I Did Yale’s Happiness Challenge for 28 Days To Improve My Mental Health — Here’s What Happened

🌈 Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive overview of the author's experience with a happiness-boosting challenge based on Yale's "The Science of Wellbeing" course. It covers the 8 scientifically-proven habits that can increase well-being, including using signature strengths, savoring, gratitude, kindness, social connection, exercise, sleep, and meditation. The author shares their personal journey, the steps they took, and the positive results they experienced in various areas of their life, such as relationships, meaning, and negative emotions.

🙋 Q&A

[01] The Happiness-Boosting Challenge

1. What are the steps involved in the happiness-boosting challenge? The challenge involves 4 main steps:

• Step 1: Understand your baseline by taking the PERMA and Authentic Happiness Inventory tests to assess your current well-being.
• Step 2: Create a personalized plan, including which habits to focus on, how to implement them, and the duration of the challenge.
• Step 3: Implement the happiness-boosting habits and track your progress.
• Step 4: Check your results by retaking the initial surveys to measure the impact.

2. How did the author personalize the challenge for themselves? The author's plan was to:

• Add all 8 happiness habits at once
• Complete a 28-day challenge
• Prioritize habits to improve social connection, gratitude, and use of signature strengths

3. What were the author's initial PERMA test results, and how did they improve after the challenge? The author's initial PERMA test results showed they were:

• Very high functioning in health
• Normal functioning in engagement and accomplishment
• Sub-optimal functioning in relationships, meaning, negative emotions, and loneliness After the 28-day challenge, the author saw improvements in all these areas, with relationships, meaning, and negative emotions moving to the "normal functioning" or "high functioning" range.

[02] The 8 Science-Backed Habits That Boost Your Wellbeing

1. What are the 8 happiness-boosting habits recommended by Yale's course? The 8 habits are:

1. Signature Strengths
2. Savoring
3. Gratitude
4. Kindness
5. Social Connection
6. Exercise
7. Sleep
8. Meditation

2. How did the author incorporate each of these habits into their daily life during the challenge?

• Signature Strengths: Identified their core strengths and found ways to use them more in daily life.
• Savoring: Consciously savored at least one small, pleasant moment each day.
• Gratitude: Wrote down one thing they were grateful for each day after work.
• Kindness: Recorded one kind act they did each day.
• Social Connection: Made more efforts to interact with others, such as having more conversations and making plans.
• Exercise: Continued their regular walking and resistance training routine.
• Sleep: Focused on improving their sleep habits, such as sticking to a schedule and avoiding screens before bed.
• Meditation: Practiced a loving-kindness meditation, which they found particularly beneficial.

3. What additional habit did the author incorporate, and how did it benefit them? The author also incorporated regular time in nature, which they found reduced their stress and boosted their happiness, in line with recent research.