<p>Researchers then broke down the happiness effect on the basis of a participant's relationship to others and their proximity to each other. </p><p>What did they find? Here's the ranking, from greatest impact on happiness to least: </p><ol><li>Nearby mutual friends (who literally ranked off the charts; the probability of increasing happiness is 148 percent) </li><li>Next-door neighbor </li><li>Nearby friend (a person whom the participant named as a friend but the "friend" did not reciprocate that label) </li><li>Nearby friend-perceived friend (a person whom the participant did not name as a friend but who claimed to be a friend of the participant) </li><li>Nearby sibling </li><li>Co-resident spouse </li><li>Distant sibling </li><li>Non-co-resident spouse </li><li>Same-block neighbor </li><li>Distant friend </li> </ol>

Kevan Lee, the director of marketing for Buffer, also writes a lot about happiness. So I wondered: Are there unexpected ways to be happy? I pulled together research about the many unexpected and counterintuitive ways to find happiness: 1. Learn something new, even if it's stressful: Mastering a new skill means more stress now but more happiness later.

health

Health

problemsolving

Problem Solving

travel

Travel

meditation

Meditation

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

Want to Be Much Happier? Science Says Always Do Any 1 of These 8 Things

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

habits

Habits

Want to Be Much Happier? Science Says Always Do Any 1 of These 8 Things

Julian Nyamusana