The How of Happiness

I haven’t yet read The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky, a “positivity psychologist” and professor of psychology at University of California.

But based on Jacob Sokol’s great blog post about it — http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/08/30/12-things-happy-people-do-differently  — I can tell I’d like it. The psychologist lays out 12 ways to increase happiness in your daily life. They ring true for me, including:

• Appreciating what you have makes your life happier.
• See the endless opportunities around you, even in bad times.
• Be kind to others, and you’ll feel good.
• When life takes a bad turn, you have choices about how you react.
• Cultivate opportunities to be so immersed in what you’re doing that time stands still. The psychologist calls these “flow experiences.”
• Be physically healthy. Exercise is equivalent to Zoloft (the prescription antidepressant) in making people happier.