A (mostly) positive message

This last category of mental control really stands out: what on earth is it doing on a list of strategies to increase happiness? Statistically it was the strongest predictor of unhappiness. This suggests that a significant minority of people have exactly the wrong idea about what strategies increase happiness.

Passive leisure pursuits is the other category that stands out. All the other categories in the top 6 have at least some connection with happiness. This one has none and yet there it is at number 4 in the list.

The positive message is that generally the strategies that people use to increase their happiness do actually work. We're relying on self-reports here, so people could well be misrepresenting what they actually do - but at least they mostly know what they're supposed to be doing.

Ways to happiness and spiritual well being

It's more important to be happy than to be right.

you can either be happy, or unhappy. Choose happy.

Live life with an open hand, an open mind, and an open heart.

Compliment three people everyday.

Watch a sunrise.

Be the first to say "Hello."

Don't waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.

Treat everyone as you want to be treated.

Never give up on anybody; miracles happen.

Remember someone's name.

Pray not for things, but for wisdom and courage.

Be tough-minded, but tender hearted.

Be kinder than you have to be.

Don't forget that a person's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.

Keep your promises.

Learn to show cheerfulness even when you don't feel it.

Remember that overnight success usually takes 15 years.

Leave everything better than you found it.

Remember that winners do what losers don't want to do.

When you arrive at your job in the morning, let the first thing you say brighten everyone's day.

Don't rain on other people's parades.

Live beneath your means.

Keep some things to yourself and don't promote havoc by backstabbing people you love.

Stop Rushing Past Life: Let Go!

Alternative Happy Tips

Whatever it is, if you really want to eat it, eat it!

Never piss off anyone who has access to you when you are asleep.

Never argue with a pregnant woman.

What's So Funny? The Psychology Behind Jokes and Laughter (И что смешного? Психология шуток и смеха)

Laughter is universal. it has nothing to do with what language we speak, which culture we were raised in, or what our religious faith is. We all laugh. Psychologists have compared laughter to speaking in tongues (говорение на (незнакомых) языках; глоссолалия - нарушение артикуляции или речи у психически больных): we can't control what we laugh at, or the sounds that come out of our mouth. All we know is that we laugh, and that laughter transcends all of our differences.

Scientists have studied laughter by going out into public places and observing people in social settings, by searching for "the perfect joke" and studying its effect on the brain of its recipient, and by hooking people up to an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging - получение изображений методом ядерного магнитного резонанса) machine and studying brain activity as they listen to both real and "fake" (jokes not meant to funny) jokes. What they've discovered about laughter is a bit surprising. And it may explain why certain people make us laugh easier than others can.

Four Facts About Laughter

1. Laughter varies by age and gender. Children laugh 400 times per day, as opposed to adults, who only laugh 15 times per day. Any parent has experienced this. Kids laugh at the weirdest things. But laughter is part of their cognitive development (когнитивное развитие). Kids who tell and listen to jokes are learning about language, connections, and irony. Those who have a well-developed sense of humor have a better outlook on life and an easier time interacting with their peers.

Women laugh more than men: about 126% more, according to an article published in Psychology Today.

Men are the biggest laugh-getters, a trait that starts early in childhood. Most likely, if you think back to the class clown in elementary or middle school, it was a boy. What makes women the laughers and men the comedians? That question is still up in the air. As we learn more about the science of laughter, hopefully the answer will unfold.

2. Laughter is a social phenomenon. Ever notice that you laugh more when watching a funny movie with your pals than you do when you watch the same movie by yourself? Psychologists have studied this phenomenon, as well as the phenomenon known as "contagious laughter" to determine why it is that we laugh more with others. It comes down to communication. Laughter is a wordless, un-fakeable demonstration of human emotion. It binds us as maybe no other force on Earth can. Television producers of the 1950's understood this before anyone studied it---they started setting sitcoms to laugh tracks to make the home audience laugh and enjoy the show more. It's also why Leno, Letterman, and Conan tape before a live studio audience. The audience laughs, and we find ourselves laughing along with them.

3. Different types of jokes affect different parts of the brain. The part of the brain that reacts to jokes is the medial ventral (внутренний, вентральный) prefrontal (префронтальный; предлобный) cortex (кора головного мозга), which is where cognitive development, personality development, and determining correct social behavior occurs. However, different types of jokes trigger different parts of the brain as we process them. Puns (игра слов; каламбур) take one path to the prefrontal cortex, for example, while story jokes take a completely different neurological path. This explains why people who have experienced brain trauma may find one type of joke funny, but find absolutely no humor in an equally funny joke of a different genre, or why they may lose their sense of humor all together.

