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7 Tips to Find the Silver Lining Within Yourself

The idiom “every cloud has a silver lining” is a beautiful image, representing an attitude of finding the positive in any situation, no matter how challenging it might be. It’s more than just believing that good things are to come, it’s an understanding that every negative might be reframed as a positive, depending on how you see it.The more scientifically minded will be happy to know that this is more than just word play—it’s the subject of some interesting recent research out of NYU. Dubbed “silver lining theory,” the concept holds that some 90% of people believe that their negative traits are actually strengths in disguise - and it’s that very belief that makes them work harder at developing that positive attribute.Read on see the silver lining within yourself, every day - no matter who you are.Shy = ReflectiveDo you prefer the company of a few close friends over a pumping party? Wait for someone else to speak before raising your hand? It could be that you’re shy—but that means you’re also reflective.Sliver lining: You take your time before rushing in with an answer, and like to think things over alone or with the people closest to you. This calm, contemplative quality can be further cultivated by writing, or by taking up a meditation practice.Disorganized = CreativeYour clothes are more at home on your bedroom floor rather than they are in the wardrobe, your bills live in piles on the counter and your inbox is overflowing - sound familiar? Sure, you could be a bit disorganized, but you’re also highly creative, and naturally see the beauty in the chaos of life around you.Silver lining: You know how to lose yourself in a creative flow - whether it’s visual art, writing, or decorating your apartment, and this flair rubs off on the people around you.Impulsive = SpontaneousQuick decisions are second nature to you, and plans tend not to sit quite so well. You buy presents on a whim, call old friends when they pop into your mind, and send emails without much of a second thought. Sure, many would call you impulsive - but they probably also love how spontaneous you can be.Silver lining: Saturday night and nothing planned—no worries! You’re always quick to come up with ideas for last-minute fun, and can rush to help a friend on a moment’s notice if needed. Embrace this flowy side of your personality; you’ll probably find that your loved ones really value it, too. Intimidating = AssertiveEver been called the “life of the party”? Chances are, people also find you intimidating from time to time, but that’s okay. Your strong, confident energy points to your assertive nature—and that’s something you can put to use in both your personal and your professional life.Silver lining: Along with standing up for yourself, you can use your strong, clear voice to speak up on issues close to your heart. Connect with other assertive personalities with these TED talks that spark social change.Irresponsible = AdventurousDo you often misplace your things? Forget to return phone calls? Maybe even miss a deadline here and there? You might be aware that you’re a touch on the irresponsible side - but it’s likely just because your head has already moved on to your next adventure.Silver lining: Being tied down isn’t really your thing as you’d rather be out exploring - in your hometown or around the world. Infuse a sense of adventure into everything you do—it’ll fuel your passion and bring out the silver lining of this personality trait.Stubborn = PersistentIf you know you’re right, you’ll never back down - and why should you? You’ve got a point to prove! This quality might aptly be labelled stubbornness, but it can also be seen as persistence if applied to something worthwhile.Silver lining: If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly—right? You can use your strong, dedicated force of will to tackle difficult projects head on and keep going until your goal is achieved. Looking for something to sink your teeth into?Inflexible = OrganizedEverything has its place - and if something changes it can throw your entire day out of whack. This tendency towards inflexibility might make dealing with the inevitable changes of day-to-day life a challenge - but the flip side is that you are supremely organized.Silver lining: Your organizational skills can have many positive applications - from keeping your own life in order and getting the most out of every minute to running a business which has a positive impact on the world at large.Don’t see your personality on this list? You can try the silver lining exercise yourself - you probably already know which of your character traits have a flip-side that you can use to do good. Be kind to yourself in your analysis, and tell us about it in the comments below.

