Top 5 ways to trick yourself into being happy.

There are a lot of unhappy people running around these days. The 21st century has started out rather unfortunately in a number of ways. It began with the whole Y2K computer scare, followed shortly after by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. Then, much of the world became entrenched in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where terrorism techniques have become more sophisticated and effective than ever before. Not to mention the global economic meltdown that's affected nearly every nation on the planet. Yes, there are plenty of reasons for people to be unhappier than ever. However, people continue to crave happiness; luckily, we can actually make our own happiness when our lives and surroundings are short on it.

1: Go Work Out For Once
Even a single workout can have a noticeable effect on your mood. Aerobic exercise triggers the release of pleasure-inducing neurotransmitters in the brain. While exercise has been proven to improve one's mood, its duration has recently been found to last a lot longer than anyone previously thought. A 2009 study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine found that the post-exercise "glow" can last as long as 12 hours, happily affecting your entire day

2:use your money to do something good for some one else.
People like to congratulate themselves when they commit a selfless, altruistic act, like donating to charity or helping a stranger in need. While these things certainly are nice and make the world a cheerier place, there's actually isn't any such thing as a truly selfless act. It sounds a bit cynical, but MRI studies show that when we do an act of kindness for someone else, we're actually getting something in return -- pleasure. The brain's reward center, the region that's activated when something good happens to us, also comes to life when we do something nice for someone else.This means chemicals that produce happy feelings -- like dopamine -- flood our brains when we cover the toll for the person in the car behind us or pick up an extra cheeseburger for a homeless guy when we're out at lunch.

3: Try the 5 Percent Trick
Sometimes, a lack of happiness comes from feeling overwhelmed by all of the tasks we face in our personal and professional lives. Leisure time is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Even when we're not at work, we devote very little of the time we spend at our own discretion to our passions .. Instead, we spend our time off taking care of all of the things that accumulate in our lives while we're working, like cleaning the house or going to see a doctor. These things still need to be done, however, and when they're allowed to accumulate they tend to look more like a mountain than a laundry list. Taking things a little at a time helps you gain a happier outlook on all the stuff you've got going on in your life.

4: Treat Yourself to a Tasty and Healthy Meal
Simply put, fresh foods are happier foods than processed foods. How would we know? It turns out that the chemicals in your brain that create feelings of happiness are produced by some of the foods we eat. Foods that contain complex carbohydrates -- like legumes and whole-grain breads -- slowly release glucose, which provides lasting energy and protects against chronic fatigue. Folate, which is found in foods like spinach, is a B vitamin that's essential to the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that stabilizes mood. The pleasure-inducing chemical dopamine contains tyrosine and phenylalanine, a pair of amino acids that can be found in protein-packed foods like fish, meat and beans.

5: Hang Out With Smiling People
When you see another person smiling, what emotion do you imagine he or she's experiencing? Is it safe to assume that person is happy? Of course it is. We humans associate smiling with happiness, and if we associate with happy people, we can become happier as well.

(source:howstuffworks.com)

stay happy...

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An000sha!!