Brain Rules for Aging Well: 10 Principles for Staying Vital, Happy, and Sharp

by John Medina

P: Positive emotion To be happy, you must regularly experience positive emotions. Generate a list of the things that bring you true pleasure, then marinate yourself in them, allowing the items on the list to become a regular part of your life. E: Engagement Consistently engage in activities so meaningful you actually stop checking your cell phone when you do them. Losing yourself in a hobby can be like that. So can good movies, books, sports—even a dance class. R: Relationships As long as the relationships are positive, insert the entirety of the chapter on friendship into this recommendation. M: Meaning Identify and pursue a purpose that gives your life meaning. For most people, that requires solidly connecting their actions to a purpose larger than themselves. Religious practice and charitable work are examples. A: Accomplishment Set specific goals for yourself, especially if that requires you to achieve mastery in something over which you currently have no mastery at all. This could be physical, like training for a marathon, or intellectual, like learning to speak French.