According to Dr. Geher, happiness is an evolved emotion. It came about by natural selection, and its aim is to move us, human beings, toward stimuli that help us to survive and reproduce.
“So little things like finding something beautiful in nature, sharing a meme with a friend that helps to build a connection, a warming conversation with a family member—all these things can make us happy, and they all cost very little,” he told Bored Panda how we can cultivate happiness in our daily lives.
He added that from an evolutionary perspective, "they are all the kinds of things that would have helped our ancestors survive and cultivate positive social bonds."
According to Dr. Geher, both our past and present environments affect our happiness very much. However, he pointed out that the term 'environment' can be understood in different ways.
"You might find yourself walking outside on a cold and rainy day, so your physical environment might not exactly be sun-filled, but you might be walking with your best friend and sharing all kinds of laughs and joy. So that social environment, in spite of the details of the immediate physical environment, might actually, in a sense, be very bright and warming," he explained to us.
"Environments that we have encountered through life also might affect our happiness today. If you experienced a terrifying and harsh environmental upbringing, for instance, sitting on top of a mountain on a sunny day may not have the same emotional benefits [when] compared with someone whose past environments cultivated safety and love,” Dr. Geher said.
"So, both our immediate and our past environments shape our levels of happiness as we navigate life."
The ‘Content That Makes You Happy’ social media project is a fairly new one. It was first created nearly a year ago, in May 2023. At the time of writing, the account has nearly 3.6k followers on the X social network. The curator of the account posts a wide range of pictures and videos, from gorgeous nature shots to cute animal photos.
The thread uniting all of these posts is that they make us smile and feel a tiny bit happier.
In our experience, leading a happy life begins with prioritizing self-care. We have a duty to take care of our bodies and our minds, as well as cultivate healthy social and spiritual lives.
This means getting plenty of movement throughout the week, eating nutritious food, getting proper sleep, and drinking enough water. It also means putting in the effort to actively de-stress, whether by spending time with the people we care about, being in nature, meditating, focusing on a beloved hobby, etc.
Of course, trying to do everything all at once to completely overhaul your life is a tad overwhelming. The key here is to commit to making very small positive changes in your life until those behaviors become habits. However, there’s no single magic number when it comes to forming habits. How long it takes for a behavior to become automatic depends entirely on its type and complexity.
Broadly speaking, simpler habits tend to form faster. Something like learning to wash your hands more often can take only a week or two, CNN reports. But getting into the habit of going to the gym can take months and months, depending on how fit you already are, what kind of support network you have in place, and how motivated you feel.
It’s not just basic fitness habits that we should cultivate, though. Researchers have found that the main thing that makes us happiest and healthiest is the quality of our relationships. Having lots of positive relationships in our lives makes us more resilient to the stress that life throws at us.
So, we ought to be proactive and put in the time to deepen our connections with the people we care about the most. At the same time, it might be worth reevaluating how much time you spend with people who leave you feeling drained, dreary, and disappointed.
Being kind, caring, and altruistic is something that we all have the power to do. In a recent phone interview with Bored Panda, psychologist Harry D. Cohen, the author of ‘Be the Sun, Not the Salt,’ explained that we should all strive to lead others by example. Consistently being kind, then, is how we can influence our environments for the better.
There are lots of ways to be compassionate, but it takes some creativity and proactivity to embrace that mindset. According to Dr. Cohen, we should all try to be more mindful and aware of the small ways that we can be kind to the people around us.
We don’t have to move mountains. Even something as small as holding the door open for someone, helping them with their luggage, or smiling at a stranger helps spread kindness.
