Week of Happiness - Day 5: Ending On A Beautiful Day

Welcome to Day 5 - our last day of celebrating Week of Happiness. How did yesterday go? Feel like this?

Well, in the words of Boyz II Men, we've come to the end of the road. Thanks for sticking around thus far and celebrating International Day of Happiness all week with us! The great news: we can implement these practices at any time. Our last?Mind Mishap?is a continuation of the last.?

Mind Mishap #5 - We do not realize how good we are at adapting:

Yesterday, we talked about how we adapt and get used to things. We talked about the hamster wheel we might feel we are on: the hedonic treadmill. Well, our last?Mind Mishap?is relatively simple, yet more annoying than a Friday at 4:30pm calendar invite.?

We do not realize how good our brain is at adapting - for both good and bad things.?

We often over predict the impact events will actually have on our long-term sense of well-being. Take this study of college students about their prediction of happiness with getting a grade higher than expected, exactly as expected, or lower than expected:

The actual numbers are pretty much the same!?

Maneuver Strategy for Mind Mishap #5 - A Beautiful Day:?

Martin Seligman is often considered one of the fore-people of the positive psychology and happiness movement. One of his earliest interventions is to promote what he called the "pleasant life." The intervention is called designing a beautiful day and will reuquire a little

Here are the steps:

• Design a "perfect" 24-hour day that is within the realm of possibility (i.e. you can't see your friend in California in the morning, a baguette lunch under the Eiffel Tower, all while hiking a '14er in Colorado)
• Actually live / experience that day
• Notice your feelings and reactions during this day
• Were you successful in living that day? Why or why not?
• Were all of the qualities of your beautiful day truly beautiful? Why or why not?
• What would you now change about your perception of a beautiful day?
• Is there any action you might take to move toward achieving a "beautiful day" on a more regular basis?

With the weekend ahead of us, hopefully this is a fun assignment to take on. By doing so, you can fight adaption. Pro tip: make sure to include loved ones (get social), focus on experiences rather than things, and savor the moments to elicit that gratitude muscle.???

Final Note:

That concludes our week of well-being.?????I hope you enjoyed it! For more content and solutions to benefit your school or organization, see the?YOU at College well-being continuum?and suite of well-being solutions.

Be Well & Thrive!