Running head: POSITIVE SEMESTER PROJECT 1

POSITIVE SEMESTER PROJECT

Tiffany Pexton

Salt Lake Community College

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This semester in my positive psychology class we were challenged to try five new

techniques to help improve our happiness. Each of the five techniques were to be done on three

different days so that we spent fifteen days throughout the semester trying to improve our

happiness. We took a happiness survey called the Oxford Scale of Happiness Questionnaire

Hills, & Argyle, (2002), which basically measures your current level of happiness. After

completing the five happiness techniques, we once again took the survey to see how or if our

score had changed. The five techniques I chose to do were to spend time in nature, take a break,

get rid of negative self-talk, use relaxation techniques, and exercise.

I chose to spend time in nature first. I am naturally an outdoors girl, I feel my most

relaxed and at peace when I am just surrounded by the sounds of the birds and bugs chirping

with a breeze running through the trees. Unfortunately, I live in Utah, and this semester was

during the winter so there wasnt much opportunity for being in the outdoors the way I enjoy

doing it. However, my husband and I took our daughters to Hawaii for 2 weeks during the month

of February, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out the nature technique.

The first day I went outside during the sunset. My hotel had a hammock right on the edge of the

water where waves crashed against the lava rocks. I sat there until it was completely dark. I had

every intention of just staying there for a few minutes but I found myself immersed in the

moment. To sit there and look out as far as I could see and only see waves was amazing. It makes

you realize just how small you really are. The next night I had my girls with me so they could

experience it as well, although I think they were more excited about the size of the waves than

anything.
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The next day I spent time in nature, we were taking a hike through the rain forest. I chose

this option because of a study done by Richardson, Cormack, Mcrobert, & Underhill (2016) to

increase happiness by exploring a wild new place. On this hike we were following a path. I told

my girls to try and be quite and just listen. They decided to rub their feet across the gravel if they

couldnt talk. Apparently, they need to be able to make noise opposed to hearing it. So, I let them

go a little further ahead with my husband while I walked slower and really experienced this

mysterious wilderness. I heard some noises that I have never heard before nor could I identify. In

all honesty I almost felt afraid. I couldnt hear any human noises yet knew they were only a

minute or two away. Once again I felt small. Yet it was exhilarating.

The third and final day I spent time in nature was inside of an old volcano. This was truly

incredible. There were even small openings that still had steam coming from them. It made my

mind wander to think about what life was like back then and how this giant island was formed by

this volcano I was standing inside of. That same day I took a trip to the edge of the island where

there were 400 ft. cliffs that fell into the ocean water. On top of this cliff I stood as close as I

dared to get and looked over the edge where the water was crashing down. There was gusts of

wind that made me feel like I could fall over at any minute. Once again I felt the appreciation of

how large and incredible this world truly is.

The second method I chose was to take a break. This meant to stop doing things in your

daily life that are routine or cause stress or unhappiness. Some examples given would be to take

a bath, read something non-school related, listen to music or watch TV. In all honesty, I found

these to be pretty easy to do because I already do them in my daily life. However, when I took

the time to do these things on purpose for this project, I realized how little I actually enjoy them.
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I think this is because I am always so wrapped up in work, school, parenting, and having a

relationship, that taking time for myself makes me feel guilty! Because I have so much going on

I feel as though I should be doing something else with my free time like more work.

The first day I took a bath. My usual reasons for taking a bath would be because I was

feeling sick or in pain. I used to love taking baths to really relax, but now it was almost as a

method of curing myself instead of preventing illness. Whats even worse is that to me a bath is

so time consuming that when I do attempt to take one I usually have a book for school to read.

But not this time. This time I had bubbles, I had bath salts, I had essential oils, and candles. I was

fully emerged in this taking a bath thing and it was marvelous.

The second day I took a break was a month later when I was feeling at my most stressed.

I decided to double indulge and watched a movie on my iPad while taking a bath. Once again it

was marvelous. Although, I found myself sitting in there a little too long so the water got cold

and the bath became unenjoyable. The third day I took a break, I did something I dont ever

allow myself to do, play a computer game. I am really good at computer games, and get addicted

in a way that makes me feel guilty. If I ever do play a game its while no one is home to see me.

Which writing about it now sounds ridiculous, I dont know why I feel such guilt doing

something I am good at and enjoy. Well on this day I announced to my family that I would be

doing homework and could not be disturbed. And that my homework was to play computer

games. It was awesome. I wish that could be my homework every night.

