
|
|
- In a study of the VIA Youth Survey, five strengths factors emerged and were independently associated with well-being and happiness (Toner, Haslam, Robinson, & Williams, 2012).
|
|
- Among youth, the character strengths most related to life satisfaction are love, gratitude, hope, and zest; very young children (ages 3-9) described by their parents as happy are also noted as showing love, hope, and zest (Park & Peterson, 2009b).
|
|
- The character strengths most associated with the meaning route to happiness are religiousness, gratitude, hope, zest, and curiosity (Peterson et al., 2007).
- The character strengths most associated with the engagement route to happiness are zest, curiosity, hope, perseverance, and perspective (Peterson et al., 2007).
- The character strengths most associated with the pleasure route to happiness are humor, zest, hope, social intelligence, and love (Peterson et al., 2007).
- Among young adults from the US and Japan, happiness was associated with zest, hope, curiosity, and gratitude (Shimai et al., 2006).
|
|
