My Ultimate Instant Happiness And Mindfulness Hack

Would you like to be happier? Do you want to know about the one hack that can help you become happy instantly? Luckily, I have developed an impressively effective technique that really and reliably leads to instant happiness and mindfulness. I call this hack: “I am what I’m Doing” It’s totally simple and helps me to focus on the present moment and enjoy it much more than I would otherwise do.

I Am What I’m Doing

It’s really a pretty simple trick: You just pick one thing you are currently doing (or want to start doing immediately), for example reading this post, and tell yourself: “I am a post reader!” That’s it! Do you already notice any effect? You might be amused, because that’s a weird form of identification. Yes, it is. That’s actually one reason why the technique works: It’s unusual and ludicrous – but hey it works!

Alternative Mindfulness Meditation

Telling yourself what you are currently doing in this way, for example: “I am a breather!” makes you more aware of what you are currently doing. You become more mindful. According to Wikipedia’s article on mindfulness that state of mind is attained by “bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis“. Telling yourself that you are what you are doing might be considered as a form of meditation that brings your attention to the present moment. In any case, it’s a really simple form of meditation that can be learned very quickly.

I love action and thinking too much to really enjoy classical meditation techniques. So what? I’m a I am what I’m doing meditator! Happiness is easy to attain. You don’t need anything except your own mind for being happy! Just think about what you are doing and identify yourself with your activity and you will be happier.

Smiling

Every time I apply my hack, I have to smile. Really, I have no other choice than to be amused and happy when I’m telling myself that I am what I’m doing. Happiness makes me smile and smiling makes me happy. Yes, it really works both ways! People whose facial expressions are constrained due to Botox injections don’t experience as intense happiness as normal people (see the Daily Telegraph article Smiling makes you happy research into botox shows).

If you want to increase the happiness boost, watch yourself in a mirror while smiling! I love science for finding out such amusing facts! Here’s a page about the study “Effects of self-generated facial expressions on mood” that summarizes the interesting findings.

Now, can’t you just smile and be as happy as with the “I am what I’m doing” technique? Well, by smiling you will become a bit happier instantly, but the effect is weaker than with my happiness hack. And my hack makes you smile automatically, so applying it is better in any case, as it is really easy to do.

How I Developed This Hack

Initially, my unconventional technique wasn’t intended to make myself happier. I was trying to find a new productivity hack. While I was trying to increase my writing output, I had the idea that identifying myself completely with the role as writer could help. So I started telling myself “I am a writer!”

Did that make me more productive? Sadly, I couldn’t notice any positive effect on my productivity, but it really had a remarkable effect on my happiness and mindfulness. Soon, I expanded the technique into other areas of my life, like “I am a shower taker!” The result was that I felt much better whenever I had the idea to apply my hack in the current situation. Thus, the “I am what I’m doing” technique was born.

Feeling Better

Thinking that you are what you are doing makes you feel more in tune with what you are doing. You are building up a positive self-image. My mistake was to assume that feeling more like a writer makes me write more and better. Well, that didn’t really work out, but at least it made be feel better about writing. That’s certainly a valuable gain.

While you think that you are what you are doing, it’s harder for nagging negative thoughts and feelings to come up. By loading up your current activity with positive emotions, you won’t be so prone to negative thoughts. But your new thoughts, like “I am a at a computer screen looker” are a cause of distraction that might interfere with your productivity. For being productive, you clearly need other tools, like the ones I mentioned in my post From being depressed and burnt out to Being Who I Want To Be – Part 4.

Positive Mindfulness

In contrast to other mindfulness techniques, my own hack isn’t really observant and non-judgmental, but selective and positive. You first select an aspect of your life you want to focus upon, and make it look more positive to you. I can tell myself: “I am a blogger!” That’s how I can be more positive about what I’m doing and feel better about it. “I am what I’m doing” is indeed compatible with real world activity. Combining your everyday life with light meditation is really possible this form of mental hack. It’s hard to meditate your life while you are deeply immersed in a more classical type of meditation.

But It’s Evil!

Now, you might want to object to my seemingly simple and superficial trick. There are some aspects of it that seem to be questionable:

1. It encourages identification with dull stereotypes.
2. It doesn’t facilitate long-term happiness.
3. It doesn’t solve real problems.

Let me respond to those issues.

1. It encourages identification with dull stereotypes.

Yes, theoretically there’s the danger that an overly serious identification with your own activities or roles might cause problems. For example, if I told myself “I am a writer” too emphatically, I might associate some silly stereotypes of writers with myself, like not having a lot of money, or needing to be depressed to write good fiction. These associations might make it difficult for me to be affluent and happy.

Obviously, that’s not the purpose of my technique. Please don’t take identifications too seriously. Many people define themselves by their roles in society, and that often restricts them in their thinking, because they feel a pressure to conform to popular norms or stereotypes. A really sad example of that is when someone accepts the thought that he is a loser and therefore replicates the typical behavior of a “generic loser”. So, he succumbs to a malignant societal construct – the idea of a “loser person” – and gets stuck in his life.

I reject such categories as “winners” or “losers”. They serve no purpose, other than mindless elitism. A lack of success can be fixed by learning the right techniques. There’s nothing that strictly separates very successful from very unsuccessful persons – other than a temporary difference in various abilities and thinking patterns. If you want to increase your abilities, take a look at my post Capability Augmentation Will Solve All Our Problems!

So, don’t take your identification too seriously. Play with it! Don’t let it play with you!

2. It doesn’t facilitate long-term happiness.

Maybe. Long term happiness can best be achieved by adopting healthier patterns of thinking. Especially the book Feeling Good by David D. Burns is great for learning to defuse dysfunctional thinking patterns and gaining a realistically optimistic view about life. In From being depressed and burnt out to Being Who I Want To Be – Part 1 I tell the story about how that book helped me to overcome my depression and become happier – even in the long-term.

But turning the application of the “I am what I’m doing” thinking into a habit, might actually make you more happy in general. It’s really useful to know a lot of tricks that help yourself to be happy. If you think you also need to adopt other habits in order to become happier in the long-term, the Guardian article 7 steps to instant happiness will be a valuable inspiration to you.

3. It doesn’t solve real problems.

Yeah, that’s correct. Do you really expect all your problem will disappear, once you have found a reliable trick that amplifies your happiness? That hope would be too naive. Real problems need to be solved one at a time – with the tools that are most suited for solving them. On the other hand, there are many “problems” that aren’t really important, see the post The Best Way to Solve a Problem: Give Up by Jonathan Mead.

Conclusion

My “I am what I’m doing” hack isn’t a panacea for all kinds of problems and it’s use is limited, but it works very well when used properly. The more you remind yourself to identify yourself with your momentarily activities, the more happiness you will get out of them.

For some additional inspiration about what else you can do to get a happiness boost, read Jordan Lejuwaan’s post 17 Ways to Achieve Instant Happiness.

Got A More Ultimate Hack?

Do you think you know about a happiness hack that is more ultimate? Tell me about it! I would be glad about knowing an even better method to be happier and more mindful.