Being happy, apparently, is pretty easy.
At the end of each day, take a moment to go over three good things that happened to you. Think about why they happened and what you did to make them happen.
Sounds goofy, maybe, but one Penn researcher says it can change your life.
"People are less depressed and happier three months later and six months later" after consistently doing this exercise, Penn Psychology professor Martin Seligman told Time.
Seligman is the founder of the Positive Psychology Center at Penn, a research hub that is changing the way Americans think about happiness.
The Positive Psychology Center has been all over the news recently, from the BBC to a Time cover story outlining Seligman's research. The fundamentals are simple: you don't always need drugs, and you don't always need psychotherapy. Ordinary people can make themselves more joyful by putting time into relationships with family and friends, acting kind to others and doing "gratitude" exercises, like the one described above, which force people to think positively.
"As a professor, I don't like this," Seligman said. "But the cerebral virtues - curiosity, love of learning - are less strongly tied to happiness than interpersonal virtues like kindness, gratitude and capacity for love."
So if all this revolutionary research is coming out of Penn, why aren't Penn students themselves reaping the benefits of thinking happy?
We aren't the most ecstatic bunch. Everyone seems happy on Friday night, but come Monday morning, we are all stress cases, ready to break down at a moment's notice. No matter what your major, what your schedule looks like, everyone seems to let the pressure at Penn get to them sometimes. We like to focus a little too much on those "cerebral virtues," as Seligman says.
And the resources on campus to address the very real stresses of college life are laughingly weak. Counseling and Psychological Services likes to boast that it boosted its budget this fall and has a 25 percent larger clinical staff who offer free counseling. The number of counselors - 21 - is higher than many other universities of comparable size. This is admirable; counseling services should be a top priority for any university.
But CAPS' awareness campaigns are still inadequate. Scheduling an intake appointment can take up to two weeks, and advertisements about the services tend to take the form of university-wide e-mails that are easy to delete. The office space at 36th and Walnut streets is cramped.
A new coalition of student leaders formed this fall to address issues of mental health - another important step in helping to fight depression and other mental illnesses on campus. But the coalition is still bogged down in bureaucracy and has yet to embark on any major projects. The Reach-A-Peer-Helpline is another option for students dealing with stress. While RAP-Line is actually designed to point students to any campus resources - academic or health-related - many people I know think of it as a suicide helpline. It seems like students see these on-campus options as a last resort, a place to turn only if things have gotten really bad.
But what about those of us who just want to be a little happier?
Campus advocates for mental health should look no further than Penn's own Solomon Labs, where the Positive Psychology Center is based.
The Office of Health Education should scrap those signs that say "Lindsay has been awake for three days" and work with Seligman's team to bring some joy to Penn. On-campus advertising campaigns, workshops, and speakers outlining the principles of positive psychology could help students learn how to take better control of their own emotions. Students could help Penn psychologists better understand how to present their research to the public. Being happy should be a priority for every Penn student.
This is not to say that we should ignore the need for serious therapy, drugs and medical advice. Depression is an illness, and those who suffer from it deserve substantial care that the Positive Psychology Center probably cannot provide.
We all don't need or want or have time for therapy, but we all can make time to make our lives a little happier. Mara Gordon is a College junior from Washington, D.C. Her e-mail address is gordon@dailypennsylvanian.com. Flash Gordon appears on Thursdays.
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