Wellness Tries
Each quarter, our wellness team tries and reviews a popular wellness trend. This quarter, we're trying science-backed strategies to improve our happiness.
“Wellness Tries” is a quarterly series where the GatorCare wellness team tries out and reviews different wellness trends, so you can see what might work for you! This quarter, we’re testing out various “happiness hacks” from Sonja Lyubomirsky’s book, The How of Happiness. In Lyubomirsky’s book, she claims that 50% of our happiness is determined by our genetics, 10% is determined by our circumstances, and 40% is determined by our thoughts and actions. The happiness hacks. These strategies are research-supported methods to increase happiness levels to help us max out that 40% we can control.
Our team chose this project back in January when life looked very different. Most of us started our hacks before the pandemic hit hard and continued our experiments into our current shelter-at-home situation. While the implementation changed quite a bit over the course of our hacks, we all agreed that the focus on increasing our happiness could not have come at a better time.
April 27: Morgan Tries Social Connection
Happy people are exceptionally good at maintaining their relationships and, in turn, are more likely to have a large circle of close friends, a romantic partner, and strong social support. How do you connect socially in the time of social distancing, though? In this week’s edition of Wellness Tries, Morgan gets creative.
May 4: Kaitlyn Tries Gratitude
Gratitude isn’t just saying “thanks”. It’s an appreciation for all that you have, big and small. It’s a feeling of abundance. It’s a sense of awe. It’s the satisfaction of enough. Kaitlyn finds out how feeling and expressing gratitude can make an impact on her happiness.
May 11: Katherine Tries Optimism
Optimists don’t naively believe the world is all rainbows and sunshine. Optimism requires recognizing that there’s good and bad in the world… And choosing to see the good. Join Katherine as she checks out the bright side, and sees if a silver lining can brighten her whole perspective.
May 18: Brittany Tries Flow
If you can’t get out of it, get into it. How can getting “in the zone” create long-lasting, impactful changes in your happiness levels? Check out how Brittany’s experience of flow affected her happiness.
May 26: Holly Tries Kindness
Sonja Lyubomirsky’s research team found some very specific strategies to practice acts of kindness. Holly tries them out and gives an honest review of how this worked for her.