Alexis Baker!

LIBA 101!
Dr. Cottrill!
December 2, 2014!

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My Happiness Project!

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During the course of my freshman year seminar class, I have been studying

happiness. What happiness is and how to achieve happiness. However, I took an even
further look into this broad topic and studied how expressing gratitude has an effect on
a persons overall happiness. Therefore, what is happiness? Happiness is counting our
blessings, living in the present, committing random acts of kindness, looking on the
bright side of things, and having a positive attitude. Although people can still be happy
without these characteristics, these are the most common trends in overall happiness.
But the big questions are how do you become happy, or how do you know your happy?
We can only control 40 percent of our happiness by our intentional activities or hobbies.
10 percent comes from our life circumstances and the last 50 percent comes from our
genetic set point (Lyubomirsky 6-7). Yet, how does expressing gratitude increase our
happiness in life? !
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Gretchen Rubin is famous for her My Happiness Project, and the significance it

had on the research of happiness. For a whole year Rubin spent time testing her
happiness and how she could increase her overall happiness. She focused on certain
habits, traits and techniques she could change to make herself happier. Therefore, I

performed my own version of the happiness project and implemented a change in my

life by expressing gratitude for two weeks, to help myself learn about happiness and to
realize the effects expressing gratitude has on ones overall happiness. !
!

In Gretchen Rubins book The Happiness Project she gives 8 ways gratitude

increases happiness. It promotes the enjoyment of life experiences, increases self worth
and self esteem, helps with stress, it encourages good moral behavior, helps build
social bonds and can strengthen relationships, it inhibits invidious comparisons, helps
diminish feelings of anger, bitterness or greed, and it can help with hedonic adaption
(Rubin 92-95). My thoughts regarding happiness and expressing gratitude are similar to
these experts. I believe that happiness is not something that is just a given to everyone.
It is a necessity that you go out of your way to achieve your own happiness. Therefore, I
believe that my happiness project is important because it proves with evidence that by
implementing change into our daily lives, happiness will find its way into your life, but
that it will not be present without any effort. !
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For my happiness project I wanted to study expressing gratitude and its effects

on someones happiness. I choose to study expressing gratitude because I feel that it is

one of the most important aspects to happiness, and it is one I lack and take for
granted.!
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To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for

granted, but to always seek out and value the kindness that will stand behind the action.
Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the
good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the
expression of gratitude - Albert Schweitzer. Gratitude is the expression of emotion

related to the appreciation of life. It is not focused on any wants or needs, but rather just
positive emotions and thankfulness of what is already given (Psychology Today 2002).
However, what are the effects of gratitude on an individual? People who are more
grateful for what they have tend to be happier, healthier and more fulfilled with life.
Showing gratitude helps people deal with stress and can have a valuable effect on heart
rate (Action for Happiness). Studies have found that people who actively keep up with a
gratitude journal are more prone to exercise regularly, feel better about themselves and
where their lives are at, are less stressed, and feel more prepared for upcoming
activities or events (UMass Dartmouth 2014)!
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Therefore, for two weeks I was focused on how I can change my happiness

based on changing the way I go about expressing my gratitude. For one week I tracked
my baseline happiness using track your happiness and mood panda. The next two
following weeks I continued to track my happiness but with a change in my daily
routines to try and see if being more grateful truly does have an impact on our overall
happiness. Track your happiness and mood panda are two online tools that help with
keeping a track of your happiness and the progress you are making. Track your
happiness is set up through your phone, where it will send you 3 text a day and then
you immediately respond answering a series of questions based on how you are feeling
at that exact moment. Mood panda is designed like a social media. You can post
statuses and rate how you are feeling with a number. Other anonymous people can give
you hugs and vice versa. Each of these tools have multiple graphs and charts where
you can actually see the rate and progress of your happiness. I found these resources

beneficial because it helped me visualize the difference between my baseline week and
the two weeks that I implemented my change.!
!

