How to make a good summer better: three strategies that can boost your happiness quotient and make your season the best it can be - Essential Guide to Summer

Shape, May, 2003 by Lynda Liu

For a century, the study of psychology was pretty much limited to what can go wrong with your mind and emotions: for example, depression, anxiety, major mental illnesses. But in the past few years, a whole new approach to the field has developed: Called "positive psychology," it is the study of what can go right with the human psyche.

Positive psychology examines positive emotions (confidence, hope, trust), positive traits (valor, integrity, loyalty, intelligence) and positive institutions (democracy, strong families, free inquiry) -- and how these can help you be a happier, more fulfilled and satisfied person.

Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D., is known as the father of positive psychology. Though many of us are content, says Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment (Free Press, 2002), "we do wonder how our lives could improve:' Use the following tenets of the positive-psychology movement to help you shoot up the happiness ladder and make this summer (and the rest of your life) even better.

1 Wear rose--colored glasses. It's not enough to take your mind off the negative. You have to actively and deliberately focus on the positive. In a University of Michigan at Ann Arbor study, subjects were given 60 seconds to prepare a three-minute speech. They were told there was a 50 percent chance they would be selected to deliver the speech to a video monitor, which would later be shown to students in another study. Their cardiovascular responses to this stress, such as heart rate, were measured. The participants were then shown one of four possible video clips: ocean waves (to induce contentment), a small dog playing with a flower (to induce amusement), a neutral video of abstract shapes or a sad clip of a crying boy watching his father die. The heart responses of the people who watched either the contentment or amusement video returned to normal much more quickly than those of participants who watched the neutral or the sad video.

This summer Do something special that triggers positive emotions. Take a hike or go swimming in a lake, says Michele Tugade, Ph.D., one of the study's co-authors and a research scientist in Boston College's psychology department. "Connecting with nature has been associated with joy, gratitude and contentment." If it's a rainy day, watch a movie that makes you laugh or take time out for yoga or meditation. Remember, you don't have to wait until you're in a difficult situation to TAP into these good feelings. Building up "credit" in positive emotions will help you better cope with challenging situations when they arise.

2 "Elevate" yourself. "Elevation" isn't just the title of a popular U2 song. It's also the name of an emotion we feel when we witness acts of goodness, kindness and compassion. It's the emotion that gives you a warm, tingly feeling and makes you want to be a better person. In a recent study from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, some students were shown parts of a documentary on Mother Teresa's life and others a different video (a comedy or a nonemotional documentary). Those who watched the Mother Teresa clips felt more inspired and were more willing to volunteer at a charitable organization than were the other study participants.

Witnessing or being around inspiring people can uplift you, but being kind yourself has its own benefits as well. "Doing good deeds is often surprisingly enjoyable," says study author Jonathan Haidt, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology. "People often volunteer for social reasons. For example, a friend got them to do it or they thought it would look good on their resume, but then they discover how rewarding it can be."

This summer Volunteer for a beach cleanup or to plant a community garden, so you'll contribute to something positive and feel elevated by the actions of those around you. To really elevate your mood, volunteer at a summer camp for inner-city youth. "Doing good things for others, especially children, is even more powerful than doing good things for nature," Haidt says.

3 Lose track of time. If you were ever so engrossed by an enjoyable activity that you lost track of time, you were experiencing "flow." Whether you're playing an intense game of tennis, rock climbing or reading a novel, flow can happen if you're engaged in something that challenges you, requires skill and concentration, gives immediate feedback and allows you to retain a sense of control. Aside from letting people feel fully alive, flow helps a person develop skills, says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, director of the Quality of Life Research Center and a professor at the Peter F. Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, Calif. -- and the man who coined the term flow.

This summer Sail on a lake, act in summer-stock theater, bird-watch or read a novel while lying in a hammock. Your interests and skills will determine what brings you flow. To figure out what works for you, "think back on the things that gave you joy as a child or teenager," Csikszentmihalyi says. "Also, try as many new things as possible, and pay attention to which make you feel best. Can you do more of those things, and less of the ones that are boring or stressful?" It's something worth thinking about.