Maintaining the anticipation of more fun and excitement to come in the future extends our feelings of positivity….so plan ahead!!!

After weeks of humming holiday songs, decorating the house with cheer and planning for a joyous celebration, the holiday season inevitably will come to an end. The tunes will change, the decorations will come down and the leftovers will get stale. Even the most cheerful person can find it hard to sustain holiday happiness after the big event has come and gone.

Wake Forest University Assistant Professor of Psychology Christian Waugh studies human emotions and why some people are more resilient in maintaining positive emotions than others. “A large part of happiness is anticipation,” Waugh explains. “Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, New Year’s Eve and other holidays offer punctuated moments of joy we look forward to for weeks. While the celebration itself may be short-lived, the anticipation of the fun and excitement to come extends the feelings of positivity.”

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