Self-Care

11 Steps to a Braver You

Think about The Wizard of Oz and its Cowardly Lion, who wishes for one thing: courage. He presents himself as fearful, timid and insecure. It’s only at the end of the story, when the Wizard of Oz places a medal around the Cowardly Lion’s neck, signifying the gift of courage, that he realizes he’d been courageous all along.And just as the Cowardly Lion learned, courage isn’t something we can receive in the form of a medal or find in a book, and it’s not something we’re born with. Rather, courage, in its truest form, is something we nurture and grow within ourselves.Here’s the good news: Courage doesn't have to involve rescuing someone from a burning building, grand sacrifices or awesome feats of physical derring-do. If you think about it, many of the things we do in our daily lives take courage. A certain amount of bravery is necessary just to get by in life.Cultivating courage can be easy, if we focus on putting in the time and energy to do it. Here are some of my favorite methods for developing courage on a daily basis:1.Know yourselfTake the time to examine who you are as a person so you can figure out your strengths and the areas where maybe you need to grow a little to be courageous. Then, start working on those areas where you could use some improvement or ask for help from others so they can pick up the slack.2.Take responsibility for your mistakesLook at how you live your life and where you have made errors. Own up to your mistakes, recognize them and try to learn from them. Apologize as needed.3.Forgive yourselfNo one is perfect. Strive for progress, not perfection. If you fall off the horse, be kind to yourself and get right back on.4.Stand up for yourselfDo not let others push you to think, act or feel in ways not right for you. Be brave in standing up for your wants and needs.5.Don’t give upRemember, you will always have hope as long as you keep trying. When times get tough and your courage is waning, rest, recharge and then keep going. Fight for what you want and need.6.Learn to say yesIf something sounds appealing but it is a little (or a lot!) scary, say yes and try it. At least put a toe in the water—you may discover something new about yourself.7.On the other hand, learn to say noIf something or someone makes you uncomfortable, rally your courage and say no to investing your time and energy.8.Let go of what you can’t fix or changeEven the most courageous of people can’t change what they can’t change. If you can’t change something, let go of it, accept it as it is and invest your skills in areas that you can change or improve.9.Don’t be afraid to be afraidMany of us think that we need to wait for the fear to go away, but sometimes it never goes away, so acknowledge your fear, allow it to exist and take the steps you need to anyway. Being afraid is both healthy and necessary.10.Focus on the positiveFocusing on the positive is important in every situation; however, it’s absolutely critical during challenging times. Look for the diamond in the rough, think about how great you will feel in the end and take time to smell the roses.11.Pat yourself on the backFacing your fears takes bravery. Much like the Cowardly Lion, we all deserve some sort of a “medal.” Pat yourself on the back, tell yourself “Job well-done” and allow yourself to enjoy recognition for your successes.Stacy Kaiser is a successful Southern California-based licensed psychotherapist, author, relationship expert and media personality, and a frequent contributor to Live Happy.To read more about courage, see the June 2015 issue of Live Happy magazine.

