06 Sep Ready for the roaring 20s? It’s time to re-learn how to have fun, says happiness professor
via the Guardian by Miranda Bryant
After a year-and-a-half of loss, sickness and stress caused by the pandemic, burnout is high and morale is low. But in some positive news, according to Laurie Santos, Yale’s “happiness professor”, the way to feel better need not depend on restrictive diets, gruelling fitness regimes or testing mental challenges, but in something far more attractive: fun.
The American psychology professor and Happiness Lab podcaster, who rose to international fame when her course “psychology and the good life” became the Ivy League university’s most popular course of all time, says that consciously injecting more fun into our lives – which she refers to as a “funtervention” – can not only improve mental health and help prevent burnout but also improve physical health.
“We weren’t necessarily prioritising fun before the pandemic,” says Santos. “But the pandemic really made that worse, in part because some of the things we really need for fun involve connection.”
Many of the activities adults turn to for fun involve going somewhere new or playing sport, which were difficult to do amid Covid restrictions.
Santos says that burnout has risen as a result of the pandemic and left everyone feeling “even worse”. And the more tired we become, the less likely we are to prioritise fun because we are too tired.
“The irony is, if we put more fun into our lives then we wind up becoming more productive,” says Santos, “because fun makes you feel alive by definition, gives you a little bit more energy. It allows you to take a real break.”
So what does she mean by fun?
… keep reading the full & original article HERE