How to Enhance Happiness at Work?

The reason why a person feels that work is happy is because he associates many beautiful things with work; and the reason why a person feels that work is unhappy is because when he thinks about work, he is more stressed.

So, if we want to improve our happiness at work, we need to increase the beautiful parts related to work and reduce the stressful and painful parts related to work. This is a foundation, which can also be said to be an underlying logic.

Reduce Work-Related Stress and Pain

Cognitive stress reduction

First of all, we need to realize that stress is not necessarily a bad thing. Moderate stress will improve thinking efficiency, but excessive stress will lead to a decline in thinking and cognitive functions, inattention, short-sightedness, and hasty decisions.
Therefore, we should not reject stress cognitively but should control stress within a certain range. We must understand: that foreseeable, appropriate, and controllable stress can enhance our resilience and tolerance, and improve our psychological toughness; while unforeseen, extreme, and long-term stress can make us vulnerable. and sensitivity, which is not conducive to our development.
Research shows that only moderate levels of stress stimulate our intrinsic motivation the most. Therefore, when facing challenges at work, evaluate your own ability level. If the goal is too big, you can break the big goal into specific small goals so that these small goals can match your abilities so that you can “Stand on tiptoe to reach it”, then you will find that you will feel full of motivation to work because of these moderate pressures every day.
Secondly, we need to cognitively view challenges at work as opportunities for growth rather than threats. Our status will be completely different.
According to the scientific evidence of modern medicine, when we regard stressors as challenges rather than threats, the human body will secrete adrenaline, making us more energetic and more focused on solving problems; when we view stressors as threats, we think Stress destroys us and increases our cortisol levels, suppressing our immune system and making us more susceptible to disease.

Interpersonal stress reduction

Many times, when we feel stressed at work, it’s because we lack support and feel isolated.
The Hawthorne Effect tells us that when we are in a supportive group, we will have more strength and motivation to learn and work. Group members see each other, encourage each other, and help each other, empowering each other, and empowering everyone. All can move forward and grow energetically.

Body stress reduction

We can use mindfulness-based stress reduction to help ourselves relax at the physical level and relieve work stress. The specific operations are as follows:
First of all, you need to choose an object that you can pay attention to, which can be a sound, a word, a phrase, or your own breathing, body feeling, or movement feeling; after choosing the object of attention, adjust your posture and sit comfortably, close your eyes and perform a simple abdominal breathing relaxation exercise (no more than one minute); then, adjust your breathing and focus on the chosen object of attention.
During the training process, some other thoughts, feelings, or emotions appear in the mind, and our attention will shift. It doesn’t matter, we just need to return to the original attention at any time.
No matter what thoughts come to your mind, don’t worry. Simply return your attention to your breath without fear, regret, or judgment.
After training like this for 10 to 15 minutes, rest quietly for 1 to 2 minutes before engaging in other normal work activities.

Increase Good Feelings Related to Work

Improve your mood at work through “mastery” & “pleasure” activities

Research shows that we can turn action into a simple and powerful way to lift our mood and improve our physical and mental health. If you’re feeling down, drained, and lacking energy, two types of activities are particularly effective at boosting your mood:
Pleasurable Activities: These are things that bring pleasure or happiness. For example, talk to a good friend on the phone, go for a walk, enjoy the scenery, drink a cup of coffee, listen to music…
Mastery Activities: These are things that bring self-actualization, satisfaction, or a sense of control. For example, writing a letter, mopping the floor, washing dishes, finishing a course, meeting a client, completing something that has been put on hold for a long time…
Moreover, we also need to understand that there is a two-way relationship between mastery activities, pleasure activities, and low mood: on the one hand, these activities can improve your mood; on the other hand, when your mood becomes more and more depressed, you You may not get as much fun from it anymore, and you may easily think that these activities are of little use.
However, we need to understand that even if we are in a low state, we can take advantage of the connection between mastery and pleasurable activities and emotions, and carefully handle the two-way relationship between them, so that these activities can effectively improve our mood.
Like myself, I will make two lists for myself, a list of control activities and a list of pleasure activities. Every day, when I am tired from work, I will choose one of the small activities, for example, sometimes drinking a drink. Coffee, and sometimes doing a brief aerobics. When these activities are interspersed with work, it seems that it can replenish psychological energy for oneself in time, so that one can have more strength and confidence to complete various tasks at work.

Self-care at work

Self-care includes three levels: being kind to yourself, sharing humanity, and observing the present moment.
Here is a psychological exercise that you can use at work, called “Self-Care Coffee Break Moment.”
When you find yourself in a stressful situation and feel anxious, find a quiet corner and create a 5-minute coffee break for yourself.
First, try tracking how your body feels. People’s physical and mental reactions are often combined. Capturing emotions from physical sensations is more conducive to our awareness. Observe, where in my body is this uncomfortable emotion stuck? Where in my body do I feel it the most? Maybe it’s because my chest is clogged, maybe my stomach is aching, maybe my shoulders are particularly heavy, etc.
Then, slowly say to yourself: “Yes, I’m really upset. I know things are extremely difficult right now. But struggle is a part of life. I’m sure other people have similar experiences and feelings, and many of them do. I’m not the only one who feels pressured by work.
This paragraph contains the first two core components of self-care: self-kindness (accepting the true self), and common humanity (connecting with others and avoiding self-isolation).

Record three good things at work every day

Three Good Things is a method summarized by Professor Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, to help get rid of negative emotions such as depression and anxiety and improve the happiness index. Seligman’s team’s research found that respondents who consistently record three good things will continue to experience an increase in their happiness index. I have been recording three good things in a row for 5 years, and I have benefited a lot from it and improved my happiness.
You can carefully review the day’s work before leaving get off work every day, and record three good things that happened during the day’s work. These good things don’t have to be breakthroughs, they just need to be seemingly ordinary little things. For example, you can feel the friendship and kindness among your colleagues, feel the leader’s recognition of you, complete the tasks on time at work, make some small progress, learn a new skill, have a new experience at work, etc.