Study Shows New Jersey is One of the Happiest States
I think I’m a pretty happy person, hopefully you feel the same about yourself. However, there are times when we don’t feel that way. We receive bad news or have an experience that ruins our day. A study by WalletHub shows that New Jersey is One of the Happiest States.
They “examined the 50 states across 30 key metrics, ranging from the depression rate and the share of adults feeling productive to income growth and the unemployment rate.”
New Jersey is One of the Happiest States
They found that New Jersey’s happiness is at a higher level than nearly all other states. We landed fifty in the country. The other four states that outranked us were Minnesota, Maryland, Hawaii, and Utah.
Take a Class to Be Happy
If you don’t feel you’re one of the happy people, there’s a class you can take to improve your happiness.
The researchers at the University of Bristol in the U.K. say you can train yourself to be happy.
They teach a class on happiness, and they’ve analyzed their graduates’ responses as to how happy they are. Taking the class wasn’t enough to keep them smiling. Like anything else, they needed to apply what they learned to maintain their happiness goal.
Professor Bruce Hood says, “It’s like going to the gym, we can’t expect to do one class and be fit forever. Just as with physical health, we have to continuously work on our mental health, otherwise, the improvements are temporary.”
The Science of Happiness course teaches many things about keeping people smiling.
What Causes Happiness
One of the lessons is something we teach our kids not to do. They say you should talk to strangers. Interacting with others and meeting new people can bring us joy.
One of the reasons for this is that loneliness impairs the immune system, and optimism increases life expectancy.
Surprisingly, they don’t frown on social media use like many other studies. The class teaches that the apps are fine unless you’re a user who focuses your attention on your reputation.
Something I think we already know is that gift-giving brings us happiness. However, the reason is that it activates “reward centers” in our brains. They claim it gives us a better feeling than if we were spending money on ourselves.
Related: List of Songs That Create Happiness
One of the more interesting teachings is that you need to get proper sleep. Not just because your body needs it, but because it affects whether people like us.
I think we all realize that walking in nature brings us happiness and makes us feel good. Students of the class learn that it deactivates the part of the brain that leads to negative thoughts.
And finally, you can’t be happy if you’re not kind. This is especially true for those who didn’t rewind their VHS tapes before returning them to the video store in the eighties and nineties.
Be kind, rewind.