Pop the happy pill

Sudha Pillai

It is now proven that how you feel in the morning is determined by how you felt the previous night. Research says that you are bound to start your day as ‘Groucho Max’ if you forget to take the ‘happy-pill’ at bedtime.

A research supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has discovered that both happiness and sadness are infectious diseases. It states that a single instance of discontent doubles your chance of becoming unhappy, while one happy occasion increases your chances of being happy by only 11 per cent. In order to get rid of those blues you will have to experience five times more happy than sad. You have to work doubly hard at being happy than sad? Not at all, say experts.

“It is easy to control the good vibes in one’s life,” says Renuka Acharya, Counsellor and psychotherapist. “All you have to do is start your day with a good- morningvibe. To do that you need to have a good-night-vibe.” Confusing? Actually, it’s easier than it sounds.

Testy times
You have had a crazy day at work. The boss turned Satan and your clients morphed into devil’s little minions. At the end of the day if you want to annihilate the world, you’d be considered normal. However, if you’re going to take ‘those’ thoughts to bed, you are bound to wake up feeling blue and as if the whole world’s playing ping-pong in your head.

Rita Selvaraj, a marketing executive and a single woman who lives in the city says, “I find myself extremely unhappy some days.” The stress of meeting deadlines, acheiving targets and having to deal with difficult clients leaves her seething with anger, frustration, dejection and self-pity. “A fertile ground for harbouring the negative vibes,” says Renuka.

Rita’s difficult days are usually followed by rough nights. “My mind is constantly on a roller coaster ride, recapping the unhappy events of the day leading to a sleepless night. Because I’m unable to sleep I end up smoking, which doesn’t help me in any way other than bore holes in my lungs. The following morning, I'd be all crabby and by the time I reach office I’m usually in a foul mood,” she concludes.

Research says, we tend to build on negative thoughts, cloaking ourselves in layers of negativity. It is detrimental to growth–personally and professionally. The solution lies in changing the negative vibe into a positive one.

Walk a crappy day a away
Renuka advices people not to isolate themselves after a difficult and unhappy day. “Try meeting with friends, catching a movie or even going for a walk before heading home after a difficult day at work.”

She also gives other pointers to end a day happily: Change your environment. Even if your friends are not available for a drink or to offer a comforting shoulder, make sure you do something different. Go to a temple, church or whatever it is that works for you. It’s sometimes difficult to meditate when the mind is crowded, but you can calm the mind by indulging in other activities — go to a bookstore and browse, listen to music, jog or walk (any form of exercise). Indulge in creative activities like playing a game of monopoly or Sudoku, join a pottery or salsa class, sit in a coffee shop or even your balcony and watch the world go by. “The idea is to distract your mind from anything serious,” says Renuka.

“When I have had a bad day at work, I make sure that I meet my friends for a drink or dinner before heading home,” says Gaurav Rao, an ad copywriter. “Chatting with friends over beer and having few laughs help me relax and unwind after a difficult day.”

Open the memory box
In a recent interview, actress Gwyneth Paltrow says, “I always feel closest to my father, who was the love of my life until his death in 2002, when I'm in the kitchen. We’d cook together. Health food was never really on the menu, it was about fun and deliciousness and togetherness.”

“Recollecting happy moments propel you into the happy zone,” says Renuka. All of us have certain ‘pick-me-up-moments’ in our lives. For some it could be the times when they visited a particular gallery with their parents or eating at a particular restaurant, or watching a particular television show or doing an activity together; happy moments that created some wonderful memories. And those memories are coated with feelings of joy. Diving into the box-ofhappy-memories is a sure fire way to feel the happy-vibe.

If you want to wake up feeling good, ask yourself the previous night: ‘How am I feeling now? Happy or sad?” If it’s the latter, you have some work to do before switching off the lights.