Research published in the American journal Science shows that a serious source of unhappiness is a wandering mind.

Most people spend nearly half their waking lives thinking about something other than their current activity. Researchers at Harvard University found that mind wandering occurred around 47% of the time.

Participants in the study reported that they were distracted at least 30% of the time, except when making love, which seemed to concentrate minds wonderfully.

Many spiritual techniques, such as meditation, train the mind to focus on one specific thing or activity, especially breathing. These techniques are said to improve well-being.

Now there is concrete evidence that “being present” does indeed increase happiness and general performance.

Do certain situations make you tense and jumpy? You’d be a rare case if you didn’t have at least one tension trigger: maybe going on a date, or a speaking engagement.

One of the easiest ways to conquer this kind of anxiety is by using a mantra.

The mantra should be something redolent of calm in your life, or just a convenient phrase. One golfer uses “fairways and greens”, for example.

The trick is to keep repeating the mantra when you really are calm and quiet. The mind then associates the phrase with situations of peace and ease.

As you prepare to speak or meet and greet, repeat the mantra silently to yourself. You’ll find a sense of relaxation stealing over you and you will perform much better.