Hi, there. I’m Paul Krismer, your happiness expert. Now have you ever noticed that, in general, sneaky, mean people are unhappy, whereas the people who treat others with respect and fairness seem happier? Well, what wonderful poetic justice this is. There is some good science that proves when we treat others well, we are much happier.
It turns out an especially important virtue for our personal well-being is integrity. This post will show you just how to get your own blast of good feelings from just being the person you want to be. So now, integrity, what does it really mean? Well, by definition, integrity means simply that our behavior aligns with our values.
That is, we do and say what is truly important to us. So why does acting in line with our values make us happy? Psychologists have a fancy word for this, self-unity. Self-unity is the idea that we feel whole within yourself. Now, the opposite of self-unity is easier to understand. It’s, if we strongly believe, say, for example, honesty is important, but we often tell exaggerated tales of our own great accomplishments, typically we end up feeling bad in the long run.
What about stealing from others when we believe fundamentally in being just and fair? Well, when we do things that clearly contradict what we believe in, we feel a sense of loss. This loss is the feeling of a lack of self-unity. In other words, we feel broken. We’re not operating the way we want to, the way we should be. So when you do follow your values, then you have self-unity.
You have an internal sense of wholeness, which leads to higher life satisfaction. Self-unity over long periods of time creates frequent positive moods and even better relationships. Through and through, when we have self-unity, we feel like good people. The bottom line is when you walk your talk you feel great.
The tricky part in all this is actually knowing your values. Being true to yourself is a lot deeper than say, just being honest. So with that said, I’ve included a link to a tool that will help you find out what your values are. If you’re seriously committed to your own personal happiness, then I highly recommend you check it out, because it will give you a lot of power knowing what makes you feel good.
So I’m your happiness expert, Paul Krismer. It’s my life’s mission to help the world be a bit happier. So please like and share this post, and you’ll make the world happier too. And if you enjoy this kind of content, please subscribe to my channel on YouTube.
Until next time, I’m Paul.