Self-Care

Habits Can Be Happiness-Forming

Happiness expert Gretchen Rubin had a lightbulb moment during a conversation with a friend that took her interest in habits and spiked it into the realm of near-obsession. Her friend wanted to exercise. She knew she’d feel more energetic and happier if she did, but she couldn’t get herself to do it. “The funny thing is,” said the friend, “when I was in high school, I never missed track practice, but I can’t get myself to go running now.” A "eureka" moment Gretchen was thunderstruck by this new perspective on behavior. “Why is that?” she thought. “Same habit, same person. At one time it was effortless, now it’s impossible. What’s the difference?” “That got me really focused on this idea of habits,” Gretchen says. From her research, she knew that people with steady, productive habits are happier and healthier. As she looked more deeply into habits, she had more questions than answers. Why do some people have an easier time forming habits than others? Why do some people like habits while others dread them? She began researching habits and testing her theories on willing friends and family members. Her findings led to her latest book, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives. She calls it a prequel to her best-selling The Happiness Project because it answers the question, “How do you start doing those things that lead to happiness?” The secret to positive habits To understand how people are able to change, Gretchen knew she must understand how habits are formed and how they stick. “Habits are the invisible architecture of daily life. We repeat about 40 percent of our habits daily, so they shape our existence and our future. When we change our habits, we change our lives. “I think people have a pretty good idea of the things that will make them happier, but they often can’t make them happen,” Gretchen says. She noticed that when people talk about something that makes them happy, they often focus on a healthy habit they finally managed to set in motion. Put your brain on autopilot “Most of the things people want to do, they want to do regularly,” Gretchen says. “Habits allow us to go on automatic. The crucial thing about habits is the lack of decision-making. You are not deciding whether to brush your teeth or put on your seat belt. You are just doing it automatically.” In this way, habits can free us from stress. “Making decisions is draining. Habits free you from using self-control or willpower,” Gretchen says. “Everything that is important to you—from getting enough sleep to exercising, working on a big project or even having more quality time with your family—once it’s a habit, you don’t have to decide.” Start small And while you’ll find lots of advice about how to set habits, from starting small to tackling a new habit first thing in the morning, Gretchen’s advice is different and goes deeper. To start a new habit, she says, “we have to first know ourselves. Once we know ourselves, we can manage ourselves better.” For example, if you are a night person you shouldn’t try to take on the habits of a morning person. Work with who you are, building on strengths and patterns that are already in place. What's your habit tendency? Habits are one way we follow through on things we know will make us happier, but the same strategies don’t work for everyone. “When we form a habit, we set expectations for ourselves,” Gretchen says. “How we respond to expectations—both internal (keep a resolution) and external (meet a work deadline) is a key question for habit change. To better explain how we fall into types when it comes to our relationships with habits, Gretchen developed a framework called The Four Tendencies. Upholders respond readily to both internal and external expectations. “I do what others expect of me—and what I expect from myself.” Questioners challenge all expectations. They meet an expectation only if they believe it’s reasonable (effectively making it an internal expectation). “I do what I think is best, according to my judgment. I won’t do something that doesn’t make sense.” Obligers respond readily to outside expectations but struggle to meet their own expectations. “I don’t like to let others down, but I often let myself down.” Rebels resist all expectations. “I want to do what I want, in my own way. If you tell me to do it, I’m less likely to do it.” Knowing thyself According to Gretchen’s research, if you identify your tendency, you will have a better idea of which one of her 21 identified habit-changing strategies will work for you. You can deploy multiple strategies at once or use a single strategy to master a habit. “For instance,” says Gretchen, “upholders do especially well with the strategy of scheduling, questioners with the strategy of clarity, obligers with the strategy of accountability and rebels with the strategy of identity. Base your style on personality and values “With habits, some people should start small and others should start big. One person should keep it private and another should go public,” Gretchen explains. “If you are going to have coffee with a friend once a week or read Scripture, it’s so much easier when there’s a habit to it. If something is really important to you, build a habit around it.” To help tailor your habits to your nature, ask yourself questions about how you spend your time, what you value most, and what habits you currently pursue. To do this, the book includes a helpful list with questions like: At what time of day do I feel energized? What’s most satisfying to me: saving time, or money, or effort? If I could magically change one habit in my life, what would it be? The more your habits reflect your values, the happier you will be. Start with a strong foundation Begin with habits that strengthen self-control, what Gretchen calls The Foundation Four. These habits serve as the foundation for forming other good habits: sleep, move, eat and drink right, unclutter. “Foundational habits protect us from getting so physically taxed or mentally frazzled that we can’t manage ourselves. If you are a person who doesn’t get enough sleep and then you start getting enough sleep, that’s generally going to boost your sense of self-command. Foundation habits can even make profound change possible,” Gretchen explains. “A friend once told me, ‘I cleaned out my fridge, and now I feel like I can switch careers.’ I knew exactly what she meant.” Foundation habits reinforce each other. For instance, exercise helps people sleep, and sleep helps people do everything better. Ask yourself what you really want “I think a lot of people are plagued by these vague notions of habits they should change, and that’s very draining and makes you feel out of control of yourself,” Gretchen says. “Ask yourself what you really want and make your life reflect that.” Gretchen’s No. 1 rule on her Habits Manifesto: What we do every day matters more than what we do once in a while. “Harness the power of habits to create a life that makes you freer and happier.”

