Genetics might account for up to 33 percent of our happiness (or lack thereof), but that doesn’t mean we’re powerless to improve our own moods. Sometimes all it takes is a change in mindset — no matter how small — to turn a crappy day into a good one. To help you shift into a happier gear, we’ve rounded up five things from around the web that inspire and delight us, and we hope they’ll do the same for you. We’ll be sharing our favorite happiness-boosters each week, so be sure to check back — and please share your own either in the comments or the community!
1. This TEDX Talk by Shawn Achor on The Happiness Advantage and The Wisdom of Play
In this highly entertaining talk at TEDxBloomington, happiness researcher Shawn Achor discusses how to increase happiness and meaning, improve our chances for success, and create positive transformations that have significant impact onboth individual and societal scales.
2. This little boy who got his stuffed bunny back
As children, many of us probably suffered through the tragic loss of a favorite toy or stuffed animal. But thanks to a stranger and the powers of Instagram, one lucky little boy won’t have to (at least not this time).
3. This room made entirely of Belgian chocolate
Never has furniture looked so good. We know that chocolate can be good for our health, but who knew it could be a boon for home decorators everywhere?
4. This website where people share their stories of random acts of kindness
The Random Acts of Kindness Association invites people to share their stories of (you guessed it) random acts of kindness. Reading just a few of these is bound to leave anyone feeling a little better about the fate of humanity.
5. This app that helps you track your happiness (so you can grow more of it)
The Good to Hear app offers some simple tools for users to track and journal about their emotional states. The idea is that by becoming more aware of their feelings, users can start to notice their happiness and unhappiness triggers, thereby enabling them to make choices better geared to their own happiness. And if bad times still get users down? Well, they can simply cheer themselves up by reading through all of their past entries from happier times.
What’s making you happy this week? Share in the comments below!
