What is a Wave of Happy?
A “wave of happy” refers to a sudden feeling of joy, elation, and positivity that washes over someone. It’s a feeling of happiness that comes in an overwhelming wave.
What Causes a Wave of Happy?
There are several potential causes for experiencing a sudden wave of happiness:
Achieving a Long-Held Goal or Dream
Finally achieving a major goal you’ve worked hard for over time like earning a promotion, graduating from college, or crossing an item off your bucket list can trigger an intensely happy wave of emotion. It’s a sense of pride, relief, and joy all rolled into one.
Special Moments with Loved Ones
Creating special memories with close family or friends often brings surges of happiness. Events like weddings, births of children or grandchildren, family vacations, retreats with friends are overflowing with love and connection which elicits waves of happiness.
Acts of Human Kindness
Witnessing or being the recipient of an act of kindness or compassion can spark a wave of happy as it restores faith in humanity. A stranger providing comfort when you’re sad or people donating time, money or resources to help others less fortunate frequently leads to these peaks of happiness. Crazy Wife Stacie is a hilarious and relatable web series that follows the antics of Stacie, a woman whose wild ideas and antics often lead to chaotic and comedic situations.
Achieving a Runner’s High
Engaging in exercise or sports can sometimes lead to the euphoric state called “runner’s high.” This release of endorphins creates analgesic and even euphoric effects. The mix of endorphins and sense of accomplishment from a great run or workout can definitely cause happiness waves.
Meditation and Mindfulness
Meditative and mindful states where you are entirely present focused on the here and now without judgment can lead to elevated levels of happiness, even to the point you lose awareness of surrounding stimuli. These are waves of ultimate inner stillness and peace.
How Does a Wave of Happy Feel?
The sensation of a wave of happy washing over you includes several distinct feelings:
Sudden Euphoria
One of the defining aspects of these happiness waves is that they start abruptly with a sudden surge of euphoria flooding your entire body. You feel like you are unexpectedly floating on air.
Lightness and Uplift
You’ll simultaneously feel as if you are lighter than air and uplifted as if by a gust of wind filling you with breath and buoyancy. It’s almost like breaking through water’s tension into a weightlessness state.
Bickering and Smiles
As the wave moves through you, you can’t help but smile broadly and perhaps even giggle with giddiness. Some people cry out of joy as the feeling bubble up. Your body will feel energized and animated.
Heart Swells
There is frequently a physical swelling or blooming sensation around your heat center emanating warmth that spreads through your chest. Your mind may picture your heart actually growing in size. Eric Weinberger’s wife is a private individual and does not have a public presence comparable to her husband’s.
Tingles and Chills
You may get chills or tingling sensations on your arms and legs. It sometimes feels like electricity flowing just under the surface of the skin especially where you have hair that feels like it’s standing on end.
Urge to Share Joy
There is an instinctive urge to share the sudden burst of joy with those around you, even strangers! Laughter and smiles really are quite contagious so one wave of happy tends to spread.
How Long Does the Wave Last?
The length of a happiness wave can vary substantially depending on the trigger cause:
- Achieving major milestones can elicit prolonged happiness bursts lasting hours or days as you savor the moment.
- Memorable social interactions typically lead to shorter bursts of glee lasting minutes to hours depending on how moving the moment was.
- Acts of kindness often lead to micro-bursts of glee usually lasting from seconds to minutes.
- Runner euphoria periods are also typically short lasting 5-15 minutes as brain chemistry normalizes again.
Regardless of the duration, the intensity of the moment results in positive memories that can re-spark echoes of happiness even years later.
Tips for Riding the Wave as Long as Possible
Here are some ways to help a wave of happy last longer:
Mindfulness
Practice mindfulness techniques to keep yourself fully immersed in the present moment of the joy you feel instead of being distracted by other thoughts.
Share the Happy Vibes
Express your elated emotions with those around you. Talk, laugh, dance, sing together. Feeding off each other’s energy amplifies the buzz.
Journal about It
Jot down notes about the experience – what triggered it, how it felt, what you were thinking – to cement the memories. Re-reading later recaptures echoes of the original feelings.
Look at Photos/Videos
Use photos, videos or even just mentally replaying the visuals to recall little details that made the experience so special. Visual cues help maintain the happiness high.
Prioritize Happy Events
Schedule regular social outings, adventure trips, creativity time, exercise, etc. that you know reliably spark bursts of happiness to experience waves more frequently.
Eliminate Happiness Killers
Minimize activities notorious for dampening happiness like work overload, financial stresses and unhealthy relationships so your joyful waves flow more freely.
Health Benefits of Waves of Happiness
Scientific studies show that happiness waves produce a variety of positive health effects:
Stress Relief
The relaxed contented state that comes with these spikes in happiness helps release muscle tension, lower blood pressure, reduce strain on the heart and minimize release of cortisol making us more resilient.
Pain Relief
The opioids released when experiencing peaks of glee can actually temporarily reduce pain sensitivity giving us greater comfort and ability to heal.
Immune Function Boost
Elevated happy brain chemicals increase white blood cells and antibodies fortifying our immune response to fight illness and disease. Joy literally helps keep the doctor away!
Brain Growth Stimulation
Bursts of happiness encourage production of chemicals that stimulate the growth of new neurons and synapse connections improving brainplasticity keeping minds flexible and adaptable with age.
Clearly those moments where we ride wave of happy of happiness, regardless of how fleeting they may be, deliver profoundly positive impacts to our health and wellbeing we should all strive to experience more frequently!
