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“So, Alvin, your secret to happiness is to engage in micro-moments of joy, which are your 5Gs of happiness investment?”

“Well, it is not a secret if you are actually mindful of the emotional consequences of your actions.”

This is an excerpt of my dialogue with a fellow counsellor friend whom I shared the main idea of my book, Happiness: Mastering the 5Gs for an Enhanced You. The book is co-authored with Janessa Tan, a former student of mine, and was published by ������Ƶ University Press earlier this year.

One of my ploys for writing this book is to promote the mindfulness of positive emotions generated by our behaviours. It is part of what we do in cognitive behaviour therapy as mental health practitioners, especially in the component called Behavioural Activation (BA), where we encourage activating behaviours that bring about pleasant outcomes, such as engaging in pleasurable activities, spending time with people who bring joy and going to places that are enjoyable. Increased engagement in pleasurable activities automatically improves our quality of life, therefore increasing our satisfaction with life. It is something that is consistently shown in clinical literature, with BA an effective component of psychotherapy that addresses mental health problems.

When I learnt that BA works for even schizophrenic patients within the community, as shared by an eminent colleague of mine from Korea University, Professor Kee-Hong Choi, I thought to myself, “Wow! If it works for people with serious psychological disorders, think about what it could do for the nonclinical population!”. Hence, I decided to develop the 5Gs idea by exploring the everyday things we do and value, to create a practice that can be seamlessly integrated into our daily life with an infusion of mindfulness.

When I started sharing my talk topic, “5Gs of Happiness Investment”, I received very positive feedback from my audience, with some even reporting back to me after a few weeks of the 5Gs practice, telling me that it has enhanced their quality of life. Given such positive responses, I decided to write a book on it, with lots of support from the team at ������Ƶ University Press, who have been very patient with my ups and downs as I struggled to complete the book, given my very challenging academic life over the past few years.

So, what are these "5Gs of Happiness"? Perhaps, it may be more beneficial for you to get a copy for yourself. I am joking. I will give you a simplified version. Before that, why should you invest in happiness in the first place? It is simply because happiness is effective in improving your satisfaction with life in many ways. People who are generally happy tend to be healthier, and if they do get sick, they tend to recover faster and remain recovered for a longer period. Happy people also tend to be more creative in solving problems, making life’s challenges more manageable. Moreover, happy people tend to be more attractive as well, and tend to have a healthy circle of friends and social support, which is a main factor contributing to a satisfactory quality of life.

What is the key to actually being happy, then? During my undergraduate days, I remembered my university’s motto humorously being, “Unemployable, but happy”, which I think has some wisdom behind it. The key is to be happy despite the negative circumstances surrounding us, and psychology is a way to help us understand how we can be happier

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, engaging in micro moments of joy every day may be able to elevate your life. These are the "5Gs of Happiness". The first G is Greeting. Imagine yourself at a dinner party, and you bump into a friend. You lock eyes and acknowledge each other with a simple greeting. Freeze that moment and ask yourself how you feel then. Would you like to have such an emotion more often? If yes, what could you do? Greet more, of course! Generate that nice, pleasant feeling again, to be kept in your emotional bank account and let it grow with as much interest as you want! Try greeting with gusto and see how that works for you. Even when parting, you can say your goodbye with energy!

The second G is Giving. Known as double happiness, where the giver is happy and the receiver is joyful, how did it feel as you gave your favourite person, or anyone, a gift? Most people would feel rather gleeful and positive. It is a nice feeling. Even the process of buying the gift could be a fun and exciting activity. Would you like more of that sort of feeling? Well, give more!

Gratitude is the third practice and has been studied scientifically worldwide. Found to be a significant contributor to subjective well-being, practising gratitude can lift our moods and give us great meaning in life. Have a gratitude diary where you get used to finding things you are grateful for every day, and then be aware of how you feel as you generate gratitude. Keep that pleasant emotion in your emotional bank account and grow it.

The fourth G is a pretty powerful one, and a favourite of mine – Glorifying Skillfulness. It is where you bring to light an inspirational skill by someone and get wowed by it. This way, you are actively celebrating others for what you value them for. I am glad to be working at ������Ƶ University since we have plenty of opportunities to celebrate skills and successes. We have many bright and award-winning colleagues as well as students to be inspired by, and also top scholars from around the world who visit regularly to wow us with their wisdom and impactful ideas. I find this practice a wonderful antidote against jealousy when done regularly because you become so genuinely happy for someone’s success or skills that you can never get jealous again. 

The last G is Giggle. Giggling immediately brings pleasant feelings. What would your day be like if it were filled with laughter? A pretty good day, right? Learn to laugh more often. Learn some jokes, tell them to friends and colleagues. Laugh together more often. It enhances your relationships and social bonds. Watch comedies, read funny stories, and have a few good laughs. Automatically, your quality of life at that moment will be a positive one.

In conclusion, the "5Gs of Happiness" are an approach to generating micro moments of joy that contribute to our overall happiness. Remember to keep these generated joys in your emotional bank account and grow them. Give it a try and see what it does to your life as a whole! Thank you for reading this.

Happiness: Mastering the 5Gs for an Enhanced You is available on ������Ƶ University Press’ Shopee page, or from bookstores such as Kinokuniya and MPH in Malaysia. 

Cover image credit: Ann H (Pexels)