Melissa Dahl writes in NY Magazine‘s Science of Us section that thinking of happy images can put a spring in your step and that in turn can make you feel better.
Dahl references new research on the topic. “Walk like a happy person and you’ll actually feel happier, says a study published online in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry.
“In the study, people walked on a treadmill for 15 minutes. Around them were cameras with sensors that picked up their movements, and in front of them was a screen displaying a gauge that moved to the left if they walked like they were depressed, and to the right if they walked like they were happy. … But, because researchers are sneaky, the people in the study didn’t know what the gauge was measuring. They were simply told to try to get the needle to move to the left, or to the right.
“Before the treadmill task, they were shown a list of words, some positive (pretty) and some negative (afraid, anxious). After they hopped off the treadmill, they were asked to write down as many of those words as they could remember. The people who’d been prompted to walk like a depressed person ended up recalling more negative words and (slightly) fewer positive words than the people who’d merrily bounced along on their treadmills. This, the authors conclude, means that the people who’d walked as if they were sad did, in fact, end up feeling sadder.” Read more here.
Skeptical as I am about psychological studies that base their insights on showing people a list of words, I think it’s definitely worth a try to walk like you’re happy.
I once read in a mystery that is very hard for a suspect to disguise his walk. One perp put a pebble in his shoe to throw off the detective.
And one year I watched how young women walked and tried to imitate the bounce, but it was way too much work. Might as well try to change your handwriting. Or your unique way of washing dishes.
Photo: Getty Images
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