When it comes to happiness, we’ve got to try every angle possible. Some people are born with serotonin-soaked synapses, while others aren’t so lucky. The good news is that, according to Harvard University social scientist and author Arthur C. Brooks, there are techniques that can, in a sense, help our minds quickly move in the right direction.

In a recent clip posted to Facebook, Brooks explains the “four savoring techniques” for elevating one’s mood. As with many of his thoughts on psychological matters—many of which have been covered by Upworthy staffers—he gets straight to the point. As he writes on his website, “Happiness isn’t a destination — it’s a direction.”

1. Behavioral display

“Number one is what they call behavioral display, which means expressing positive emotion with nonverbal behaviors,” Brooks said. “Smile, even if you don’t feel it. You’ll fool your brain. You’ll be happier because of this behavioral display. Smile more. Pretend you’re happier. Go act happier.”

“Second, be present, which is mindfully focusing on the pleasant experience,” Brooks said. “And what that means is saying to yourself, ‘I am doing this thing. I am sitting on the train looking out at a beautiful seascape.’ Being present actually means saying the thing to yourself because you want to bring it from your subconscious into your prefrontal cortex— into your consciousness, where you’re really thinking about something. And the way to do that is by saying it. And it’s really unbelievably effective.”

3. Capitalize the positive

“Number three is capitalizing, which means talking about and celebrating positive experiences with others,” Brooks said. “Don’t just say it to yourself. Say it to other people. Talk about the experience that you’re actually having. Notice things to other people, which makes this even more conscious, even more concrete, even more permanent.”

4. Mental time travel

“And last but not least is what they call ‘positive mental time travel,’ which is vivid reminiscence or anticipation of positive events,” Brooks said. “To savor the past on purpose, by paying attention to the positive parts.”

Savoring is a subject Brooks talks about often. In a clip on Instagram, he shares not only the techniques people can try, but also why they’re worth trying. In the post, he writes:

“Savoring is rebelling against yourself. We’re wired to notice what’s wrong before we notice what’s good. That helped our ancestors survive, but it also means we move through life without fully experiencing the moments worth savoring. Savoring doesn’t come naturally. It’s a conscious act of pushing back against the brain’s constant pull toward worry, vigilance, and the next thing. And in a culture that rewards speed and distraction, slowing down long enough to truly enjoy something requires conscious effort.”

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“We’re not evolved for savoring”

In the clip, Brooks discusses how our brains are wired from an evolutionary standpoint to protect our survival:

“We’re not evolved for savoring. We’re evolved to rush through everything and pay attention to the negative. We have brains that were designed, more or less, in their current form something like 250,000 years ago in the late Pleistocene Era. And that was a dangerous time to be Homo sapiens. You had to pay attention a lot or you were gonna be a wild animal’s lunch.

So we have more brain space dedicated to negative emotions than positive emotions. That’s what gives us what we call the negativity bias in our lives. Negativity bias means that life isn’t that great all the time, but we’re more likely to get to tomorrow or more likely to survive the night. That makes perfect evolutionary sense that your suspicious inner troglodyte is trying to survive and pass on your genes. You’re not a saber-toothed tiger’s lunch.”

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Prefrontal cortex to the rescue

“But that negativity bias is now maladaptive,” Brooks added. “It’s basically an error that we would do that. That we would not savor, but rather that we’d be suspicious and vigilant and trying to get into the future as quickly as possible. But that’s why we have a prefrontal cortex so that we have decisions. We can make conscious decisions, and even though I have a negativity bias, I can override it with my consciousness.”

Upworthy spoke with licensed therapist Matt Grammer, who agrees that the four savoring techniques are helpful reminders that it’s possible to sometimes short-circuit negativity.

“Savoring gives people the opportunity to slow down to register positive experiences, instead of continuing on in stress response mode,” Grammer said. “It helps people attain equilibrium and improve emotional resilience and stress recovery and satisfaction in relationships.”

“Coding” the positive

Grammer also notes that life can feel tedious when we don’t stop to reframe our thoughts.

“Though people may experience objective positive reality, life seems emotionless and flat, because we are so quick to get to the next step without enjoying or ‘coding’ positive experiences in long-term emotional memory,” he said.

Dr. Ashley Smith, a licensed psychologist and co-founder of Peak Mind: The Center for Psychological Health, specifically discussed the “built-in negativity bias” with Upworthy.

“We more readily notice, hone in, and remember bad stuff over good,” Smith said. “In fact, negative things get encoded in our memory almost instantaneously, while positive things take 10 times longer—10 to 12 seconds. That’s where savoring comes in. If you don’t intentionally amplify and savor a positive experience—intentionally focusing on it and how it makes you feel for a full 10 seconds—it’s like it never happened neurologically!”

As for how to put this information to good use, Amberley Meredith, psychologist and author of The Adaptable Sustainable Psychology Collection, shares with Upworthy how to reverse rumination:

“It’s called a ‘memory capture.’ We often ruminate and go over the difficult moments repeatedly. This is about doing the reverse. We take in every sound, every smell. We linger our gaze on each aspect of the moment that we can see. We pay attention to any words being spoken, replaying them gently in our minds. We take time with tastes and sensations, noticing how our body feels in the moment.