Self-Care

Measuring Happiness at the United Nations

Experts on the study of happiness convened at the United Nations Thursday to discuss “The Paradox of Income and Happiness,” a look at how research is helping governments measure happiness—and how that is contributing to better outcomes of well-being in populations. Jeffrey Brez, chief, NGO Relations, Advocacy and Special Events, opened the session by explaining that happiness has become a topic of global interest.From Bhutan to Britain“In the past few years, we have seen so much more interest around the [International Day of Happiness],” Jeffrey said, referencing the March 20 event that was established by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012. “This attracts people from around the world.”Thursday’s briefing was designed to focus on how the science and research-based findings on happiness can be applied by governments, nongovernment organizations, schools and individuals to create a happier planet. Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Broadway conductor and director of Finding Neverland, served as moderator for the event and discussed her experiences working with the poor in India. It was there, she said, that she learned some truths about happiness—including that money has very little to do with true happiness.Money still can’t buy happinessAlejandro Adler, a member of the International Expert Well-being Group, echoed Mary-Mitchell’s discovery, pointing out that while the gross domestic product has become synonymous with progress, there are very marginal increases in happiness between countries, “which means increasing GDP does not make countries happier.”In reality, added Ami Dar, founder and executive director of the website Idealist.org, becoming happier requires really just one simple decision: to do the things that make us happy.“We seem to know what makes us happy, and we’re all experts at what makes us unhappy,” he said. “So the real question is, why don’t we do what we need to make us happy?”Learning to be happyHappiness learned early in life will last forever, and the opportunities to change young lives through positive education were illustrated by both Kaiping Peng, Ph.D., and Hector Escamilla, Ph.D. Presenting evidence on how positive education has been implemented in China and Mexico, respectively, they said it can help students find purpose and meaning—something that will positively change their future and shape their decisions.“It’s very popular in China,” Kaiping said. “We are changing the Chinese mindset about education, about happiness, about well-being.”A truly global perspectiveOn a global level, more countries are embracing the idea of happiness as part of public policy. Deborah Heisz, COO and co-founder of Live Happy, noted that while the scientific study of happiness is relatively new, it has already provided a convincing volume of evidence on its many benefits, from better health and relationships to greater career satisfaction.“While we still have much to learn about happiness and where it can take us, the one thing we know with certainty is that a personal commitment to happiness from each and every one of us will make a difference on a worldwide level.”

Self-Care

Friends With Benefits

Last weekend I had the unique experience of getting a face cramp. I’d laughed so hard and so long that I’d taxed my smile muscles to their breaking point. This giggle attack was induced by a weekend with my graduate school friends. We try to get together for a weekend away once a year. Being with friends is invigorating This weekend is so important to me that I make it a priority. Every year I come back home feeling reinvigorated. I have more inspiration for work (we’re all science journalists), more patience with my children and more energy and focus. This is without a doubt the most dedicated time I get to spend with friends, so, it’s not surprising that I get such a surge of well-being from it. In fact, having good friends is becoming widely accepted as an important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The Mayo Clinic names it an important component to healthy living in its lifestyle guide. It includes tips on how to make friends as an adult, which can be a challenging endeavor, and how to maintain the relationships we already have. Positive social relationships By taking time to reconnect with my grad school friends, I not only impact my sense of well-being but also build up physical benefits that may help keep me from catching colds, bolster my efforts at healthy lifestyle changes, and possibly increase my longevity. Scientists have long wondered about the biological mechanisms linking friendships and better living. Many studies point toward lowering stress levels. In these studies scientists measure the amount of the primary stress hormone cortisol in the blood stream. People with more friendship connections have lower levels of cortisol in their blood. This means they have lower stress levels, which is linked to better overall health. Friends for better health Even something as physiologically fundamental as our heart rates can be affected by our friends, as a Canadian study showed last fall. Jean-Phillipe Gouin and colleagues found that international students had more changes in their heart rhythms when they started college in a new country than those students who were able to make social connections within the first few months. Variation in the rhythm between heartbeats is a good thing. It shows that the heart is adaptable and cardiac health is good. A decrease in variability isn’t. The international students all showed a decrease when they first moved abroad. But after some months, that decrease subsided for students with more friends. Their social connections were, in essence, protecting their hearts. The chicken or the friendly egg? With all of these studies there is some question of causality. Is it possible that people who are healthier are likely to attract more friends just as our friends are likely to keep us healthier? Absolutely. But science is incrementally proving just how social interactions affect our well-being. It is a continuing reminder of how important it is to nurture our friendships so that they can continue to nurture us. Meredith Knight is a science journalist based in Austin, TX.

