We think it's more money, material possessions, my students think it's, you know, perfect grades.

The sad thing is that the research shows that a lot of those intuitions are just dead wrong.

As a professor, I started to see on campus the mental health crisis that we hear so much about in the news, but I was really seeing it in the trenches.

Students who were too depressed to function, or having panic attacks because they were waiting for their grades, or worried about their internships.

I just realized that students needed some help to navigate the kind of mental health challenges that they were facing, and I thought the science of psychology really could provide them with some help.

I've heard from mothers who've given this class to teens who are really struggling, who are feeling suicidal, and they feel like the tips that they've learned together as a family has really kind of improved things and really helped people.

People who are in really pretty serious mental health crisis.

One of my favorite responses that we've received was from an elderly learner who wrote and said, you know, I'm in my 80s, this is the first online class I've taken, even in my 80s, you know, these tips have been helping me, reminding me to spend more time with my grandkids and to spend more time being social.

One of the most common critiques I get when I tell people I teach a class on the science of happiness is, wait, really?

That's a science?

I mean, when we think of happiness, we often think of something that's kind of ephemeral, or even hokey, or kind of, you know, granola, hippy-dippy stuff.

But what separates the platitudes from the scientific version of seeking happiness is the science part.

Research shows the kinds of things we really can be doing.

By that we just mean, make a social connection.

Like talk to someone who's in line with you at the coffee shop, or someone who's near you on your commute.

Many of us feel lonely all the time, which is surprising because we're often around other people.

We just don't try to make a connection with them.

There's tons of scientific evidence that meditation has a host of positive effects.

Meditation can help you improve your concentration, not just when you're meditating, but even afterwards.

But more importantly, meditation can improve your mood.

It's a technique that can help us stop mind-wandering, this act of thinking about all these other We think having more choices makes us happier.

This is another spot where our mind is wrong.

We'd be better off restricting our choices, and even limiting our freedom.

It will improve our well-being much more than we expect.

Every time we stick in an external reward into an activity we otherwise enjoy, it makes us enjoy that activity less.

It makes us less likely we'll do that activity in the absence of a reward.

And it kind of steals our joy.

We forget that the quick five minutes it's going to take to reconnect with someone we care about is going to boost our mood incredibly.

It's going to reduce our loneliness and just make us feel more connected to the people we really care about.

Research shows that jotting down three to five things that you're grateful for just every night can statistically improve your well-being in as short as two weeks.

So if you want to feel better mentally, and to feel better physically, you need to get some shut-eye.

The recommended amount is seven to eight hours a night, and it's best if you do it with a little bit of sleep hygiene.

Get rid of the phones before you go to bed, and really try to go to sleep at the same hour every night.

It feels a little bit old-fashioned, but it's the kind of thing that can start boosting your mood immediately.