The Happiness Advantage

Think you can’t afford to be happy? Think again. In this TED talk, a psychologist, Shawn Achor, discusses the extent to which our brains – and productivity levels – benefit from “the happiness advantage.” The youtube video is short, and I encourage you to watch all of it while you exercise or take a break. But if you think you don’t have time, there is a summary below.

In this video, Shawn Achor deals with the conventional wisdom which tells us that “our external world is predictive of our happiness levels,” point out that in reality, only 10% of longterm happiness can be predicted through external circumstances. 90% of your longterm happiness, he says, is predicted not by the external world, but by the way in which your brain processes that world.”

Your happiness level affects other things about your life – like productivity: “Only 25% of job successes are predicted by IQ. 75% of job successes are predicted by your optimism levels, your social support, and by your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat.”

Most programs and conventional wisdom go about this the wrong way. But “the absence of disease is not health”; programs that focus only on what could go wrong do their attendees a disservice. Most companies and schools follow a formula for success, which is this: “if I work harder, then I will be more successful. And if I am more successful, then I will be happier.” [This probably applies to busy law students, too]

But this kind of thinking is broken and backwards for two reasons:

1. When we set the standards for happiness at success, we reformulate the boundaries of success, and ultimately, we will never get to success. This is a huge problem; Mr. Anchor points out that “we’ve pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon as a society.”
2. But the even bigger problem is that our brains work in the opposite order: “your brain at positive performs significantly better than it does at negative, neutral, or stressed.”

So what can you do to gain the happiness advantage?

We can rewire our brains to focus on the positive. The video gives a few suggestions, saying:

• Journaling about one positive experience you’ve had over the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive it.
• Exercise teaches your brain that your behaviour matters.
• Meditation allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD that we’ve been creating by trying to do multiple tasks at once, and allows our brains to focus on the task at hand.
• Random acts of kindness make both parties feel better.

How to Make Limited Exercise Time Count

We’re all busy people, so it can be hard to find the time (or work up the motivation) to do something besides flop around in front of your laptop after a long day of classes.  So how can you make limited exercise time count?

You’ve probably heard that aerobic activity if the best for you, and recent research confirms this:

http://io9.com/5928595/researchers-identify-the-kinds-of-exercise-that-help-you-live-longer

The take-home point is, if your goal is to stay strong and live longer, heart-rate-boosting physical activity is definitely the way to go.

On an encouraging note, this study also found that “physical activity during leisure time seems to increase life expectancy more effectively than total physical activity.” The cause and effect here is of course complicated – but it looks like people who spend lots of time sitting down for their work can still reap significant benefits from consciously chosen, albeit briefer, physical activity (presumably as part of an overall healthy lifestyle…!).

For example, I’m sure we’ve chosen to sprint to an 8:30 a.m. seminar class at some point (or in some cases, on a regular basis!).  That must be worth a lot, right?

Welcome!

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

~Albert Einstein

Hello and welcome to Meeting of the Minds, the official blog of the U T Faculty of Law’s Health and Wellness Student Advisory Committee.

We’ll be posting about a wide range of health and wellness topics: everything from students sharing their struggles with physical and mental health difficulties, through wellness tips most likely relevant to all law students – e.g., how to get the most out of limited time to eat, sleep, and exercise. So for example, you might want to learn what kinds of relevant resources the U of T campus has to offer, or to keep up with the recent research on how exactly the mind works (…and at times doesn’t).

But you’re a busy law student – you don’t have time for these things – you need to focus on school! And the clinic! And what if you don’t get hired?! Augh!! …You definitely don’t have time for wellness … right?

Actually, whether or not you want to make time for “wellness” for its own sake, attending to it is in your strategic interest. As Einstein observed, “happiness is the key to success.” Let’s say that (for some strange reason) a successful career is your only goal. Well, it’s no secret that a lot of lawyers are miserable – shouldn’t you give yourself a crucial competitive advantage?

Yours truly,

The Health and Wellness Student Advisory Committee