Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, words or more subtle actions.

The bullied individual typically has trouble defending him or herself and does nothing to “cause” the bullying.

The experience of being bullied can end up causing lasting damage to victims. This is both self-evident, and also supported by an increasing body of research. It is not necessary to be physically harmed in order to suffer lasting harm. Words and gestures are quite enough. What is far more difficult to mend is the primary wound that bullying victims suffer which is damage to their self-concepts; to their identities. Bullying is an attempt to instill fear and self-loathing. Being the repetitive target of bullying damages your ability to view yourself as a desirable, capable and effective individual.

Being bullied makes you increasingly susceptible to becoming depressed and/or angry and/or bitter. This act of being bullied teaches you that you are undesirable, not safe in the world, and (when it is dished out by forces that are physically superior to yourself) that you are relatively powerless to defend yourself. When you are forced, again and again, to contemplate your relative lack of control over the bullying process, you are being set up for Learned Helplessness (e.g., where you come to believe that you can’t do anything to change your ugly situation even if that isn’t true), which in turn sets you up for hopelessness and depression. You are also learning how you are seen by bullies, which is to say, you’re learning that you are seen by others as weak, pathetic, and a loser. And, by virtue of the way that identity tends to work, you are being set up to believe that these things the bullies are saying about you are true.

Among a large group of children in England, those who were bullied were 60% more likely to have mental health problems as adults than were those who suffered physical, emotional or sexual abuse. And among a large group of children in the United States, the risk of mental health problems was nearly four times greater for victims of bullying than for victims of child abuse.

Previous studies have shown that children who are abused by adults or victimized by their peers grow up to suffer higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation, among other problems. Overall, the effects of bullying were worse.

Short Term Effects of Bullying

• Anger     
• Depression
• Anxious avoidance of settings in which bullying may occur.
• Greater incidence of illness
• Lower grades than non-bullied peers
• Suicidal thoughts and feelings

Effects on Kids Who are Bullied

Kids who are bullied can experience negative physical, school, and mental health issues. Kids who are bullied are more likely to experience:

• Depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, and loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy. These issues may persist into adulthood.

• Health complaints

• Decreased academic achievement—GPA and standardized test scores—and school participation. They are more likely to miss, skip, or drop out of school.

Effects on Kids Who Bully Others

Kids who bully others can also engage in violent and other risky behaviors into adulthood. Kids who bully are more likely to:

• Abuse alcohol and other drugs in adolescence and as adults
• Get into fights, vandalize property, and drop out of school
• Engage in early sexual activity
•  Have criminal convictions and traffic citations as adults
• Be abusive toward their romantic partners, spouses, or children as adults

Effects on Bystanders

Kids who witness bullying are more likely to:

• Have increased use of tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs
• Have increased mental health problems, including depression and anxiety
•   Miss or skip school

Long Term Effects of bullying

• Reduced occupational opportunities
• Lingering feelings of anger and bitterness, desire for revenge.
• Difficulty trusting people
• Interpersonal difficulties, including fear and avoidance of new social situations
• Increased tendency to be a loner
• Perception of self as easy to victimize, overly sensitive, and thin-skinned
• Self-esteem problems (don’t think well of self)
• Increased incidence of continued bullying and victimization

Being happy is something we all want, although not everyone seems to know how. Yet there are a range of methods suited to the various different personalities .

Most people think their happiness depends on their life circumstances. That is, we will be more or less happy depending on what’s going on in our life. That’s why we chase promotions, partners, cars, new clothes, or bigger houses. Come to think of it, isn’t that why we pursue anything at all?

Here are some methods you can use to achieve a happier and healthy mindset:

1. Accepting Who You Are and What You Are

Many people are unhappy or self-conscious about their appearance, the way they speak or their background; comparing themselves unfairly to others they see in magazines or on television. These kinds of feeling can lead to an entrenched sense of worthlessness or even bring about conditions such as depression or an eating disorder. By talking to others and expressing your feelings you will be able to get a better understanding of both your weaknesses and strengths.

2. Build Relationships with Others

One of the most consistent findings in happiness research is that social relationships and spending time with others makes us happy. Feeling connected with other people is an important part of what makes us human and neglecting this part of life can have detrimental effects on your mental health. Many mental health problems have their roots in trouble with communication and can be helped or even prevented by keeping in touch with others and maintaining strong relationships.  Chief Technical Officer Dr George MacKerron’s “Mappiness” research project (mappiness.org) used smartphones to buzz people at random times, asking them what they were doing and how they felt. His research indicated that socialising is one of the activities that makes us the most happy.

So now, try to go out with your friends and colleagues and enjoy!

3. Eat and Drink Healthy

We all know that what we eat has a big impact on our physical well being, but it also affects your mental happiness. As the old saying goes; a healthy body makes a healthy mind, so think about your diet and what foods you maybe eat too much of. Eating three meals a day will keep your energy levels up and keep you feeling good all day long. As well as eating healthy foods, drinking lots of water will keep you hydrated and boost your metabolism; making you feel and look better.

