I've been feeling particularly blah today. Maybe it's the weather. Maybe it was the dreams I had last night. Maybe it could be a lot of things. I just know that today I need to take it easy. What's more easy than boosting my happiness while sitting on the computer??
The ad was for a website called Happify. I looked it up on Google and found an article about it in the New Yorker. Read the full article here. In a nutshell, Happify is kind of like the popular game website Lumosity, but for happiness! On Happify, you play games to help you increase your sense of well being. I thought it seemed worth checking out, so I clicked on the link.
First off, you sign up and answer some questions about your current happiness level. Is there something significant causing you stress right now? How often do you interact with people? Stuff like that. Then, once you answer all the questions, Happify suggests a track for you. Tracks are a series of exercises and games that focus on a particular facet of well being. The track I chose was "Stop comparing yourself to others and see the good in life." The neat thing about all these games and exercises is that you can read a little blurb about the science behind each of these exercises if you are a nerd like me :) The first exercise I did was about gratitude. I had to imagine three things that I had recently bought that I had lost appreciation for. Then, I had to imagine someone taking those things away and write about how I felt and see if I could bring back some of that appreciation. The second exercise I did was a game. Hot air balloons with words on them were floating on the screen. The object of the game was to click on positive words and ignore the negative ones. You gain points for positive words and lose points for negative words. This is a mindfulness exercise which encourages you to reframe how you see the world. If you actively look for positives and don't focus on the negatives, the world will seem like a much better place, right? The last game I played was very Angry Birds-esque. The game gave you a choice of choosing from a list of things bothering you, or you could write in your own. Once you had 3-5 bothers, the game began. Each worry was represented by a purple blob holding a sign with that worry on it. Your job was to use a slingshot of positive things to knock down the support systems holding the blobs up. As you knocked down more blobs, the lighter and sunnier the screen got. Oh, and did I mention that you can earn badges and stuff by doing these activities?
Unfortunately, the website allows you to only do a couple of exercises a day. The point is to get you to do a little every day instead of in one large chunk. Of course, you can buy a subscription and get full access to the site, but since it is still a relatively new thing, I think I will stick with what I get for free for now. The website also has links to funny youtube videos and articles to inspire you.
If any of you guys are curious, feel free to check it out! Let me know what you think or what your username is so we can be friends :)
And in case you were wondering what a mouse sounds like when it snores, here is a video :)
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