New Exercises to Boost Happiness

• One door closes, another door opens: Consider a moment in your life when a negative event led to positive consequences that you were not expecting. Write about this each day.

• Gift of time: Offer the “gift” of your time to three different people this week. This might be in the form of time spent, helping someone around their house, or sharing a meal with someone who is lonely. These “gifts” should be in addition to your planned activities.

• Counting kindness: Keep a log of all the kind acts that you do in a particular day. Jot them down by the end of each day.

• Three funny things: Write down the three funniest things that you experienced or participated in each day; also write about why the funny thing happened (e.g., was it something you created, something you observed, something spontaneous?)

• Gratitude letter/visit: Write a letter of gratitude to someone who has had a positive impact on you. If feasible, you might consider delivering the letter to the person. [It is important to first weigh the pros and cons of delivering such a letter.]

• Three good things: Jot down three things that went well for you each day and give an explanation as to why these good things occurred.

• Use your signature strengths in a new way: This is the most popular of all positive psychology exercises. Choose one of your highest strengths (your signature strengths) and use it in a new way each day.

  Caveats

  • If you don’t like the idea of writing these exercises out, consider having a planned discussion each day for a week about the exercise with someone in your life.

  • Make sure you practice the exercise for a full week. Take notice of the impact it has.