Flow is when you are so consumed by a task or activity that you lose track of time, for instance, gardening, reading, or watching a movie. It's an optimal experience that can make you happy. Flow can be achieved in almost any activity that requires prolonged mental effort.
Seek out daily happy habits. Your brain will build up expectations of being happy and will rewire itself to seek more happy habits.
11 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. What's the secret to happiness? That can differ according to the person involved. But we do know that happy people have different habits and think differently than those who are miserable.
While happiness is defined by the individual, I've always felt it foolish to declare that nothing can be learned from observing the happiness of others. In our day-to-day lives it is easy to miss the forest for the trees and look over some of the smaller, simpler things that can disproportionally affect our happiness levels.
National surveys find that when someone claims to have 5 or more friends with whom they can discuss important problems, they are 60 percent more likely to say that they are ‘very happy’. Excerpt from the book Finding Flow.
True friends really are worth their weight in gold. Check in regularly with close friends (around every two weeks).
Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, theorizes that while 60 percent of happiness is determined by our genetics and environment, the remaining 40 percent is up to us.