Happiness activity No. 12 | Workshop Life Energy

Happiness Activity No. 12: Taking Care of Your Body

I. Meditation

The regular practice of meditation is said to produce true happiness by realizing a state of awareness and detachment.

Why meditate? Meditation has multiple positive effects on a person’s happiness and positive emotions, on physiology, stress, cognitive abilities, and physical health. Amazingly, even a short-term practice of meditation can affect your brain activity and your immune system.

II. Physical Activity

Physical activity reduces anxiety and stress; protects us from dying in general (and from dying of heart disease or cancer, in particular); reduces the risk of numerous diseases (diabetes, colon cancer, hypertension); builds bones, muscles, and joints; increases quality of life; improves sleep; protects against cognitive impairments as we age; and helps control weight.

Finally, surveys show, and large-scale randomized interventions confirm, that exercise may very well be the most effective instant happiness booster of all activities.

III. Acting Like a Happy Person

Remarkably, pretending that you’re happy—smiling, engaged, mimicking energy and enthusiasm—not only can earn you some of the benefits of happiness (returned smiles, strengthened friendships, successes at work and school) but can actually make you happier.

Learn more here.

Exercise

HOW TO DO PHYSICAL EXERCISES

The field is really wide open, the options limitless.

Exercise professionals traditionally advise that you calculate your maximum heart rate (most simply defined as 220 minus your age) and strive to work out at a level between 65 and 80 percent of that figure.

Start slow—in the 60 to 65 percent range of your maximum heart rate.
Decide ahead of time on specific dates, starting times, and durations of your exercise, and pencil or stylus them in, treating them like fixed appointments. Would you ever miss a meeting with your boss or to pick up your kid from school? Yes, but rarely and only in exceptional situations.
If possible, choose a time to exercise during a time of day when you feel most energetic.
Current guidelines recommend thirty minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week. But better to exercise for ten minutes than not at all. The most important thing is to stick with your plan.
An exercise routine is like a diet. It’s okay to break it, but don’t let guilt and shame so overwhelm you that you give up the whole thing. Resume the following day.