Just in time for 2013! Looking for a New Year’s resolution? Feeling a holiday lull? Wanting to increase your happiness?

New research from the science of positive psychology has found a number of practical exercises you can do to boost your happiness and decrease your depression.

Choose one of the following 7 exercises and practice it for 1 week:

Imagine this conversation between you and your child, who has just come home from school:

“Mommy, mommy, guess what?”

“What, sweetheart?”

“I used bravery and perseverance today!”

“You did?”

“Yeah, our teacher gave us a really hard project today in science class. At first I was scared and didn’t want to do it but then I decided to use my strengths.”

“What did you do?”

“I used my bravery to start working on the project and then I just keep going and going until it was done. And my teacher gave me a gold star for working so hard!”

It was 6:58 PM on Tuesday October, 26, 2010 when I realized I just wanted to be myself. At that moment, I realized that I just couldn’t be anyone else.

LeighAndria Young, student and poet
School for the Creative and Performing Arts
Cincinnati, Ohio

These are the refreshing words of high school student, LeighAndria Young, that describe her shift toward a deeper self-acceptance of who she is. She embraces all her inner qualities – her strengths and foibles – realizing that it is her uniqueness and her capacity to “just be” that is most crucial in life.

Watch a 3-minute video of LeighAndria performing her poem, “6:58,” at this link here.