Harvard-trained researcher and Before Happiness author Shawn Achor says that sending one simple email a day, for 21 days, will immediately increase your happiness -- and may even extend your life.
"Write a two-minute email, or tweet, or Facebook message, or text message praising or thanking one person you know," Achor says. "It's so simple. Two minutes. It's usually two or three sentences, and you do a different person for 21 days."
In experiments with such an approach, which Achor details in Before Happiness, test senders immediately felt happier. More importantly, after 21 days, the senders felt an incredibly deep social support. "And social support, as I was mentioning, is as predictive of how long we'll live as obesity, high blood pressure, and smoking," he shares on his upcoming "Super Soul Sunday" appearance.
"We fight so hard against the negative and we forget to tell people how powerful a two-minute positive e-mail could be," Achor says.
Giving a compliment the old fashioned way works, too. "Phone calls are even better," Achor says. "Even better is face to face, that eye contact."
"Super Soul Sunday" airs Sundays at 11 a.m. ET on OWN.
Related
Before You Go
