 Asicked goers, as the stress in your life been weighing you down lately, are you desperately looking for ways to improve your lifestyle? You've come to the right place, here are five habits that can change you forever. Number one, learn a musical instrument and set aside time for your passions. Do you have a creative outlet? If you have a creative passion that you've been neglecting for a while, now's the time to bring it back. Many find their passion in playing a musical instrument. Have you considered learning the violin or the piano or the oboe? One 2016 study found that musicians have a greater working memory than those who don't play a musical instrument. Improving our memory is a great way to boost our intelligence, so it's not a bad idea to make a habit out of practicing that guitar. Setting time aside for your passions gives them the chance to flourish into a cultivated skill or hobby. Also, who doesn't want to spend their life doing something they love? Lessening your daily social media time. How often do you use social media? Every day? Hour? Ten minutes? If you overuse social media, it could have a negative effect on you. Do you use Facebook? TikTok? Instagram? A 2013 study from the University of Michigan, published in the journal PLOS One, found a correlation between Facebook use and dissatisfaction. For two weeks, researchers text-messaged subjects to see how individuals felt each moment and how satisfied they were with their lives. As the research published states, results indicate that Facebook use predicts negative shifts on both of these variables over time. The more people used Facebook at one time point, the worse they felt the next time we text-messaged them. The more they used Facebook over two weeks, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time. That habit of checking your social media notifications every half hour? It's best if you make it a habit to keep your phone away from you at the end of the day, when you're home, so you can get an evening break from a not-so-healthy habit. While limiting social media time can help you, finding ways to increase your happiness, joy, and well-being is just as important. Discover yourself by exploring Yale University's online course, The Science of Well-Being, which will teach you what actually makes us happy. And recommend tips and exercises for increasing happiness. One of the many takeaways we got was savoring our everyday experiences and appreciating them while they happen. It gave us a sense of humility, joy, and perspective. Make 2023 about building good habits and elevating yourself. The course is completely online, self-paced, and the best part yet? You can earn a certificate from Yale upon completion. Over 4 million people have registered, so make sure you check the description box below and check it out. 3. Implement the changes you want in yourself. Accepting who we are can be healthy, unless you're ignoring the negative habits that you can change. As much as we may think, we aren't always set in stone. We can change our opinions, beliefs, habits, and actions for the better. We just need to stay committed to forging those healthy habits that can change us for the better. So, it's best to let go of the belief that you can't change anything. There are some things where change is possible. Researchers suggest that seemingly permanent parts of your personality can indeed be changed in their 2017 review article published in the journal Psychological Bulletin. Researchers reviewed 207 studies that had tracked changes in measures of personality traits during interventions, including true experiments and pre-post change designs. They found therapy could cause a change in an individual's personality in as quick as four to eight weeks. As the review states, emotional stability was the primary trait domain showing changes as a result of therapy, followed by extraversion. So when you think all hope is lost, or if you've been discouraged with some of your behavior, know that positive change can happen. You simply need to start implementing some great habits and positive choices little by little every day to become the best version of yourself. 4. Spend more time with happy people. How would you describe your friends? Do they make you feel happy? What about your roommates or classmates? If you would describe them as happy, you're in for good things. A 2008 study from researchers and professors James H. Fowler and Nicholas A. Christakis found that if you simply live within a mile of another happy person, your happiness could increase by 25%. The researchers wanted to discover if happiness can spread from each individual, and whether niches of happiness form within social networks. According to the study, people who are surrounded by many happy people and those who are central in the network are more likely to become happy in the future. Longitudinal statistical models suggest that clusters of happiness results from the spread of happiness and not just a tendency for people to associate with similar individuals. A friend who lives within a mile, which is about 1.6 kilometers and who becomes happy, increases the probability that a person is happy by 25%. Although these effects weren't seen in co-workers, the authors also mentioned that similar results were seen with happy spouses and neighbors who are within a mile. So if you have a chance to choose who you'll socialize with next, make it a habit to spend a good amount of time with someone who's generally happy. And when you have a friend who could use some happiness, you can be their happy friend. 5. Journal your feelings. Do you journal? Keep a diary? It has long been believed that journaling can have a positive effect on one's mental health. Writing down your feelings each day is a great habit to adopt. According to University of Wisconsin-Madison, health psychologist Sheila Margaine, PhD. Therapeutic journaling has proven effective in the treatment of those experiencing post-traumatic stress and trauma survivors. The benefits also extend to those living with chronic health conditions such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, chronic pain, and even those who are chronically poor sleepers. She also explains that there is a growing body of evidence that demonstrates the beneficial effects of writing. Just 20 minutes at a time over four consecutive days was associated with a decrease in health problems such as enhancing the immune system functioning. This activity is a favorite among many people, making it a habit to journal each evening before bed or right before breakfast if you're a morning person. Enjoy the tranquility of writing down your feelings and memories of each day. In a way, you're recording a summary of each day of your life. Who wouldn't want to look back on one's emotions and life experiences through a flip of a few pages? You can even record how you started implementing these new healthy habits and realize that maybe your life has changed for the better because of them. So which habit will you add to your routine? Let us know in the comments section down below. A huge shout out to Coursera for sponsoring this video and offering a Yale University course to our viewers. We hope you enjoyed this video and if you did, don't forget to click the like button and share it with a friend. Subscribe to Psych2Go and hit the notification bell icon for more content like this and as always, thanks for watching.