During the first week of my implemented change I wrote a letter of gratitude each

night to a different person because there are many people in my life that I am thankful
for, but do not get the opportunity to express how grateful I am for them. A letter of
gratitude consists of me expressing my thanks to the specific person I am writing to. A
letter of mine would typically consist of me telling the person why I am grateful for them,
include specific memories and events that I am thankful for, and explain the positive
effects they have had on my life. The following week I read my letters to the specific
person I wrote to via phone call. I wrote seven different letters to seven different people.
Those people included my mom, grandma, great grandma, my roommate, my best
friend, my sister, and my high school dance coach. I choose to write to these people,
because these are the people that have had the biggest impact on my life and who
make me the happiest person I can be. I felt that I do not tell these people enough how
thankful I truly am to have them be such a large part of my life, therefore I thought this
was a great opportunity to express my gratitude to them. During these two weeks I also
tried to watch myself about being so quick to complain and taking things for granted.
Because even though I know in the back of my head that I really do not have it bad and
that things could be much worse, it is still difficult to remember that in the heat of the
moment of frustration, sadness, and overwhelmingness.!
!

After reading each letter I reflected in my journal about how it changed my

current mood, how the person I was expressing the gratitude reacted and how it
affected my overall happiness of the day. I typically wrote and expressed these letters

sometime in the late evening because it would change whatever mood I was in from the
long stressful day into something worth while. After the two weeks of research, I had the
people that I am closest with answer a series of questions about me. The purpose of the
survey was to see if other people had noticed a change in my happiness over the past
two weeks or not. At the end of the two weeks I made a picture collage of all the things
in my life that give me a sense of
gratitude and pure happiness. This
collage shows all the things that I am
most grateful for in my life. There are
many pictures of my family and
friends because these are the two
most important aspects of my life
because they are my strongest
support system and I know that I can
count on them for anything. There are also a few pictures of my dance team because
dance is one thing in my life that makes me the happiest. I have always had a passion
for dance and that would not be possible without my amazing team members who push
me everyday to become the best dancer I can possibly be. I am also thankful to have a
place like Grand View that I can call my home. It is an honor to be apart of such a
successful institution and to have the opportunity to further my education. !
!

Prior to the two weeks with the implemented change I did a lot of time testing my

baseline happiness and doing research about what happiness truly is. In class we took
the satisfaction with life scale survey at random times. The survey was a scale where

you ranked your happiness and then combined the numbers into an overall happiness
average, where it determined if you were extremely satisfied, satisfied, slightly satisfied,
neutral, slightly dissatisfied, dissatisfied, or extremely dissatisfied (Diener 2006). At the
same time we also took the subjective happiness scale survey. This survey asks a
series of questions and then you have to rank yourself depending on the question from
a 1 to a 7. At the end you add up all the number and calculate the average score. Then
take the average and divide it by 4 to determine your happiness score (Lyubomirsky
33). !
!

We took these two surveys four different times, each were at random and the

survey questions remained the same each time. Based on these surveys it helped me
realize that happiness can vary from day to day. While taking these surveys it was in the
meantime of learning about happiness. For me each time I took one of these my score
seem to improve. However, the last survey my score decreased. This is why I do not
believe that these surveys can track your overall happiness because everyone has bad
days and is obviously not as happy as usual. However, just because someone is having
a bad day, it does not determine their overall happiness with life. !
!

I also used track your happiness and mood panda to study my baseline

happiness. I tracked for one week prior to the two weeks where I went about expressing
gratitude. I enjoyed this form of baseline tracking more because it actually gave graphs
and statistics, asked a series of different questions, had a ranking scale and let you put
in your specific thoughts, feelings, and explanations. This baseline tracking was
extremely crucial for the overall outcome of the happiness project because it allows me
to show the changes expressing gratitude had on my overall happiness. It can compare

how happy I was prior to my two week trial and determine if expressing gratitude has a
true impact on someones happiness. !
!