Sharing

Happy Acts Heroes

You are rushing to work. Your To-Do list is weighing on your mind, and you feel a little stressed. As you drive along, you glance up at a bright yellow billboard and read: Every 10 seconds, someone is awesome. It’s you. Then you smile.Spreading the joyMaking you smile is the goal of The Joy Team as they set out to boost the nation’s happiness level by posting positive messages on billboards as part of International Day of Happiness, March 20. Now that is one major Happy Act.The Joy Team started out by posting positive messages on billboards in the Pacific Northwest, and later branched out to other regions, including Phoenix, Arizona, where they put up three billboards for the Super Bowl. This is the first year the billboards will share positivity coast-to-coast. To date, 44 billboards will share happiness messages in the shape of a smile in 19 cities.One woman who has made a differenceBased in Vancouver, Washington, The Joy Team is a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 by Michele Larsen and her daughter Taryn. “My billboard goal for this year is to have a continuous presence of positive message billboards in at least three cities,” says Michele.One positive message can make a huge difference in someone’s day. The Joy Team has a list of more than 30 positive messages that can be shared on billboards across the United States. Some of those messages include:One kind word can change the world.Best. Day. Ever. And it’s yours.You look fabulous. Wowzers.Life loves you. Just the way you are.Happiness is contagious, start an epidemic.Building community; spreading positivityWith a mission to build community by spreading joy, optimism and inspiration, The Joy Team’s initiatives grow every year. The team leads a national Chalk the Walks day on the third Tuesday in August, when they spread similar positive messages with bright chalk. They have also started the Junior Joy Team, a group of kids who share joy with those around them.In the four weeks a billboard is up, it will reach hundreds of thousands of people. With enough billboards, millions of people can be inspired, Michele says. “Ultimately, I’d love to have one up year round in every city in the United States because these billboards make a difference in the lives of people who see them. The billboards infuse people with a boost of inspiration and optimism.” For more information on Joy Team activities, visit Joyteam.org.What #HappyActs will you be doing for the International Day of Happiness?

Sharing

15 Happy Acts You Can Do Today

How many Happy Acts can you do today? Happy acts are small actions that make someone's day a little brighter. A hug. A kind word, or helping a neighbor.Use the hashtag #happyacts as you share your happy act on social media and they'll be added to our super-cool tagboard at HappyActs.org! Here are 15 ideas for making the world a happier place: 1. Smile and say hello to a stranger passing by. 2. Ask an elderly neighbor if you can mow their lawn or take out their trash. 3. Buy some dog or cat food and drop it off at your local animal shelter. 4. Exude enthusiasm. It’s contagious. 5. Hold a door open for a mom with a baby stroller. 6. Write someone a real letter, old-school style. 7. Call your grandparents. 8. Write a nice comment on your friend’s blog. 9. Get your spouse’s car washed. 10. Thank your parents. 11. Give a compliment--on social media or in person. 12. Bring a fruit platter to work in the morning. 13. Email a teacher or mentor who made a difference in your life. 14. Leave one negative thing unsaid. 15. Double what you are making for dinner and share with a friend.

