The above title is the quintessential reason why I see hundreds of patients each month at oBand. Many people are coming in because they are “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” They find themselves caught in an endless cycle of eating because they feel badly about themselves and then feeling badly about themselves because they’ve eaten.

Usually by the time the patient walks through the door, they’ve decided that what they are doing is no longer working for them, and it is time to try something new. That is where oBand comes in. oBand can be a powerful tool for a patient, combined with the right diet and exercise.

However, there is one more missing factor that people tend to miss when doing most diets- happiness. In the chase for a thinner, leaner “you”, people tend to become tunnel focused, leaving behind all the things that once brought them happiness. That is why most diets inevitably fail.

It is my hope that all oBand patients, and even patients who don’t get the oBand, do not forget how to be happy along the journey.

The “L” in my B.A.L.A.N.C.E model stands for learning. Learning, in this sense, is meant to represent the novelty or challenge in our lives that have been proven through research to be responsible for increased feelings of well-being, contentment, and well- happiness.

The literature on happiness shows us that by engaging in new activities, we utilize structures in the left hemisphere of our brain (structures associated with happiness also reside in the left hemisphere), while engaging in the same routine every day and not doing anything new, we continuously call on our right hemisphere (associated with structures found to be responsible for depression, negative thinking, and hopeless assumptions about the future)….or in other words- you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got- depression, anxiety, and feelings of “is this all there is?” This is very common in dieters that tend to stick to the same meals every day and the same exercise routines.

Novelty and challenge can be implemented in a multitude of forms. My therapy can often encompass challenging someone to learn a new subject and teach me about it, join a new group, or sometimes- I simply request that the patient takes a different route to work that week.

The irony of depression is that one’s mind intuitively tells them “if you just lay low you will start to feel better, don’t try and push yourself too hard.” This idea works when one is physically sick with the flu, but the flu of the mind requires a different antidote. In order to escape the chains of depression, one must do what feels the least do able- getting outside of what feels comfortable.

Even for those who don’t suffer with depression, challenge and novelty are the medicines of the spirit. They can be the difference in transforming a life starting to feel like Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day into a reinvigorated and energetic way of being.

At the same time, I appreciate how impossible this can seem to the depressed mind. People might be reading this and saying, “Yeah great for everyone else, meanwhile I’m doing well to just get my kids their bath, homework finished, and supper in their bellies before the next day repeats.” However, there is much that can be done to incite happiness back home.

The idea of this post is that happiness is not a golden ring to be grasped at the end of a long life of career success and material possessions. It is not even a prize to be had after one finds true love and achieves what they believe to be – the American dream. Happiness is a muscle that must be exercised every day in order to reap its benefits, and part of that exercise is seeking novelty and challenge in every day life.

Aristotle once said “ Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life. The whole aim and end of human existence.” I tend to agree, and after spending years working with thousands of individuals, I believe it’s a universally human need to find happiness (although we all tend to start off going about it our different ways). So if happiness is the purpose, we no longer have an excuse not to begin exercising our happiness muscles today. How can you begin to be different? What have you always wanted to do but never had enough time? What are you saving at the end of your to-do list?

Dr. Colleen Long is the resident psychologist at oBand Centers, and the author of “Happiness in B.A.L.A.N.C.E.”  She facilitates weekly support groups for weight loss on OBanding Together, and does individual and couples therapy aimed at helping individuals lead a healthier lifestyle. Dr. Long works mainly from a positive psychology framework as it applies to addiction, depression, relationships,  body image and weight loss. Her website can be found at www.DrColleenLong.com.