Getting rid of negative self-talk was the next technique I tried, and it was probably the

hardest. I am a very critical person and I always feel like I can do better. The suggestions for how

to go about this were to accept who I am and stop blaming myself for things I cant control. Not
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to take comments personal, increase optimism, and remind myself that I dont need to be perfect.

I knew that just saying these things to myself wouldnt work. So I chose three days in one week

to focus on this technique. I felt if I spaced it out too much than it would be harder to gauge the

difference I felt. All three of the days I failed at this. Although I did find myself excepting

situations for what they were, I still felt guilt. I still found myself up at night thinking of what I

could have done differently. The only positive thing I found was the negative talk. I stopped

talking bad about myself and about others. Which was surprisingly hard, I talk bad about other

people more than I realized. It wasnt gossip, or rude comments, but more how disappointed I

was in someones actions. I felt that when I didnt talk bad about them I stopped seeing them in

such a negative light. In myself I noticed my confidence grow a little. Instead of looking in the

mirror and thinking I looked fat, or needed to tan or something, I looked at the positive things

about my body and would say them to my husband. Where before Id tell him to look at how fat I

was in something, now I was telling him to notice how good my butt looked. I wish I could say I

kept this up after the week was over but I only realize now as I write this that I am back to who I

was before that week with the negative self-talk.

Relaxation techniques was the fourth one to try. This to me meant meditation and

centering my thoughts. For the first day I tried yoga. I know yoga may fit in with the exercise

technique, but I feel like yoga is one where your body and mind come together to be able to

relax. I havent done yoga in 5 years. Which was surprising to me when I realized that because I

used to love yoga and be really good at it. I wish I could say I still was good, but I found it very

challenging. I went to one of the group classes at my local gym for beginners. I felt like an idiot,

and was really uncomfortable so that wasnt the best idea. The second day I decided to just

simply meditate. Since I was new to meditating I decided to only try for 10 minutes. I tried in the
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morning after I dropped my daughter off at school but before I had to leave for my school. I

turned off all distractions and sat in a comfortable spot of my house where the sun shone in. I

also had a timer going so I wouldnt stress about being late. I tried my best to focus on my

breathing and let my thoughts come and go but I kept finding myself thinking about something I

had to do that day. The ten minutes felt like an hour. It was really hard. I feel like meditating is

something you have to work on for a long time before it comes easily to you.

The third day I attempted to meditate was the night before a midterm. I was lying in bed

alone in my house. I decided this time to try a guided meditation I found online where the person

speaks and tells you to breathe and then says affirmations. The one I chose was stress relief. This

was a failure, I fell asleep. I honestly dont remember making it past a good 3 minutes. However,

I woke up feeling refreshed and definitely got a good nights sleep. So I think overall the

nighttime meditation was a good thing, it just didnt give me the exact result I was looking for.

The fifth and final technique I tried was to exercise for at least 30 minutes. I chose this

one because it was something I already did routinely so I thought it could be an easy thing to do.

Typically I go to the gym but I felt for this project I needed to do something different than my

daily routine. So for the first day I was at the gym, instead of doing my normal easy routine, I

pushed myself. I mean I really pushed myself. I am not a runner, I cant even run a mile. So my

goal was to walk/run on the treadmill for 5 miles as fast as I could. I was exhausted but actually

did feel really good afterwards. I also slept really well and noticed that I didnt crave junk food

but instead wanted something to simply fuel my body.

The second day I used exercise I took my dog for a walk. Something about actually

walking outside felt much different than it does to work out at the gym. I almost felt like I was in
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a fog. I didnt enjoy it all together because I had allergies, it was cold, my ears hurt, and also my

lungs were burning. Mind you I was only walking, yet my breathing was much harder to control.

Once I was home, I felt much more relaxed. I definitely couldnt have gone outside to do

anything, but I do feel like being outside was more of a productive form of exercise for my

happiness that being in a gym was. I never actually completed the third day because I injured my

tailbone, wrist, and foot, making any sort of exercise difficult. I suppose I could count hiking in

Hawaii, or some of the other hikes and exercises I did, like the yoga, as a form of the exercise for

this project but none of them were purposely for this specific technique.

