Open The Door To Happiness

Open The Door To Happiness

 With These Six Secrets!

Do you consider yourself a happy person?  Is there a science to happiness?  Author Martin E. P. Seligman, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, has spent 40 years researching personality traits in people. Seligman believes we can condition ourselves for happiness rather than waiting for the illusive moment to magically appear.

Seligman found the people who reported to be happy had several traits in common:  humor, acceptance, positive recall, and a capacity to love.  They had learned to use these skills on a daily basis, and to get them through life’s moments of adversity. Here are six keys that happy people had in common. See how many you use in your life.

1.  Promote A “Win-Win” Strategy.  Genuinely happy people promote a “win-win” strategy, where everyone benefits. When dealing with interpersonal conflicts, happy people will use humor or empathy to defuse the situation and set it up for a positive outcome for everyone.

2.   Savor Your Successes. Happy people savored peak moments and successes. They drew from past experiences to help them with problems in the present. If you stop and inventory your successes, especially why you succeed, your repertoire of coping skills will expand to deal with new challenges.

3.  Practice Social Intelligence. Happy people practiced the art of reading and understanding others to achieve a positive “everybody wins” outcome. For example, when critiquing a fellow worker, humor may backfire as inappropriate and hurtful, when empathy and reassurance of worth will work much better in the situation.

4.  Look For The Opening Doors. Happy people will find open doors when other doors close on them. If they experience defeat or setbacks, they disengage from the situation and maintain the optimistic belief that they will find something better.

5.  Develop Couple Strengths. Happy people improved their romantic relationships by combining both partners’ personal strengths. This means you both work together at solving problems in an interdependent and loving way.

6.  Find Meaning In Your Life. Happy people leave a legacy by volunteering their time to serve their community, church, or organizations that help the needy, homeless, or at-risk children.  This not only enriches their lives, and the lives of others, but also serves as a lasting endowment for years to come.