Can you train your mind to be happy?

As you will know if you have been reading these newsletters, I decided to take up the #100happydays challenge a while ago and in fact just finished this week. The challenge is that each day for 100 days you take a picture of something that makes you happy and you post it on a social media platform of your choice.

It sounds easy, but although it’s not very time-consuming, you do need to remember to take a photo and then to actually post it at some point that day. In fact apparently only 71% of people who start actually finish it, blaming lack of time.

That’s such a shame and just shows the pace of life we live in which we accept as ‘the norm’ these days. At times it wasn’t that easy, but I soon found I was consciously looking for something positive to include each day and even when I did post in the morning, I automatically found myself looking for other suitable happy moments. In fact one day I posted twice because I had forgotten I had put a photo up first thing in the morning!

The challenge

I have to admit that it wasn’t always easy. I too have a very busy life and consciously have to ensure I look after my own health and well-being so on a few days I did find that by late evening I hadn’t managed to take a photo. On these days I thought back over my day and then found a photo to reflect the moment I wanted to capture. There were also a few days when I wasn’t at my best and struggled to find something that did cause me to feel happy!

Those were the days that did make this feel like a challenge, but it became easier as time went on. In fact these photos are a couple I took, one during an early morning run and the other while going for a late evening walk with my husband because it was such a beautiful evening and we happened to both be free. I definitely found that photographing scenes and nature was often a very relaxing and mindful experience, one which I have begun to really enjoy.

There has been quite a bit of interest nationally in the 100 Happy Days challenge, but sadly I noticed one article was damning it saying it was all about people showing off their ‘perfect lives’. It might look like that, but these are purely snapshots of people’s days and the aim primarily is to encourage people to train themselves to focus on the good things in their life, rather than getting wrapped up in what’s wrong in their lives, which is so easy to do. The selective attention videos are a clear example of how much we miss when we are focusing on something, so why wouldn’t you want to train yourself to look for things that are going to improve your emotional, mental and even physical health?

The benefits

In fact the PsychMeUp app that you might remember me mentioning last year is based on similar principles as the 100 Happy Days challenge, using the app to train the mind to focus on positive images. Studies on the practice of gratitude and on regular use of the PsycheMeUp app games demonstrate very real emotional and interpersonal benefits, so it’s worth a try! This youtube video and this web page explain how these mind habits can be beneficial and I would really recommend you take a look.

I decided that I would like to start another 100 days challenge once this one ended, so I have begun a 100 daily quotes challenge, which involves posting images with inspirational quotes on each day. If you want to follow this yourself, just LIKE the SIRPA Facebook page and each day a new one will be posted.