7 Harvard teacher tips on how to become a happier

Tal Ben-Shahar conducted at Harvard is one of the most popular courses, on which is written a thousand students annually. Translated into Russian the name of his course might sound like this: "Introduction to the science of happiness." Ben-Shahar gave simple advice on how to make true happiness. We have selected for you the best. We believe they will help to get a little more productive, more efficient and happier.

We struggle with procrastination

Procrastination - it is certainly a strange thing. Senseless and merciless. But the senseless phenomenon, the more difficult to cope with it. Ben-Shahar suggests doing the following thing: when there is no power to do important work, it is necessary to arrange a five-minute head start. This means to say to yourself:

Okay, Google, we'll work with you only five minutes, and then immediately close.

In general, such fraudulently you retract your brain to the desired activity. As a rule, five minutes is enough to concentrate on a particular case. And then have a trick - take and feed, and feed themselves as "five-minute start".

Getting rid of stress

The American doctor Andrew Weil expressed an interesting thought: "If I had to choose only one advice on how to lead a healthier lifestyle, it would be the advice to learn breathe correctly. "

Thomas Crum, in his book "Three deep breaths," also talks about what wonders creates proper breathing. In order to fully relax and focus on their current order, you need to take three deep breaths. The first breath is stomach. It should be done slowly and deeply, focusing on the fact that we are here and now. On the second breath the same thing, only focusing on his current target. But the third breath can be called breath of gratitude, because during it, we should be grateful for the fact that we live.

This practice should be repeated several times a day. And it is desirable not only in those moments when we experience stress.

become generous

It has long been observed that from any nagging well to a simple technique - help another person. Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky conducted an experiment: she asks people to make a day five unusual for these good deeds. It had different things: treat neighbor cookies, give someone the movie tickets, free drop off votes from the road, to donate money to charity, and so on.

After that Lubomirski found that no matter how it was a good thing, it significantly changed the quality of life of the one who did it. And not just at the moment when done, but also later. So instead of whining and searching for meaning in life is better to go and buy food grandmother.

We get lucky

There is a very simple way to be more successful - increase the number of failures. Babe Ruth - one of the most successful in the history of baseball players - five times topped the list of players by the number of outs. Thomas Edison, who patented in the United States 1093 invention, failed in his experiments tens of thousands of times. Relatively speaking, a few setbacks, there is one good luck.

So make the mistake again and again. And remember that with every mistake you get lucky.

Create a good mood

In order to quickly gain a good mood, you can use a technique called "meditation of loving-kindness."

If you have something enraged, just close your eyes for three minutes and imagine the person you love. It is desirable to select some good song that you will quickly enter into a state of love and kindness. It can be supplied, for example, I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston.

defuse

Try to feel your body right now. Chances are, very often you have a desire to stretch, go for a massage or arrange a running marathon.

It is clear where the roots of our Trapped grow. Very often, we restrain their emotions, and this is directly reflected in our body. For example, the jaw clenched - a frequent sign of pent-up anger, which you can not even guess.

To relieve physical tension, it is necessary to focus on a specific part of the body and loosen the clamp. Can be repeated to myself the word "release".

Yoga teacher Patricia Walden says that the most important part of the practice - it Savasana, or corpse pose. To make Shavasana, you lie on your back, put your hands along the body, stretch your legs and relax.

Rest of thoughts

Man as a plant: to develop, we need space. One way to create such a space - this is to create around himself the silence. At least for a while.

Think about how much time you spent the last few days in complete silence? No music, no conversation, no extraneous noise. And no noise in my head, too.

Try to arrange a three o'clock silence and stillness. Turn off the phone and take a walk, listening to the birds, crickets and sounds of the city. You will see a totally different world.

Even more regulations happy and meaningful life - in the book "What will you choose?».