relationships

Balancing a Full House

Candace Cameron Bure’s success as a parent is rooted in her own family upbringing. We watched her grow up playing young D.J. Tanner on the still-popular family sitcom Full House, and she emerged from that experience as a well-adjusted, happy young woman.Everything as a family“My parents never wanted us to get caught up in Hollywood,” Candace says. “It was always about doing everything as a family together. Even if I was working or if my brother [Kirk Cameron] had opportunities, we would go together.Then, when we would come home at the end of the day, it went right back to family, and it went back to normalcy—working hard in school, doing chores and helping out.”Balancing actCandace now divides her time between her family, faith and select TV or f lm roles, but she keeps the importance of her career in perspective. She even wrote a book about it, Balancing It All: My Story of Juggling Priorities and Purpose.That balanced priority system helps Candace continue to focus on her core family values. It also helped her navigate a long-distance relationship with pro hockey player Valeri Bure, whom she married in 1996 at age 20.Long-distance romance“Our relationship was actually very interesting, because when we first met we didn’t live in the same city,” Candace says. “After we initially met, we were courting one another on the phone for about five months before we ever saw each other again. When I was able to go visit, I was flying to see him once a month when I would have a week off. Then in the summertime when he was not playing hockey, he would come to LA, and we had time together.”Now, 17 years and three kids later, they are as committed as ever despite hectic schedules.Biggest priorities“I absolutely love being a mom and love my husband, and those two things are my biggest priorities in my life,” she says. “Yet I absolutely love working. I take a lot of time and effort figuring out what is worth the time away from my family. I’ve set boundaries as to the types of projects that I do—things that my family can be proud of.”She also makes a point to be mindful of breaking points. When the kids start to feel neglected or family harmony is disrupted, that means it’s time to stop, re-evaluate and shift priorities, she says. “You just continually regroup and put the priorities in place,” she says.“It’s like a big juggling act. Sometimes you’ve got to let a plate fall, but you can always pick them back up.”Candace's juggling actIn her book, Candace shares the fundamental values that she applies to her life as a wife, mother and actress. It offers powerful advice on how to find a happy medium in all aspects ofyour life.CHOICES: “Every so often we realize that our lives have gotten too crazy and something has to give. When that’s the case, it’s always work that takes the backseat for me. Missing out on a job would be a short-term regret, but reducing the priority of my kids for long periods of time would be a lifelong regret for me.”PRIORITIES: “I have found that when Val and I have our overarching priorities firmly set, we can easily make the right decision. There is a sense of relief that comes when I realize I said no because it wasn’t important enough in the first place, at least at that moment in time.”PARENTING: “I know my kids would agree with me that I’m a tough mom, because they’ve told me so. While I don’t think I’m the toughest out there (they never know how good they’ve got it!), hope I balance that toughness with plenty of love and affection. The rules and boundaries Val and I have put into place are there for our kids’ best interests. I see them as a sign of love, even though teenagers—and even some parents—might not view them that way at all.”Gerry Strauss is a journalist specializing in entertainment and pop-culture features. He has interviewed everyone from actress Mayim Bialik to pro wrestler Paul “Triple H” Levesque.

Workplace

What’s the Secret of the Happiest Employees?

There’s a revolution taking place at this very moment in our workplaces and it’s being led by employees just like you and me.Fed up with bosses who drain our energy, jobs that suck away our souls and the financial uncertainty that cheats us of our choices, a grass-roots campaign underway in a growing number of workplaces aims to restore people’s happiness. And new data suggest it’s about to hit a tipping point.I recently partnered with the VIA Institute to release The 2015 Strengths @ Work Survey. Here’s what we discovered:While in 2001 only 2 out of every 10 people said they had the opportunity to do what they do best each day at work, this number has increased by 30 percentage points to five out of every 10 people today.56% of employees can now name their top five strengths, compared to estimates a decade ago that reported only one-third of employees could do this.64% of employees now believe building on their strengths will make them more successful at work, compared to 63% in 2006 who believed they’d grow most in their areas of weaknesses.Even when they have neither organizational nor supervisor support for focusing on their strengths, 49% of employees are still able to name their strengths and 26% still find the opportunity to do what they do best each day. Why are they bothering? Because it makes them happier at work.Putting your strengths to workWe found that 70% of employees who report they have the opportunity to do what they do best each day—to use their strengths regularly—look forward to going to work. Not only that, but 78% of them feel engaged and energized in their jobs because they believe they’re making a difference and that their work is appreciated.Most importantly, 70% of these employees describe themselves as flourishing at work over the last six months. How are they achieving these results, even when their bosses are not supportive?Many are taking these three simple steps:1. Discover your strengths The best way to identify your strengths is taking the free, 10-minute strengths assessment at viacharacter.org. Then pay attention to your best moments at work – when you feel really engaged, energized and enjoying what you’re doing – to see which of your top strengths are in play so you know how to apply them in your role and in your organization.2. Meet your best possible future selfOnce you’ve discovered your strengths, boost your levels of optimism and self-belief by imagining what might be possible in the year ahead if everything went as well as possible and you were using your strengths each day. Journal whatever comes to mind for about 15-20 minutes a day, for three days in a row. Try to detail what you’d spend your time doing, what your colleagues or clients might say and which strengths you’d be using.3. Create a small, daily strength-development habitPick a strength to develop that will bring you closer to the future you’ve described. Think about how you could use this strength for at least 10 minutes each day as you go about your job. For example, use your strength of curiosity to learn one new thing, your strength of gratitude to genuinely thank a client or a colleague or your strength of persistence to power through on a task you’ve been putting off. Or check out this free e-book with more than 70 strength-development habit ideas.Are you ready to join the revolution? It is possible to feel more engaged, energized and happy at work. As these employees have already demonstrated, you just have to be willing to start using your strengths and doing what you do best–even if it’s just for a small moment each day.