Savouring is an art, but with practice it can become a more accessible and spontaneous response over time. And the memories you ‘bank’ can be re-experienced and enjoyed with greater clarity, perhaps as a buffer or reminder of better times during those difficult moments.”

While a bottle of bubbles might seem out of place in a hospital setting, you might be surprised to learn that, for thousands of children around the world born with cleft lip and palate, they can be a helpful tool in comprehensive cleft care. Lilia, who was born with cleft lip and palate in 2020, is one of the many patients who received this care. 

As a toddler, Lilia underwent two surgeries to treat cleft lip and palate with Operation Smile’s surgical program in Puebla, Mexico. Because of Operation Smile’s comprehensive care, it wasn’t long before her personality transformed: Lilia went from a quiet and withdrawn toddler to an exuberant, curious explorer, babbling, expressing herself with a variety of sounds, and engaging with others like any child her age. 

Lilia is now a healthy five-year-old, with the same cheerful attitude and boundless energy. Her progress is the result of care at every level, from surgery to speech therapy to ongoing support at home—but it’s also evidence that small, sustained interventions throughout it all can make a meaningful difference. 

Cleft Conditions: A Global Problem

Since 1982, Operation Smile has provided cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries to more than 500,000 patients worldwide with the help of generous volunteers and donors. Cleft conditions are congenital conditions, meaning they are present at birth. With cleft lip and palate, the lip or the roof of the mouth do not form fully during fetal development. Cleft conditions put children at risk for malnutrition and poor weight gain, since their facial structure can make feeding challenging. But cleft conditions can have an enormous social impact as well: Common difficulties with speech can leave kids socially isolated and unable to meet the same developmental milestones as their peers. 

Surgery is a vital step in treating cleft conditions, but it’s also just one part of a much larger solution. Organizations like Operation Smile emphasize the importance of multi-disciplinary teams that provide comprehensive, long-term care to patients across many years. This approach, which includes oral care, speech therapy, nutritional support, and psychosocial care, not only aids in physical recovery from surgery but also helps children develop the skills and confidence to eat easily, speak clearly, and engage in everyday life. This ensures that each patient receives the full range of support they need to thrive. 

A Playful (and Powerful) Solution

Throughout a patient’s care, simple tools like bubbles can play a meaningful role from start to finish. 

Immediately before surgery, children are often in a new and unfamiliar environment far from home, some of them experiencing a hospital setting for the first time. When care providers or loved ones blow bubbles, it’s a simple yet effective technique: Not only are the children soothed and distracted, the bubbles also help create a sense of joy and playfulness that eases their anxiety. 

In speech therapy, bubbles can take on an even more important role. Blowing bubbles requires controlled airflow, as well as the ability to form a rounded “O” shape with the lips, which are skills that children with cleft conditions may struggle to develop. Practicing these skills with bubbles allows children to gently strengthen their facial muscles, improve breath control, and support the motor skills needed for speech development. Beyond that, blowing bubbles can help kids connect with their parents or providers in a way that’s playful, comforting, and accessible even for very young patients. 

Finally, bubbles often follow patients with cleft conditions home in the “smile bags” that each patient receives when the surgical procedure is finished. Smile bags, which help continue speech therapy outside of the hospital setting, can contain language enrichment booklets, a mirror, oxygen tubing, and bubbles. While regular practice with motor skills can help with physical recovery, small acts of play help as well, giving kids space to simply enjoy themselves and join in on what peers are able to do.

Bubbles at Home and Beyond

Today, because of Operation Smile’s dedication to comprehensive cleft care, Lilia is now able to make friends and speak clearly, all things that could have been difficult or impossible before. Instead of a childhood defined by limitation, Lilia—and others around the world—can look forward to a childhood filled with joy, learning, discovery, friends, and new possibilities.  

CTA: Lilia’s life was changed for the better with the care she received through Operation Smile. Find out how you can make an impact in other children’s lives by visiting operationsmile.org today. 

Gen Z, born approximately between 1997 and 2010, is referred to by some as “Generation Text.” They were the first group of teens, alongside some younger Millennials, to grow up with cell phones, social media, and texting already part of everyday life by the time they reached age 12. For older Millennials, Gen Xers, and Baby Boomers, our teen years—even into our early twenties—were free of cell phones, texting, and social media.

Sure, no matter the generation, most teens and young adults experience some form of anxiety. But being tethered to a screen while the brain is still in its formative years has added an extra layer of stress for some members of Gen Z. The good news is that Gen Z is doing something about it.

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Putting phones away for the evening

According to The Washington Post, students at New York University have been ditching their phones for a little time off. On the paper’s Instagram post, they explain how it works:

“At the gate, guests slipped their phones into little cloth bags, putting them away for the evening. More than 200 students from New York University gathered at a table nearly as long as the city block. It was cold, but they leaned in to talk with strangers, laughing and trading stories.

Instead of the socializing that American college culture is known for, many students walk around campus looking down at their phones, scroll through elevator rides, and sit in classrooms glued to their laptops.

Many college leaders are concerned about the amount of time students spend on screens and social media, worried that it is increasing isolation, loneliness, and anxiety, shattering attention spans, and preventing social connections.

New York University is one of the places........

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