Psychology of Happiness : Positive imagination of the future increases happiness

A recent psychology study that caught my attention was "The effect of daily practice of mental time travel into the future on happiness and anxiety" by Dr. Jordi Quoidbach and colleagues.

In this study, imagining a positive future increased happiness. This study, which showed that simply imagining a positive future increases happiness, is something that can be easily practiced, so I immediately decided to incorporate it into my daily life.

In addition, there was another study that showed that positive thoughts and actions increase happiness. It is called "the law of as if", a law proposed by psychologist Richard Wiseman.

It states that just as feelings and thoughts affect facial expressions and actions, facial expressions and actions also affect feelings and thoughts. To be happy, we need to act as if we are happy.

Usually, pleasant emotions occur first, followed by laughter, or sad emotions, followed by crying; in the law of as if, the opposite is true: laughter leads to pleasant emotions.

Research conducted by psychologist Fritz Strack has also shown that smiling affects emotions. Smiling, even if it is a fake smile, is said to bring about pleasant emotions.

"Smiling" and "imagining a positive future" are easy things to do, so I decided to make them a part of my life. It has been several years since I started to make these two habits, but I am not sure to what extent they have actually affected my happiness. What I can say, however, is that it definitely keeps my mental state better than imagining a negative future.

That's all for this article.
Thank you for reading to the end. ^^