Tag Archives: happiness

January 9, 2012 · 10:32 am

Six habits to boost happiness

This stuff makes sense, and it’s backed by scientific research.

Six habits that help people cultivate happiness in their lives:

  1. Pay attention.
  2. Keep friends close.
  3. Drop grudges.
  4. Get moving.
  5. Practice kindness.
  6. (No surprise!) Give thanks.

For more:

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/pdfs/happycircle-ggsc.pdf

Thanks to First Unitarian Church of Rochester for sharing that link from the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, http://greatergood.berkeley.edu. The center sponsors groundbreaking scientific research into social and emotional well-being and helps people apply this research to their personal and professional lives.

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December 12, 2011 · 10:45 am

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.

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