Have you ever wondered why some people seem to be naturally happy, while others struggle to find joy in their lives?
It turns out that there’s a scientific explanation for this phenomenon, the happiness set point.
What is a happiness set point?
It’s unique to each person. A happiness set point is a term used by psychologists to describe the idea that each person has a default level of happiness that they tend to return to, even after experiencing major life events such as getting married or losing a job.
While our happiness levels may fluctuate somewhat in response to external circumstances, our happiness set point is thought to be relatively stable over time. Hence our happiness level is largely dictated by our happiness setpoint.
Why do some people have higher happiness set points than others?
Research suggests that our happiness set point is largely determined by genetics, with some estimates suggesting that up to 50% of our happiness level may be attributed to our genes. In addition to genetics, our early childhood experiences and life circumstances can also play a role in shaping our happiness set point.
Can my happiness set point be changed?
It sounds discouraging that the happiness set point pretty much determined how happy we are most of the time.
It’s important to note that our happiness set point is not entirely fixed. Research suggests that it is possible to change it. In fact, studies have shown that there are intentional practices that can increase your overall happiness level.
How can I change my happiness set point?
We have found 4 ways to permanently change the happiness setpoint.
It is easy to understand that the conditioning from early childhood experiences and life circumstances can be rewired by releasing repressed emotions and changing thinking patterns.
Wait, how do we change the major effects from our genes?
According to epigenetics, your thoughts and beliefs can drive your biology, putting you in charge. You can affect and shape your own genetic readout by altering your thoughts. Your body literally changes each and every minute of every day in reaction to the thoughts that go through it. When you choose to feed your genes empowering thoughts and emotions, your genes will produce more positive results towards happiness.
What are the four ways to change the happiness setpoint?
The four ways are laid out in the diagram below.
Before we dive into each way, let’s discuss the benefits of improving your happiness setpoint besides being happier. When you are in a happy state, it opens more doors to what you really want. Simply put, you attract more things to be happy about.
CONNECTION
This is the practice of connecting to your body by dropping your awareness into your body. At its core, this practice involves bringing your attention fully to the present moment and into the 2nd chakra (2 inches below the navel).
By doing so, you can begin to tap into a deeper sense of joy and inner peace. Because 95% of serotonin (happy hormone) is produced in the gut, dropping awareness there connects you to innate joy. Sometimes you experience this after taking a long walk that really clears your mind. All of sudden, you experience happiness for no reason.
RESILIENCE
Trauma can often lead to the repression of emotions, as you may avoid feeling the strong emotions you experienced during a traumatic event. Or you may not even be aware of the trauma that you’re carrying. Repressing emotions can have negative consequences, leading to chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and physical health problems. By releasing repressed emotions related to trauma, individuals become resilience and bounce back more quickly from emotional dips.
Some people find journaling or practicing mindfulness helpful with some relief in repressed emotions. However, spending countless hours even years dwelling on your trauma can be quite counter productive, manifesting negative results and making you feel stuck.
To release repressed emotions, we find Quantum energy healing is the quickest way to unblock your hidden trauma and emotional barriers and increase your happiness set point.
ALIGNMENT
We all have patterns or habits that we tend to fall back on when we encounter similar situations. They can be limiting, keeping us stuck in the same patterns of behavior and preventing us from experiencing growth and change. Do you feel like you have the same argument with your partner over and over?
Breaking free from old patterns brings you closer to the true version of yourself, in order for you become aligned with who you are meant to be. Alignment leads to growth, which in turn leads to happiness.
One of the keys to breaking free from old patterns is to become aware of them in the moment of engagement. This means paying close attention to your thoughts, feelings, and actions as they are happening, and being open to the possibility of doing something different. When we become aware of our patterns in the moment of engagement, we are able to break out of them and respond in new and creative ways. Try talking to a family member differently and see how they react, maybe they will no longer bug you.
Because we all have blind spots so breaking old patterns can be challenging all by yourself, but it is an important part of personal growth and development. We derive a lot of happiness from growth, when we release we react to situations very differently.
FLOW
The idea of living the emotions of your dream life sounds wonderful. Dreaming of how you’ll feel when you get that amazing house you want or the joy when you land the perfect job or the sense of ease as you head on that epic vacation. But it can be hard to visualize this when you haven’t cleared out the past trauma.
Trauma can create emotional blocks that prevent us from opening up to new possibilities of living our dream lives. These emotional blocks can also manifest as negative thought patterns and limiting beliefs, further perpetuating the cycle of emotional and mental distress, rather than creating what you really want.
Visualize yourself living your dream life and allow yourself to feel the emotions that come with it, such as joy, fulfillment, and ease.
In order to sustain being in the flow of your dream life, you need to generate 7 empowering thoughts to 1 negative thought. When you are constantly in your dream life emotional states, your outer circumstances will change to match your dream life. With practice and dedication, you can increase your happiness set point!
Most people find it hard to maintain the ratio of 7 empowering thoughts to 1 negative thought. It requires you deeply connect to not only your innate joy where happy thoughts naturally spring from, but also your true power within without your struggling to make it happen.
Feeling happy opens the floodgate to manifestation of the life you want.
To permanently increase your happiness set point is the way to go to become happier. While the happiness setpoint may be partially determined by genetics and early life experiences, it is possible to change it. To learn more about ways to improve your happiness setpoint to live your best life, join the on demand Abundantly Happy Breakthrough Challenge. You get to watch it at your own pace.