After all, I noticed that with implying expressing gratitude in my daily life, it

increased my overall happiness. One thing that I found interesting about my results was
my statistics regarding my happiness based on what I am doing. It showed that I was
my happiest when I am dancing, which is completely understandable because that is
my passion and it applies as my stress reliever. However, it says that I am the least
happiest when I am on my phone, meaning Twitter, Facebook, texting, Instagram,
snapchat, etc.. This is a complete surprise to me because like most teenagers I am
constantly on my phone. It is shocking that I was tracked to be happier doing my
homework than I was just relaxing and being on my phone. Another thing I found to be
quite odd, was that I seemed to be the happiest when I was interacting with strangers. I
honestly do not know how I got to these results, but I do believe it is a lot easier to act
happy around people you do not know, rather than those who are constantly around you
because those people know the difference if you having a bad day versus a good day.
One thing that I was not surprised about was how my weekday happiness during the
two week trial was all around the same average. I believe this stayed consistent
because I was doing the same thing every day to increase my happiness. I would write
a gratitude letter every night and that would get my mind off all the stress I had built up
from the day. !
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Studies show that managing a sense of gratitude can help maintain a more

positive emotion in day to day life. Expressing gratitude is one of the simpler aspects to
a greater well-being, life satisfaction, and sense of happiness in life. People who

express great levels of gratitude tend to have much stronger relationships. This means
that they appreciate their loved ones more. Researches say that people who are
happier, tend to sleep better, and are overall healthier people (Scott 2014).!!

To compare my baseline results to my final implemented change results, I took

the satisfaction with life and subjective happiness scale surveys after my two week trial
as well. The results from after the two weeks were much more pleasant than my
baseline results. Before my trial I scored an average of 23.75 on the satisfaction of life
survey, which comes out to be slightly satisfied and is also the nations average range
for this specific survey (Diener 2006). For the subjective happiness scale I scored an
average of 5.44. This average was based on four different occasions of taking the
survey. However, these results are actually not to bad for a baseline. The average score
for the subjunctive happiness scale is around 4.5 to 5.6 out of a total 7. Yet, college
students tend to score lower than the normal average, typically under 5 (Diener 2006).
My change in expressing gratitude resulted in an average score out of four to be a
26.25 for the satisfaction of life survey, which falls under the satisfied or the high score
range (Diener 2006). For the subjective happiness scale my average came out to be a
perfect 6, which is great considering 7 is the limit. Therefore, these two surveys
compare how much expressing gratitude impacted my overall happiness averages.!

Besides my results based on the statistics and graphs, I noticed a change in

myself along with my happiness. From expressing my gratitude, I felt that I did
something productive and it took the role as a stress reliever. Before implementing my
change, I struggled with procrastination and it often times got me upset and even more

stressed out. However, during the two week trial I noticed that I was much more
productive with my school work and I would get my stuff done right away, which gave
me much more time to do things that I enjoyed, such as hanging out with friends,
watching movies and going to school activities. I felt that I had an abundance of energy,
and I took that into account when it came to dance practice, school work, and having
fun with my friends. After writing and sharing my letter, I could honestly say I felt like a
new person. Before I didnt really pay attention to all the things I took for granted. I often
times caught myself complaining about something that was completely unnecessary to
be complaining about. But after my implemented change I began to realize the good in
everything, and tended to look at all things in a more positive aspect.!