4. Laughter has very little to do with the joke itself. In studying laughter in social settings, scientists observed an interesting phenomenon: the joke itself was the least important factor in instigating laughter. In fact, statements like "well, hello yourself," or "yeah, that's what I thought" were more likely to get a laugh than an actual joke was. The larger the group, the more each person in the group laughed. Women tend to laugh more heartily in the presence of men they are attracted to than they do in the presence of other women or men who don't attract them. What this tells us is that while a joke can be a great icebreaker, what matters more is the interaction and relationship between people. This also explains that one guy you know who tells the dumbest (глупейший) jokes but never fails to be the life of the party.

The Great Unifier

All of the research boils down (to boil down to - сводиться к (чему-л.)) to this inescapable (неизбежный, неминуемый, неотвратимый) fact: humans are, and are designed to be, social beings. Laughter is a reflex, just like the startle (испуг; страх; вздрагивание (от неожиданного действия, страха)) reflex, gag (рвотные движения) reflex, of the reflex of automatically pulling your hand away from a hot stove. Laughter is irresistible, contagious, and binds us through its universality. It transcends (выходить за пределы) the issues and differences that divide us. In the end, we're all the same, laughing at the same dumb knock-knock joke as the next guy. Maybe that's really the reason laughter is the best medicine.

Секреты мозга: тайны памяти. (Secrets of the Brain: the Mystery of Memory).

by Tonia E. Chrapko, B.Ed.

Even though science continues to give us ever increasing insights into what memory is much of it remains a mystery. Researchers consider memory a process, and when you remember you are actually reconstructing the event from bits of information stored in various parts of the brain. But the mystery is, what initiates the reconstruction? Is it, as some suggest, directed from outside the physical body, from the energy body? That remains to be seen.

The Location of Memory. In the past, it was thought that all memory was in the brain. However, Gazzaniga (1988) reports that memory occurs throughout the nervous system. So every thought you have is “felt” throughout your entire body because the receptors for the chemicals in your brain are found on the surfaces of cells throughout your body. Thus when the chemicals are activated in the brain, the message is communicated to every part of your body that allows cells to communicate by remote travel using blood and cerebrospinal fluid [спинномозговая жидкость].

Stress Erodes Memory. Excessive stress and obesity produce an over-production of a complex set of stress hormones that damage and destroy neurons in the brain’s region critical to learning and memory. One really good way to burn off excess stress hormones is through exercise. So for those experiencing particularly high stress levels exercise is not only beneficial, it is necessary.

What are the Characteristics of Memory? Sensory – we remember things that involve our five senses. So, the more senses that get activate, the easier it will be to recall.

Intensity – when something is more intensely funny, sexual, absurd, etc. it tends to stand out in our memories.

Outstanding – things that are dull and unoriginal are more difficult to remember because there is nothing to distinguish them from all the other memories.

Emotional – when something happens that has high emotional content – positive or negative – we tend to remember it more easily.

Survival – anything we perceive as important to survival we will remember more easily. It’s not just physical survival. Survival can include emotional survival, psychological survival and financial survival.

Personal importance – we naturally remember things that interest us and that have some personal importance.

Repetition – the more often we recall information, the better we get at recalling on demand.

First and last – the brain most easily recalls things from the beginning and the ending of any session or lecture.

What are the Keys to Memory? Pay attention – often times the biggest problem is that people’s minds are not focused in the moment. Instead, they are thinking about something in the past of future.

Visualization – create a visual in your mind because the brain thinks in pictures and concepts, not paragraphs.

Association – find something to connect the information to…similar to word association. Ask, “What does this remind me of?”

Imagination – get creative when visualizing or making associations.

Why do we forget? It could be that we never stored the information properly in the first place. It could be because there was not enough emotion or personal importance connected to the information to make it stick. It could be that it was so emotionally traumatic that the mind suppressed it in order to maintain normalcy.

Why do we remember negative events? Whenever emotions are activated, especially strong emotions, the information or experience is entrenched into memory. Often times we tend to dwell on it, thereby rehearsing it and entrenching it even further. It is also easier to recall negative memories when we are in a bad mood. Why? Because we remember things in the state that we learned them so whenever you are feeling angry you will more easily recall other situations in which you were angry.

The subconscious remembers everything. If we were to compare the conscious mind with the subconscious, the conscious would measure about one foot long and the subconscious would be the length of a football field. The potential is enormous. So everything we experience can be stored. However, the conscious mind would get overloaded trying to process all the incoming bits of data on a daily basis. Instead, all the information goes into the subconscious for storage and we may never deal with it, except if the mind chooses to process it at night through dreams. Or, if we go for clinical hypnosis, through which a therapist assists in accessing information or memories the conscious mind has “forgotten” or repressed.