“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”
-Dalai Lama
My name is Michael Klopp. I am a fifth-year accounting major originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. Once I started college, I had trouble keeping up with school work and I started to feel very stressed and anxious and that decreased my happiness level. I have tried various ways of dealing with those feelings and managing my busy schedule with work, school, and extra curriculars over my past few years of college, but nothing has been as successful as the methods I used this semester. I know from talking to friends and interacting with my classmates over the past four years that my struggles are struggles that almost all students have at one point or another. Creating this blog is my way of sharing the methods that I have used to decrease my levels of stress and anxiety and increase my levels of happiness and the book that helped me become successful in these endeavors.
Book: The How of Happiness, By Sonja Lyubomirsky
This book’s purpose is simple—to improve happiness. It explains what happiness is, why it is important, and provides you with activities to try to become happier. These activities are all empirically supported which is the best part. This research is a large part of a section of psychology called positive psychology and the study of happiness and positive psychology can benefit everyone.
Goals
“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
-Abraham Lincoln
Goal 1
I read this book to develop coping strategies to help me alleviate the effects of stress and anxiety in my everyday life.
- This
book discusses strategies for coping that can help me achieve my goal of decreasing
my everyday stress and anxiety. There
are two different types of coping discussed in the book: emotion-focused coping
and problem-focused coping.
- Emotion focused coping is using behavioral or cognitive strategies that help combat negative feelings (in my case stress and anxiety).
Problem focused coping is actively solving the problems causing your negative feelings.
Goal 2
I read this book to promote happiness in my life through mindfulness and gratefulness
- The book discusses expressing gratitude in life. This is something I struggle with. It is often easier to fixate on the bad rather than the good. This book discusses studies that have been done that prove expressing gratitude increases your overall happiness and improves quality of sleep, self-esteem, coping abilities, and reducing negative emotions.
Plan of Action
“Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.”
-Dennis Waitley
Goal 1
Emotion-Focused Coping and Fitness
- I decided to incorporate fitness into my weekly routine to burn of some steam and take a break from school work and other activities causing me stress. Working out also increases endorphins in my body and ultimately helps me combat negative feelings. This goal was fairly easy to incorporate into my schedule. I initially faced motivation related problems because starting a new habit is hard, especially when you are busy. However, once I got into a schedule of going to the gym three times a week for a few weeks, I started to want to go to the gym more. I noticed an increase in my mood and I slept better at night because I was more worn out. This prevented the worrying that I often experience at night before bed a lot of the time.
Problem-Focused Coping and Study Plans
- I decided to write out detailed study plans for some exams throughout the semester starting a week in advance. This strategy held me accountable, kept me organized, and broke my studying down into manageable chunks of material. All of this reduced my stress and exam anxiety because it prevented procrastination, cramming, and feelings of being overwhelmed. I only ran into problems once during midterms when I had three exams in one week and it was hard to figure out how to organize my studying. For the most part, it is very beneficial to organize my study habits in this way and improved my mood substantially!
Goal 2
Expressing Gratitude and Gratitude Journal
- I decided to keep a gratitude journal. Originally, I thought I would want to do this every day. After a week of doing that I realized that I was looking at it as more of a burden then something helpful. Therefore, I changed my game plan and decided to write down three things I was grateful for from the previous week every Sunday. The action of doing this allowed me to reflect on the positive parts of the prior week and self-reflect as well.
Tracking Methods
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
-Aristotle
Daylio
Daylio: Daylio is a mood tracker and mini-diary that also uses statistics to track and help improve mental health.
This screen shows a mood chart so you can see long term trends in your mood. My mood trends improved as time went on.
This screen shows how many moods you have reported each month and how many of each type of mood you have reported. Again, I experienced an increase in mood as time went on.
OneNote:
OneNote: A notetaking program.
Below are pictures of study guides in OneNote starting a week in advance of each of my three tax accounting exams to organize my study habits and keep me on track.
Google Keep:
Google Keep: Google Keep is a note-taking app .
Below are pictures of my gratitude journal that I kept on my phone. Initially I tried to record every day and found it difficult to keep up. I switched to recording three things I was grateful for every Sunday night which was very beneficial for me.
Major Takeaways
“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come without leaving happier.”
-Mother Teresa
Emotion-Focused Coping and Fitness
- This coping method taught me that implementing positive activities into your life can improve overall mood. This concept makes sense, but it is something that I have never thought about before. Fitness boosted my mood because of my increased endorphin levels and because it is a healthy activity to give my brain a break from school and mental stress and focused on something different. I also felt better about myself after working out which made me happier. Getting physically active a few times a week is something that I plan to continue throughout my life now that I have experienced the wonderful effects it has on my overall physical and mental health and it is a practical way for you to stay healthy and destress as well.
Problem-Focused Coping and Fitness
- This coping method allowed me to get myself more organized. I have never been much of a planner, but I have now experienced the benefits of thinking ahead regularly. My study methods often consisted of cramming for exams. Now that I have spent a semester prepping in advance for my Tax Accounting class. I know how much better I feel because of it. My test anxiety has decreased some because I started practicing problem-focused coping and I intend to continue to do so throughout life and face my problems with a plan. I recommend keeping a planner and staying organized through apps like OneNote.
Expressing Gratitude and Gratitude Journal
- Expressing gratitude was the simplest goal I achieved during this project. By spending five minutes reflecting positively on the week prior I felt more calm and happier about the week ahead and I also slept better. In times of stress during the week I was able to think back to my Sunday night list and relax a little. Ultimately, I found myself finding little things to be grateful for everyday which really made me a happier and less anxious person. This is something I seriously recommend that everyone does. It is so easy to do and makes the biggest difference. You can have a daily, weekly, or monthly gratitude journal. No matter how often you practice gratitude, if you keep it up it will become a part of your daily life.
I have learned so much through reading this book, achieving my goals, and writing this blog. Thank you so much for reading my blog and going on my happiness journey with me. I hope you learned something beneficial to incorporate into your own life! The world would benefit from more happy people walking around.
Life is full of choices and choosing to be happy is one of them! Will you make the right choice?