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Study proves practicing positive moral increases happiness

June 20, 2012

A new large scale study from the University of Zurich found that practicing positive moral drastically increased one's positive well being. This study was conducted to investigate positive psychology which focuses on what makes life worth living.

Nearly 200 adults were used in the study and divided into 3 groups for a period of 10 weeks. The first group practiced training on curiosity, gratitude, optimism, humor, and enthusiasm. The second group practiced appreciation of beauty, creativity, kindness, love of learning and foresight. The third group was a control and did not practice any training.

The top benefits from practicing positive character traits occurred when individuals received training on curiosity, gratitude, optimism, humor, and enthusiasm. This group displayed a significant increase in life satisfaction, although both groups practicing positive training benefited from this study. The individuals in these groups were much more cheerful and in overall better moods than the individuals in the control group.

To give you an understanding of how they conducted the training sessions, here are a few exercises the study included. They wrote thank you letters to people they felt were an important role in their lives. Another was training their appreciation of beauty by paying attention to moments in which they admired something beautiful. They also learned to express gratitude instead of jealousy to those with special talents and abilities.

Here is another case that proves being a positive, appreciative person results in a happier life. Learn to appreciate the things in life that make you happy. Life is too short to live angry, jealous, or pessimistic. Train yourself to be happy. It works!!