What will make you happy

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A neuroscience researcher reveals four rituals that will make you happier
By Eric Barker

Here's what brain research says will make you happy:

Ask "What am I grateful for?" No answers? Doesn't matter. Just searching helps.
Label those negative emotions. Give it a name and your brain isn't so bothered by it.
Decide. Go for "good enough" instead of 'best decision ever made on Earth."
Hugs, hugs, hugs. Don't text — touch.

So what's the simple way to start that upward spiral of happiness?

UCLA neuroscience researcher Alex Korb explains:

Everything is interconnected. Gratitude improves sleep. Sleep reduces pain. Reduced pain improves your mood. Improved mood reduces anxiety, which improves focus and planning. Focus and planning help with decision making. Decision making further reduces anxiety and improves enjoyment. Enjoyment gives you more to be grateful for, which keeps that loop of the upward spiral going. Enjoyment also makes it more likely you'll exercise and be social, which, in turn, will make you happier.

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A baby shower in Pensacola followed by an extended stay in New Orleans due to a freak snowstorm, RSV, art museums, Jimmy Carter's lying-in-state, work, cooking, baking, bridge walks, author talks, visits to Marie C's "lake house," ESL classes, brunches, lunches, margaritas, movies, cross-stitching, pedicures, street art and protest posters, prayer vigils, a cardinal's installation, flowers and trees and starry skies, staff retreat, a graduation, funerals, a dead pope and a new pope, ice cream, nice dinners, out-of-town visitors, high school reunion, cross-country drive with stops at the Grand Canyon, a New Mexico pueblo, Oklahoma City, St. Louis and Nashville, sunny days, rainy days, new babies, the lantern fly, doctors' visits, holidays, birthdays, yoga, the national conference in Detroit, a trip to Tuscany, sisters' getaway to Monteagle, Thanksgiving, making an apron, Christmas, and mah jong ...

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