Trick Yourself Happy!

Improve your frame of mind surprisingly easy steps.

- Helen Foster

SIT UP STRAIGHT

The better your posture, the easier you’ll find it to think of something that makes you happy. When you’re slumped forward, it takes twice as much brain power to access happy memories, says Professor Erik Peper from San Francisco University. So go on and straighten up!

LOOK UP

“When you’re feeling powerless you look down and shrink, but when you’re feeling empowered and positive your posture expands and you look up. Creating that posture has the same effect, so arrange your world so you regularly look up – put joyful images high on the wall. When you’re sitting put a pillow under your lower back as it naturally helps you tilt your posture upwards,” says Professor Erik.

PUT A SPRING IN YOUR STEP 

The bouncier you walk, the more positively you think. “People who walk in a happy way recall fewer negative words than those moving in a more depressed style,” says researcher Johannes michalak from the University of Witten / Herdecke in Germany. Try swinging your arms and looking around you as you stride.

USE A DIARY 

Scheduling activities in a diary creates a positive mood boost. When we’re feeling down, we tend to put off doing activities that might make us feel better, like exercise, or avoid things we’d normally enjoy. “Experiencing more, or more varied, activities can definitely lift your mood,” says study author Professor David Richards from the University of Exeter.

EAT A CHILLI