4. Meditation/Mindfulness

Mindfulness meditation is a form of attention and emotion regulation training. Research shows that mindfulness also increases activity in the areas of the brain associated with positive emotion. It also improves several cognitive functions that are conducive to effectiveness in the workplace, such as memory, attention, empathy and communication skills. When you meditate, you are giving your mind time to clear, reformat itself for all the new information that is going to be taken in the following day, or day ahead.

5.  Spend your time doing something you LOVE!

The most important thing of all is to ensure you spend time doing a hobby or activity you love. When we participate in doing something we love, we radiate so many positive emotions, all magnetizing out into the universe to bring you back more joy and happiness. So many people get stuck in a rut and lose focus on what is important and brings them pleasure. Taking some time out to dedicate just to yourself will help you cope with stress, focus your mind and allow you to express yourself. If you are feeling blue, conveying your thoughts in a painting, a song or in a poem will help you understand how you feel and make you feel much better.

6. Random Acts of Kindness

Studies have shown that performing simple random acts of kindness for other people can actually increase your own happiness. Part of maintaining healthy relationships is returning concern for those who care for you. Really caring for others can help greatly improve your mental health and allow you to explore feelings you may have grown out of touch with. An act of kindness can be as simple as holding a door, clearing up for someone or making them a drink.

There are countless types of humour, some of which we appreciate more than others, and rarely do we stop to ask why we find a particular joke funny. What if someone told you the reason you found a joke funny was because you had a high IQ?

“Humour is not about comedy; it is about a fundamental cognitive function,” says Alastair Clarke, author of The Pattern Recognition Theory of Humour. Here’s where the pattern recognition theme comes in. Recognising patterns enables us to quickly understand our environment and function effectively within it. Language, which is unique to humans, is based on patterns. And humour, conveniently enough, is based on language.

Alastair Clarke explains: “The development of pattern recognition as displayed in humour could form the basis of humankind’s instinctive linguistic ability. Syntax and grammar function in fundamental patterns for which a child has an innate facility. All that differs from one individual to the next is the content of those patterns in terms of vocabulary.”

And  a lot of times, the “funny one” also gets labeled as the “smart ass.”  Forty years ago, scientists were already asking this question. Hauck and Thomas, testing eighty elementary-level students, found a very high correlation between humour and intelligence (r = .91), but, of course, that was back in 1972.

So how has the picture evolved?

In 1990, biologist A. Michael Johnson published a study in Perceptual and Motor Skills that connected humour ability to problem-solving skills. Subjects rated 32 jokes for funniness and solved 14 visually-displayed mental rotation problems. Subjects with faster mental rotation times tended to rate the jokes as funnier, which suggests that the right hemisphere of the brain–often associated with problem solving ability–plays an important part in humour comprehension. Johnson’s findings were consistent with previous studies of patients with right-brain lesions, who struggle to distinguish between punchlines and non sequiturs when selecting joke endings in a multiple choice task.

There are several experiments administered after Johnson and in 2012, Greengross, Miller & Martin measured the intelligence of college students against that of stand-up comedians. 31 comedians and 400 college students were tested on humour production and verbal intelligence. Comedians scored higher than students not only on humour production but on verbal intelligence as well. According to a study conducted by Gil Greengross and Geoffrey Miller, there might be new – more literal – meaning behind the title.

In their experiment, titled “Humor ability reveals intelligence, predicts mating success, and is higher in males,” subjects were administered a variety of different tests – including reasoning tasks, intelligence tasks, and also those on humor production ability. What they found was that “structural equation models showed that general and verbal intelligence both predict humor production ability” – and, moreover, this relationship goes onto predict mating success, as well.

These findings support their thesis that the human sense of humor evolved, at least in part, through “sexual selection as an intelligence indicator.” All of this is fine and good, and proves that intelligence often results in a more advanced sense of humour.

Who you hang out with matters more than you may think. In fact, your friendships could have a major impact on your net worth. Your friends don’t just influence your decisions but they can alter your view of the world, change your perception and turn you into a different person!!

According to Thomas Corley, who researched about the daily habits of wealthy people for five years says that wealthy people avoid one type of person at all costs, a pessimists. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed.

Pessimism is a state of mind in which one anticipates undesirable outcomes.

“Self-made millionaires are very particular about who they associate with,” Corley writes in his book, “Change Your Habits, Change Your Life.” Eighty-six percent of the rich people in his study made a habit out of associating with other success-minded individuals. “You are only as successful as those you frequently associate with the rich are always on the lookout for individuals who are goal-oriented, optimistic, enthusiastic, and  who have an overall positive mental outlook.”, he added.

Napoleon Hill a journalists says that  “Men take on the nature and the habits and the power of thought of those with whom they associate,” he wrote in his 1937 bestseller, “Think and Grow Rich,” and “there is no hope of success for the person who repels people through a negative personality.”

In short, In order to reach what you desire, rich or not, you must avoid pessimistic people because it only derails or hinders what you want to achieve in life.Instead, focus on people who brings out positivity in you.

In short: Avoid the pessimists and start hanging out with the optimists.