HappyRambles: A feel-good service that aims to make you happier

HappyRambles, a startup based in Ottawa is aiming to make people happier by offering users a gratitude journal to report what they’re grateful for.

When you Google search “Psy­chol­ogy+Gratitude Journal” you’ll find a parade of links pertaining to positive psychology including stud­ies from Robert Emmons, Professor of Psy­chol­ogy at UC Davis, an individual that studies gratitude for a living.

The concept of the service itself is really basic but some studies indicate that thankfulness and gratitude are important factors in the recipe of happiness. Why? Because gratitude generates positive thoughts and according to professor Robert Emmons, it increases happiness levels by 25 percent.

Grat­i­tude is a pos­i­tive emo­tion that has tra­di­tion­ally been the realm of human­ists and philoso­phers, and only recently the sub­ject of a more sci­en­tific approach. We study grat­i­tude not as a merely aca­d­e­mic dis­ci­pline, but as a prac­ti­cal frame­work to bet­ter func­tion­ing in life by tak­ing con­trol of hap­pi­ness lev­els and prac­tic­ing the skill of emo­tional self-regulation.

HappyRambles is a free service that will send users daily emails asking them to jot down a few things that they’re grateful for. After doing so, the email is then saved to the HappyRambles site as a gratitude journal that can be shared with friends. It also lets users reflect back on past submissions through the journal calender. If you feel a daily email is going overboard you can tweak the HappyRambles settings to send less frequently.

HappyRambles sounds like a great idea although I can’t say that I’d feel like doing it everyday. It does however encourage positive thoughts and overall, it might make you more thankful or conscious of the people and things you have.

Studies report people are 25% happier and more energetic if they keep gratitude journals, have 20% less envy and resentment, sleep 10% longer each night and wake up 15% more refreshed, exercise 33% more and show a 10% drop in blood pressure compared to persons who do not. “ HappyRambles