Anna from Happy Head Yoga and Coaching (one of our keen supporters and Yoga instructors) is keen to spread awareness of the four rituals of happiness she follows to look after her own mental wellbeing, while also raising money for MFT, so she had the idea to start this #MindYourMentalHealth challenge.
The four rituals of happiness
UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Neuroscience Researcher Alex Korb PhD has studied the brain for over 15 years and dedicated his career to exploring how the tendencies of your brain can ruin or enrich your life. He reveals the simple four rituals that he has found can really help make us happy:
- Ask yourself “what am I grateful for?” Don’t have an answer? It’s ok, searching also helps.
- Label your negative emotions. If you describe them with words, your brain won’t be so bothered by the emotion.
- Make decisions. Go for “good enough” instead of “best decision ever made on Earth”.
- Give hugs, hugs, and more hugs. Not just texting, but touching. If you don’t have anyone around, give yourself a hug! (Please remember to only hug people from your household while lockdown restrictions apply).
You can find out more about why these four rituals work by reading this Rituals for Happiness article.
How can you take part in the #MindYourMentalHealth challenge?
If you like the idea of trying these rituals and sharing this recipe for happiness around, this is what you need to do is:
- Share the four rituals on social media (copy and paste them from above) – it might be useful to share the link to the article too.
- Use the hashtag #MindYourMentalHealth in your post (whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) so we can track how well the challenge is doing. Don’t forget to tag us too @MaryFrancesTrust
- Donate £4 to MFT (or any other amount of your choice). Visit our Donation page.
- Nominate four people that you’d like to challenge to try the four rituals and ask them to do the same (try the rituals, donate £4 to MFT and nominate another four people). Don’t forget to include the link to our Donation page: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/donation-web/charity?charityId=1012667&stop_mobi=yes
We hope you will enjoy this challenge and thank you for helping us spread happiness and wellbeing around!