One of my goals for the two weeks was to stop complaining about all the little

things and appreciate all the things I am granted around me because I know that people
have it much worse and that I have absolutely no reason to be ungrateful for anything.!
Therefore, I ignored all the negativity and looked at everything on a positive note. I did
not let all the stress of school and homework get to me, because I looked at the brighter
side of things and knew that it was just a temporary feeling and that it would soon pass
over. When I would actually express my letter to the person I wrote to, it made me feel
an extreme amount of happiness to know that I was making someone else feel the
happiness I was feeling. It was interesting to observe their reaction, because they had
no idea what I was calling for. It was a completely random act of kindness, which then
leads to the best reactions of the people receiving the act because they are caught off
guard. I could tell just by talking to them that all seven people I expressed my gratitude

to were happier after I read my letter. All the positive reactions increased my happiness
and made this project more impactful on my overall happiness for the present and the
future.!
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All in all, my beliefs about happiness have changed drastically. Before I thought

that happiness was a given aspect of life and that there would come a point in
someones life that they find their true happiness. I thought that there was nothing you
can do to actually increase your happiness level, besides doing what makes you happy,
such as hobbies, and spending time with family and friends. However, after this project
and my research about happiness, I have discovered that happiness is a privilege and
that not everyone is granted the marvelous emotion. In order to accept happiness, you
have to go out and seek it yourself, it cannot just be handed to you. You have to find
methods, techniques and certain activities to guide you to becoming the happiest
person you can be. This is why my happiness project was so influential on my own
happiness because it made me realize the true meaning and concepts of happiness. !
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I believe that all college students should invest time in researching happiness,

along with creating their own happiness project because college can really get the best
of people. Many college students are stressed out and often times can not see the good
side of things in life. Therefore, this project can help them realize all the great things and
teach them how to seek their happiness out of the negative times in life. However, this is
not only true for college students. !
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This project can be very beneficial for anyone in todays society. There are many

aspects to increase happiness besides expressing gratitude. Some other options of

implementing change in daily life to seek happiness may include exercising regularly,

eating healthy, nurturing social relationships, finding an activity that truly interests you,
savoring lives joys, meditation, and by practicing religion and spirituality. However, even
if you are to use the expressing gratitude method, there are many different techniques
that are available to go about expressing gratitude. !
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Overall, I really enjoyed doing this project and I felt that it was extremely

beneficial. I felt that the project turned out fairly well and the outcome was exactly how I
predicted. From the beginning I assumed that by implementing change, it would
increase my happiness level. However, I never really took into consideration how much
it would change my outlook towards happiness. I thought that my happiness would
increase during the two week trial but then would soon fade back to where I started. Yet,
this activity of expressing gratitude had such an impact on me that I am still
implementing my change on a day to day basis. Although I am not writing a letter every
night, I am now looking at everything on a more positive note and not taking anything for
granted. I make sure that I tell those who mean the most how thankful I am for them
instead of keeping it in until a project like this comes up. Even though this project turned
out well for me, I believe there is still some things I could have done differently to make
it better. I think that I could have done a better job at testing my baseline happiness. I
used the happiness tracker just like I did for my two week trial, but there was a couple
times that I did not reply or fill the questionnaire out. Therefore, my baseline data was
not as accurate as what it could have possibly been. However, I did remember to track
at least three times a day while during my trial. However, I am overall very pleased with
how my happiness project turned out for me and how much it benefited my happiness. !
!

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Works Cited!

Action for Happiness. "Let's Put the Things That Matter First." Action for Happiness.
PublicZone Production, 2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.!

Diener, Ed. "Understanding Scores on the Satisfaction with Life Scale." Ed Diener:
Joseph R. Smiley Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology. Senior Scientist for
the Gallup Organization. U of Illinois at Urbandale-Champaign.13, Feb. 2006. PDF. 17
Nov. 2014.!
Lyumomirsky, Sonja. The How of Happiness. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print.!

Psychology Today. "Gratitude." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a

Therapist. Sussex Publishers, 2002. Web. 01 Dec. 2014.!

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Rubin, Gretchen. The Happiness Project. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. Print.!
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Scott, Elizabeth. "Cultivating Gratitude - The Benefits of Gratitude for Stress Relief."
About. About.com, 17 June 2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.!

UMass Dartmouth. "The Importance of Gratitude." - UMass Dartmouth. University of

Massachusetts, 2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.!