Well-Being

Did You Spring Forward Into Exhaustion?

By now we’ve all reset our clocks for the start of daylight saving time, but we wish we could hit snooze bars on our internal biological clocks. Besides costing an hour of sleep, the time change wreaks havoc with our circadian rhythms—even threatening our well-being, researchers warn.Resetting the inner clock“An hour seems like a minor change, but moving the clock ahead one hour can be very stressful or disruptive for some people, particularly for those who are already sleep deprived,” warnsDr. Jeffrey P. Barasch, medical director of The Valley Hospital Center for Sleep Medicine in Ridgewood, New Jersey.Our circadian rhythm, the biological clock located in a part of the brain behind the eyes, determines when we feel alert and when we are sleepy, he says. The clock needs time to adjust to synchronize our bodies with the daily light-dark cycle of the world.The lost hour: Where does it go?With daylight savings, a 7 a.m. wakeup becomes 6 a.m. Previously sunlit mornings are dark—at least for a while—slowing the clock adjustment and leaving us feeling tired for more than the one day on which the clocks change, Jeffrey says.Some German researchers believe ourbodies never adjust fully to daylight saving time.“When you change clocks to daylight saving time, you don't change anything related to sun time,”lead researcher Till Roenneberg of Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich said in a 2007 study of time-change disruption. “This is one of those human arrogances—that we can do whatever we want as long as we are disciplined. We forget that there is a biological clock that is as old as living organisms, a clock that cannot be fooled. The pure social change of time cannot fool the clock.”Be careful out thereOn average, we sleep 40 minutes less than our normal times on the Sunday nights following the springtime changes, theNational Sleep Foundation says. The consequences show the next day in terms of increased listlessness at work,according to a Penn State study; and even an increase in heart attacks and workplace injuries.“Pay close attention to light exposures since it will be brighter outside at bedtime now,” advises Lauren Hale, Ph.D., Stony Brook University School of Medicine professor and inaugural editor of Sleep Health journal. “This means you should be sure to shut your shades in addition to shutting off your screens at bedtime,” she said.Here are more tips to help us restore our well-being:Go to bed at your usual time after the time change.Get up at your usual time.Get sunlight soon after awakening.Avoid sunlight or bright light in the evening.Don’t nap within a few hours of your regular bedtime.Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol for several hours before bedtime.Jim Gold is a veteran journalist who splits his time between Seattle and San Francisco.

7 Tips to Find the Silver Lining Within Yourself

11 Steps to a Braver You

Habits Can Be Happiness-Forming

Measuring Happiness at the United Nations

15 Happy Acts You Can Do Today

Balancing a Full House

What’s the Secret of the Happiest Employees?

Did You Spring Forward Into Exhaustion?

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