The Science of Happiness: try this and make you and other people happier!

“Psychologists have scientifically proven that one of the greatest contributing factors to overall happiness in your life is how much gratitude you show.”

~ Soul Pancake

One month ago I wrote about the impact of gratitude in our happiness and proposed you a GRATITUDE CHALLENGE during 21 days.

I have done it now for 30 days and the result is simply amazing. It has helped me to see the “bright side of life” and making it a habit.

Some of you have also written about the effect of this practice in your lives.

So here is a new proposal that will extend the “happiness” to people around you.

It is based on an experiment done by SoulPancake.

Just follow this steps:

Hypothesis: Expressing gratitude has a direct effect on a person’s happiness.

Participant: You.

Procedure:

1. Write a letter to the person who has been influential in your life discussing why they are so important to you or how they have affected you.

2. Read letter (smiles, smirks, laughter, tears, tenseness of throat, all acceptable and probable responses.)

3. Call the above mentioned person.

4. Read them the letter you wrote in step 1.

Discussion: How do you feel now? Better? Worse? Embarrassed? Relieved?

Conclusion: Express your gratitude more often will increase your happiness. Give thanks.

Check the impact this experiment had in a number of people…

About the video

The University of Pennsylvania did a study to find out, and you can read that study on their website. The folks at SoulPancake didn’t just read the study though. They took in it, distilled it, and built on it. What they ended up with is this video.

The essence of the study is that showing gratitude makes us happy. So why not encourage people to show gratitude to each other, and then measure the result on their happiness with science? That’s what they did, and this is only the beginning. They want more people to follow the parameters of the experiment, and to send in video of their results.