“So much of our well-being is tied up to feeling close and connected to others,” she says. Liss believes objects make us most happy if they remind us of experiences that were positive or people that we love, like a memento that we got on a special trip or vacation, or an object from our childhood that reminds us of good times we had as children. “Smell is involved in emotions because our olfactory very closely tied to our limbic system - e.g., our amygdala and hippocampus - which processes emotion and memory.” Miriam Liss, professor of psychology at the University of Mary of Washington and author of Balancing the Big Stuff: Finding Happiness in Work, Family, and Life , tells SheKnows. “Objects that have smells, especially smells that remind us of memories, are powerful because the parts of our brain that process smell are very closely connected to the parts of our brain that process emotion,” Dr. Objects can be powerful conduits to memories, she adds, particularly when they have elements of scent or sound, senses that are closely wired to the parts of the brain associated with memory. One of the reasons certain objects resonate so positively with us is due to the personal attachments they represent for us. Fetell Lee explains, “It has to do with the way it resonates with a unique aspect of our personality or a connection to a specific memory.” “And if some things are a necessary part of life anyway, we might as well use them to enhance our joy and well-being, rather than detract from it.” Objects can be personal & powerful Knowing this, it’s clear that objects can affect our happiness in deep ways, some that we aren’t even consciously aware of,” she says. “In fact, studies show that angular objects create activity in a part of the brain called the amygdala, associated with fear and anxiety. More: Simple Self-Care Routines That Could Benefit Your Mental Health For example, she says objects with round or symmetrical shapes are known to elicit positive emotions, while sharp, angular and asymmetrical ones are associated with tension and sadness.
Research shows that just being exposed to flowers can lift our mood and reduce anxiety, improve memory and even decrease the amount of pain medication used by patients in a hospital after surgery.”įetell Lee says manmade objects can have similar effects.
“But my research shows that the objects in our surroundings can have a surprisingly powerful influence on our emotional well-being.
“Many of us have been conditioned to believe that true joy comes only from within and that the material things in our lives are incidental to our happiness,” Ingrid Fetell Lee, author of Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness, tells SheKnows.
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