Happiness IQ

10 (or so) Ways to Improve your Happiness
(according to Time magazine)

#1. Count your blessings
Experimental psychologists discovered that people who counted their blessings three times per week reported greater life satisfaction than those who did it less than three times, irregularly, or not at all. Additionally, those who regularly contemplated people in their lives who had been kind to them reported higher levels of happiness.

#2. Hear the music
Music activates the part of the brain that triggers happiness. Enjoying one's favorite music has also been shown to relax the body and reduce anxiety levels.

#3. Hug
Hugging releases endorphins that reduce pain and can induce euphoria. It is the perfect way to show affection and improve close relationships.

#4. Nurture your spirituality
Survey after survey shows that people with strong religious faith — of any religion or denomination — are happier than those who are irreligious. David Myers, a social psychologist at Michigan's Hope College, says that faith provides social support, a sense of purpose and a reason to focus beyond the self, all of which help root people in their communities.

#5. Move your body
Physical motion can provide a rush of good energy that can lift a mood, be it anxiety or mild depression, and it's a good way to keep healthy. So do a dance, go for a walk, hike up a hill, or just engage in some high-intensity vacuuming!

#6. Laugh big
Laughter, like so many other endorphin-triggers, helps to reduce certain stress hormones and strengthens your immune system. Additionally, people are 30 times more likely to laugh in groups than alone and, not surprisingly, laughter is associated with helping to develop person-to-person connections.

#7. Do something nice for someone else
Small or big, directed at friends or strangers, random acts of kindness make the person performing the kind act happier when they're grouped together, according to Sonja Lyubomirsky, an experimental psychologist at UC Riverside. Doing a considerate thing for another person five times in one day made the doer happier than if they had spread out those five acts over one week.

#8. Seek positive emotion
Happiness can lead to success, rather than the other way around. Happy individuals are predisposed to seek out new opportunities and set new goals. A team of psychologists concluded that while previous research assumed that happiness stemmed from success and accomplishment, happiness is often a result of positive emotions, regardless of life status or situation.

#9. Identify with your heritage
Appreciating one's culture creates and strengthens bonds with others who share that culture and also allows one to identify and appreciate cultural difference. A recent study showed that adolescents of Mexican and Chinese ethnicity maintained feelings of happiness despite daily stress when they had a strong sense of cultural identity.

#10. Play the part of an optimist
Optimism is a learned skill and there are a variety of ways to acquire it, says psychologist Mary Ann Troiani, co-author of Spontaneous Optimism. Through her research, Troiani has come up with three things that you can do to enhance your sense of optimism. First, straighten out your body before your emotions by keeping a straight body posture, taking big steps and walking quickly with your shoulders back and your head up. "People who are pessimistic walk slowly with small steps and their head down," she says. Second, change your tone of voice so that it is cheerful and full of energy. Third, use upbeat or happier words, such as "challenge" rather than "problem," or think of "opportunities" rather than "losses." "Positive thoughts and behavior have a positive impact on the brain's biochemistry," she says. "[They] boost your serotonin levels and signal that you're happy. Your brain will catch up to you." Troiani reminds us: it takes about 4 to 6 weeks to really change a habit.

#11. Hang a picture of a grinning ape on your fridge.
This one is my personal addition to the list. I find it provides immediate results.