Of the five techniques I used I found spending time in nature to be the most beneficial

when it comes to increasing my happiness. According to Richardson, Cormack, Mcrobert, &

Underhill, Connection to nature may provide people with resilience to meet the challenges of

everyday life, while also facilitating exercise, social contact and a sense of purpose (2016).

Which makes total sense to me. Although hiking was a form of exercise, it didnt feel that way

because my interest was to be in nature and experience what was around me. I felt like I was on

an adventure going towards something. Being outside and experiencing the world the way that I

did gave me inspiration to do more in my life. My thoughts were able to travel freely, and I felt

refocused and centered the following day when I needed to accomplish something, like

homework (which I still had a lot of even though I was on vacation).

I also found the relaxing technique to be beneficial. Baths have been shown to improve

overall blood flow and enhance musculoskeletal movement due to collagen softening

(Ohshige, Ohwatashi, & Kiyama, 2015). Which relaxes the body and aids in healing sore

muscles. To me any type of activity that can enhance relaxation and soothe tired or sore muscles
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would help to improve happiness because you are in less pain than you were before and are able

to focus on what is ahead of you instead of your pain or stress. Its crazy to me that I felt guilty

when indulging in something that I enjoy, even if it isnt productive. My health, whether it be

mental, physical, or emotional, shouldnt be something Im ashamed of. I have found myself

taking more baths and playing more games. Even though I have a lot to do, I know it is important

for me to take time for myself. I told my husband this and he signed me up for a massage club

where I get two massages a month. I am really excited to see how different I feel.

The technique I found to be the least helpful was the meditation. I think this is a skill one

acquires over a long period of time of practice. It seems so simple to be able to just sit there and

do nothing but it truly isnt. In a way it was more frustrating than relaxing. I felt grumpier after

meditating than I did before. Yoga may be an easier route for me to take if meditation is

something I want to try in the future. Since yoga is shown to improve relaxation and calmness,

in the ability to concentrate, and in stamina and exhaustion (Prasad, Varrey, & Sisti, 2016), I

think it would help to increase my happiness overtime.

I have retaken the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, Hills, & Argyle, (2002), and my

score has improved by one point which makes me one notch higher on the happiness scale. I

would have actually assumed to be less happy due to it being finals and all the stress I am going

through compared to at the beginning of the semester. I dont know if I answered differently

because of what I learned this semester or due to me actually being happier. I cant say that using

the happiness techniques I tried helped me to become happier because they werent ongoing

activities. Some of them improved my happiness for a day or two but did not have a long term
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lasting effect. I have recently gotten married and feel happier overall so that may be a reason for

the increase in my happiness.

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References

Hills, P., & Argyle, M. (2002). Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. PsycTESTS Dataset.

doi:10.1037/t12353-000

Ohshige, T., Ohwatashi, A., & Kiyama, R. (2015). The varying effects of warm-water bathing

therapies: Partial bathing decreases exercise tolerance to levels similar to full-body

bathing. Journal of Physical Therapy Science, 27(11), 3373-3375.

doi:10.1589/jpts.27.3373

Prasad, L., Varrey, A., & Sisti, G. (2016). Medical students stress levels and sense of well

being after six weeks of yoga and meditation. Evidence-Based Complementary &

Alternative Medicine (Ecam), 1-7. doi:10.1155/2016/9251849

Richardson, M., Cormack, A., Mcrobert, L., & Underhill, R. (2016). 30 days wild: Development

and evaluation of a large-scale nature engagement campaign to improve well-being. Plos

One, 11(2), 3-12. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0149777

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Happiness Activity Tracker

Date Time of Day Activity Comments

2/15 Sunset Spend time in nature Watched sunset

2/18 Morning Spend time in nature Went for hike in jungle

2/22 Afternoon Spend time in nature Walked through volcano and over cliff

2/28 Afternoon Relaxation Techniques Yoga, it was really hard.

3/01 Night Take a Break Took a bath

3/02 Afternoon Exercise Did 5 miles on treadmill. Felt good but tired.

3/10 Morning Relaxation Techniques Meditation, felt distracted

3/13 Exercise Exercise Walked dog, it was cold

3/15 All day Get rid of negative self-talk

3/16 All day Get rid of negative self-talk

3/22 Night Relaxation Techniques Guided meditation, fell asleep

3/28 All day Get rid of negative self-talk Talked positive about myself

4/10 Night Take a Break Took a bath and watched a movie

4/11 Afternoon Take a Break Played computer game

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