How to Feel Happier in 2 Minutes–Pencil Not Included

Six years ago, I clocked out of the burn unit for the last time and said goodbye to IVs, night shifts, and skin grafts. When people learn that I worked as a burn nurse they often blink and whisper, “That must’ve been so hard.” 

Working on a burn unit was hard, but not for the reason people think. Burn nurses walk onto the job each day expecting the worst. This protects us against emotional paralysis and allows us to focus on helping our patients—loading their IVs with Dilaudid, washing their burns, and slathering them with Silvadene. Burn care wasn’t always the hard part; often, night shifts were. 

Photo courtesy of Alex Santos Silva via flickr.com (Used under CC BY-ND 2.0)

Unless you’ve stared 4 a.m. in the face, contacts blurring from dryness, you’ve never met the pit of night. Usually, by 2:30 a.m. my coworker and I had succumbed to silence. During the eternal inertia that stretched from then until dawn, I would agonize over whether another cup of coffee was worth the hole it would burn in my stomach.

One night, as I clawed my way toward morning, a patient’s call light turned on. I took a quick trip through Kubler-Ross’s stages of denial, anger, bargaining, and depression before accepting the inevitable need to move. I peeled my scrubs off the chair and dragged each leg down the hall. 

As I inched along, a thought burrowed its way to the surface of my brain. If I acted energetic—maybe by putting a pep in my step—would I feel more awake? It seemed idiotic. But, then again, I was desperate.

I forced my shuffle into a walk. Then, a fast walk, and then a bounce. Then, another and another. 

My vision focused, my head cleared, and my mood lifted—just a little. 

Recently, I watched a TED talk by Amy Cuddy, social psychologist, that supports what I experienced that night on the burn unit. Cuddy asked study participants to power-pose for two minutes—to assume a body language typical of CEOs, olympic athletes, or Captain America. She found that people who mimicked confidence, felt and acted more self-assured. 

Often our emotions can feel like tyrants, ransacking our happiness while we huddle in the corner, but Cuddy’s research suggests that we can leverage our bodies to fight back. Multiple factors affect how we feel on a given day—low serotonin levels, an argument with a friend, or skipping lunch. Hangry, anyone? But, according to Cuddy’s research, what we do with our bodies matters, too. 

So, do you want to feel…

• More happy? Try holding a pencil between your teeth for two minutes (a.k.a forced smiling).

• Less emotionally chaotic? Wash the dishes and put away the laundry. 

• More energetic? Run, skip, or twirl. 

• Less lonely? Head to Starbucks and smile at the wrinkled man in the corner.

• More thankful? Skip venting and list the highlights of your day. 

Perhaps, if we start acting how we want to feel, our emotions will head that direction, too.

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