The science of happy

1. Cherish the ordinary

Connect with friends and family in person rather than living from one social media Like to the next.

Explore your own city and state. Experience the familiar in an unfamiliar way. You’re bound to find local gems.

Spend more time with your parents. The pace of Saturday night may be slower, but they’ll love it. You may get funny stories from their youth, a free meal, and laundry service. If you’re not sure what to talk about, help them sort books, reorganize the garage, or do a jigsaw puzzle. The conversation will happen.

Take care of your body. “There is now fairly clear evidence that eating seven portions of fruits and vegetables a day will help your happiness and mental health,” says Andrew Oswald, professor of economics (and a behavioral scientist) at the University of Warwick, UK. Quick tip: To keep your mood up, make sure you don’t get too hungry. (Only 40 percent of Student Health 101 survey respondents correctly identified not getting hungry as a source of happiness.)

Relish the process. “People focus too much on the outcomes they are striving for, thinking they will be happy when they get there, when most of our research suggests they are most excited and engaged during the process of striving for those outcomes,” says Dr. Brian Knutson, professor of psychology at Stanford University, California.

2. Get that it’s not all about the Benjamins

The $75,000 benchmark

• The lower our income falls beneath $75,000 a year, the unhappier we feel, according to a Nobel Prize-winning study by Princeton University researchers.
• But earning more than $75,000 doesn’t increase happiness.
• Wait! Let’s define happiness. Our “changeable, day-to-day mood” is not affected by an income above $75,000. But the “deeper satisfaction you feel about the way your life is going” continues to rise with earnings above $75,000. “High incomes don’t bring happiness, but they do bring you a life you think is better,” wrote researchers Angus Deaton and Daniel Kahneman.
• Downsides to a lower income? It doesn’t automatically cause sadness, but it makes us feel worse about the problems we already face.

Anything else going on?
It’s not as simple as a number, says Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project, a research project that combines personal accounts, scientific studies, and lessons from popular culture. The relationship between wealth and happiness depends on a person’s circumstances and personality, including:

• Our personal preferences: For example, these determine how we use the money we have. Cozy evenings at home? Or global travel?
• Our values: Some purchases make us happier than others. Spending our money on meaningful experiences, including helping others, makes us happier than buying items we expect to enjoy, like a car or big-screen TV. (“Giving to others” is an acknowledged source of happiness for 52 percent of respondents to a Student Health 101 survey.)
• Comparisons: It’s all relative. Feeling like we’re worse off now than in the past, or struggling more than the people around us, makes us unhappy.

3. Use social media carefully

Frequent social media use can result in a separation between the social media “you,” who posts only the best moments of each day and builds a crafted public persona, and the real you, with all your mundane, less glamorous moments. As you compare your real life to the social media personas of others, your self-esteem can take a hit. Again, this remind us how much of our happiness tends to be based on how we perceive others.

Over a two-week period, higher Facebook use was connected to lower life satisfaction levels among study participants, according to a 2013 study. (Cause and effect have not been fully unraveled.)

To break free:

• Remember that Facebook and Instagram aren’t real life. Just as you filter pictures and carefully select what you post, your friends are doing the same.
• Avoid comparing yourself to others. Your newsfeed is not a race. Instead of envying your friend’s amazing study abroad pics, have faith in your own goals, pace, and priorities.
• Unplug for a set period each day. Those notifications, tags, and Candy Crush invites aren’t going anywhere (unfortunately).

4. Run, jump, dance, splash, reach

College students are happier on days when they’re physically active, according to a 2011 study. Students recorded their quality of sleep, physical activity levels, and emotional states. On days of higher physical activity, students reported more frequent pleasant feelings.

Physical activity also protects against depression caused by stress. Exercise reduces kynurenine acid, a substance that is harmful to the brain and known to collect in the blood during stress, reported researchers in Sweden in 2014.

5. Love your work

Of all measures of our emotional well-being, job satisfaction has been the most stable over time. That’s according to the General Social Survey, which has periodically surveyed Americans since 1972. In 2012:

• Almost 9 out of 10 Americans said they were satisfied with their job.
• Three out of four Americans said they wouldn’t leave their careers even if they suddenly had enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

The nature of the job matters, of course. The survey concludes that while unemployment can have a catastrophic impact on our happiness, combining our passions and our skills in work that is meaningful to us increases happiness.

6. Nurture your people

The quality of your relationships is key. For college students—away from family and childhood friends, and grappling with internships, academic pressures, and extracurriculars—a call home or a late-night chat with an old friend can go a long way. Spending time with friends increases happiness, said 70 percent of students who responded to our survey.

“What we have found in our research is that college students were more satisfied and experienced greater well-being if they had made progress in getting to know themselves better, in building meaningful relationships, and in contributing to their community,” says Dr. Edward Deci, a psychology professor at the University of Rochester, New York, who studies human motivation.

Happify your social life

• Volunteer for a cause you believe in. It might help you connect with people who share your energy and values. Check out all the options at DoSomething.org.
• Join a running group or casual sports league, like Ultimate Frisbee.
• Stay in touch with loved ones. Answer phone calls, respond to emails, and notice what’s going on in other people’s lives.
• Be inclusive. Invite shy or socially awkward people to join you. For emotional and developmental reasons, it’s harder for some than others.

7. Reconsider getting famous

“Becoming wealthier, more widely recognized, and more attractive does not add to college students’ satisfaction and well-being,” says Dr. Edward Deci, a psychology professor at the University of Rochester, New York who studies human motivation.

The goals of recent college graduates predicted their happiness levels, his research found. Those who sought and attained “intrinsic” goals, such as a deep, lasting relationship, were happier than those who sought more “extrinsic” goals, such as fame or recognition. Might this explain the popularity of Celebrity Rehab?

8. Value what you went through

A little adversity goes a long way. In studies, young animals who were moderately stressed were better able to recover from stress as adults, according to Richard Davidson, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In human studies, mild doses of negative experiences seemed to build resilience, with moderately stressful events increasing our ability to bounce back from unpleasant emotions. This mild stress helps us strengthen our happiness muscles for defense against future emotional beatdowns.

Major adversity, including traumatic experiences, has the opposite effect. It makes us more vulnerable.