Unravel the paradox of stress and happiness. Discover how certain types of stress, contrary to popular belief, can actually enhance your joy and well-being. Let's delve into the intriguing world of stress, its types, and their surprising impact on our happiness.
One great way to be happy is to consciously put stress and pressure on yourself
People who work hard at improving a skill or an ability definitely experience stress in the moment… but also feel greater happiness on a daily basis — and over the long term.
- Working to master a new skill or accomplish a huge goal definitely means more stress now, but it also means more happiness later. If you are willing to push through a bit of added stress for the short term, you can experience huge gains in happiness over a long term
Success breeds additional motivation and happiness
When you accomplish what you set out to do today, you feel good about yourself and have a sense of accomplishment.
- This gives you the motivation needed to do what you need to do when tomorrow comes, and builds additional motivation for the future.
But think about the positives
Every day you will get to feel good about yourself
- Even if you never quite achieve everything you set out to achieve, you’ll be happier
- People who engage in behaviors that increase competency, for example at work, school, or the gym, experience decreased happiness in the moment, lower levels of enjoyment and higher levels of momentary stress
- Despite the negative effects felt on an hourly basis, these same activities made participants feel happy and satisfied when they looked back on their day as a whole
