HAPPY GO LUCKY 

09 May 2021 

Hello my sweet dear,

And I wish you a warm and lovely welcome to Yokos Week of Happiness! Now that sounds pathetic, and I’m afraid this post in general will be. A bit. For sure I’m always trying to keep my coolness by making weird jokes aside, but you’ll see what I’m talking about. If you’re not in the mood for pathetic tips, tricks and notes on and about happiness, then you should maybe just look at the pictures and then go back doing your thing. But actually, if you’re not in the mood for notes on happiness, then you especially should read this week’s article.

Psychological Happiness

Considering that Psychology is a very wide field (I’m extremely in awe and prob I’d even say a big fan of), that needs to be well studied, I just want to make sure that you know I’m giving you information that I read in articles and websites. I’m pretty sure that one pal you might know who studies psychology could give you deeper insights, but this is just a quick overview and collection that I gathered from several sources, that overlap. I mean sure I didn’t study it, but I’m researching my way all the way for you, baby.

What is psychological happiness? I’m making it short – pretty undefinable. As most of the things in most of the sciences. Psychologists tend to name it “general satisfaction with one’s present state”. Characterized by:

• the presence of positive emotions (joy, satisfaction, contentment, fulfillment…)
• the absence of negative emotions (sadness, anger…) and
• life satisfaction.

I also found a classification that sums happiness up in the three components of “Momentary Mood”, “Life Satisfaction” and the “Assessment of specific life domains” (e.g. work, relationships, health…), which I found quite fitting. But generally, it's pretty much like our ancient hedonistic Greek friends already said – pleasure (hedonia) over pain. And realizing that you feel pleasure over pain (eudaimonia, for my nerds).

Pleasure over Pain. 

Another interesting Model from a scientist researching in the wide, wide flowerful fields of Positive Psychology (*Yes, that is a scientific study and yes, I’m now more sure than ever, that I chose the wrong profession bc WELL????? DO WE SEE ME THERE BABY? YES WE SURE DO) is the PERMA Model. Breaking it down it says a consistent, happy life consists of:

• • P ositive Emotions. The feels – joy, warmth, … positive emotions on max, negative ones min.
  • E ngagement. Being fully attentive to your activities and being absorbed by them, resulting in unique, signature strengths. Or = PASSION.
  • R elationships. With others, that are positive, nurturing, rewarding.
  • M eaning. Serving a higher purpose in life. Giving your life meaning. Basically.
  • A ccomplishments. The pursuit of achievements.

Whoosh. Now that’s a hard rock to swallow. I’m not giving you a course on how to achieve the full range of psychological happiness in all our three components or the PERMA Model, but regarding the last paragraph, you may already see that happiness mostly lies in your own view and handling of life. And that means – basically, being grateful and really seeing the things, that you can be grateful for.

Some tips and tricks regarding the perma model –

• Building relationships to supportive, positive people. Kick that only-half-friend you don’t even really like out. It’s a waste of your precious time, nerves and apparently – mood!
• Practice Gratitude. To the small things. To the big things. Just take yourself every day a little moment of time to think about three things you're grateful for. It’s researched that it’s most efficient when done in a ritual. So before sleeping or after waking up, think about it?
• Be invested in you. You can’t practice passion in anything, if you don’t know what you like or don’t, or even if you don’t know how you even feel about something. So challenge yourself, try new things, get invested. And take a rest if you need to.
• Set (healthy!) goals. This sounds so easy and easier said then done but these goals can be baby-sized. Might it be going for a walk two times a week? And then next week three. You know the drill. You’re doing this because it gives your life structure, purpose and well – you know the boost of self-esteem when you reached a goal. And don’t we all love growing as a person?
• Stop complaining. And focus on the good. This is also easier said than done, esp. when feeling very down. But this is something you can practice, too. It gets easier. And I don’t say stop complaining completely – we all love ourselves a good rant. But after ranting and raving, get on. And take a look at the bright side. Even if it's just that you’re definitely cooler than the world or all the people around or a stupid pandemic flowing its way around the world.
• Acts. Of. Kindness. I’m setting this in points, because it’s so vital. Doing good for others is such an easy way to receive good back and then everything just gets so flowy and the world is just a much better place when the cashier smiles a little because you wished him/her a wonderful week.

Now, I could go on with this list and there are a dizillion tips and tricks that have been researched and found good, but those are quite key and pretty common in every list.

Now that I gave you professional tricks, I’m sharing a few of your lovely answers I got, when I asked about the one thing, that always makes you happy. I smiled so much reading through these. Get yourself some inspiration:

• Dancing
• Seeing new leaves at houseplants
• Saturday
• Dogs (favoured, 18 dogs at once)
• Sales and Discounts
• Masturbation (YOU GO THERE GIRLS AND BOYS, IT'S VITAL!!!)
• A good drink (particularly, Lillet.)
• Sun
• Good Food, Mousse au Chocolat, Strawberry Cake, Cake Dough, Chocolate…
• Sports
• Nature
• Good music
• Playing the piano
• Vacation
• “my humor” – quoting on that, because that’s the confidence we want, baby! (and the precious sweetheart who sent this really is damn funny, not gonna lie)