Psychology 101.4 - The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky. (294 views, 19 replies)

www.dropbox.com/s/4sfxsrnh2zssnm...

For some unknown technical reason there is no preview but it can be obtained inthe usual way.

Happy people are especially hard to deal with when I've just gotten up. I do not trust them.
Grumbling makes ME happy.

I am interested in the distinction between the facade of happiness that people project to the exterior and the interior happiness that people nurture.

What makes you happy?

A place, a season, a gathering, in company or alone, an activity?

This book came up on my radar as it was recommended by the Canadian philosopher Paul Thagard in an interview where he reviews 5 books on The Meaning of Life.

What makes Sonja Lyubomirski’s book different is that it’s actually based on scientific research on what makes people happy. She’s part of a research programme that’s been very active in psychology in the last ten years, called positive psychology. Traditionally psychologists were more likely to study people’s unhappiness – problems like depression and anxiety. In the last decade there’s been a very strong movement to turn that around and use the methods of scientific psychology to try to look at the more positive side. Lyubomirski has been one of the leaders in that movement, along with people like Martin Seligman. But the key thing is you don’t get to make things up – you’ve got to do studies and experiments to try to figure out what actually does make people happy. And I think her findings are maybe not shocking, but they’re very interesting and very useful.
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She talks about a dozen or so happiness activities that are known to make people happier. Things like expressing gratitude, cultivating optimism, not thinking too much about things you shouldn’t be worrying about. Being kind, having social relationships. These things are all common sense, but you don’t know they’re actually true. She talks about strategies for coping, learning to forgive, savouring life’s joys, practising religion and spirituality, taking care of your body.
These are all good pieces of advice, but at a level over and above what you usually find in self-help books – because she’s doing it from a scientific perspective, where there’s actually evidence that supports her claims that these are ways people can be happy.

Also, she shows that a lot of the views that people have about happiness are just wrong. Thinking, for example, that the best way to be happy is to be rich. The data on that are really quite interesting. It certainly makes you unhappy to be poor, but over a certain threshold, people don’t get much happier by having more money.

She gives the best discussion I know, of the nature of happiness and the ways that one can practically accomplish it.

Source: fivebooks.com/best-books/paul-th...
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"She talks about a dozen or so happiness activities that are known to make people happier. Things like expressing gratitude, cultivating optimism, not thinking too much about things you shouldn’t be worrying about. Being kind, having social relationships"
I agree a lot with this.
In my humble experience I have too met many indeed ways of people finding their balances and happiness and this would be different for every individual according it's level of self -consciousness, educational loads, genetic predispositions (but as I said already in Adrian's post , the hereditary and it's manifestations is a very difficult area for public talk and explanation) and much more. I haven't really Googled Mrs Ljubomirsky's origin, academic references etc but i will talk from my humble experience in general.

Around the Era of the fall of the Berlin's wall many Eastern educated people found themselves poor and without incomes that would deliver a humane way of living. Back then and without the control of the Soviets suddenly the Eastern Europe was filled with hundred of books of close to conspiracy theories of Alternative Historical facts, Aliens, methods of self-management of stress, self- development etc. The West was already filed up with self-development and management superficial books, using in part social management methods, as studied and analyzed in financial management institutes and in other parts psychology methods borrowed from the modern West methods of Psychoanalysis. And there were also the Alien and Alternative of whatever science books. Gradually Globalization and modern Social groups and parties unified the perception of book writing, market and libraries into a modern Globalized bookshelf. I mentioned my notes about Eastern Europe because this was there the development that brought Europe and the Americas in one bookshelf. I have very little knowledge of what is happening in Asia or Africa in depth.
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The book , reading only the basic information you give, sounds to me like another book making cognitive psychology's methods public. In fact there is a lot of graphomania around cognitive and behavioral theories that attract people and sell books. The same goes for Aliens, History , Ancient lizard people etc.

Many books of self-development are good many others really damage people and market them to special books and series of books. For the rest of books, like Aliens, Religious conspiracies I find it unnecessary to mention.

What I'd recommend my friends : After they have read a book of this nature and they find it very interesting and want more, they have to realize that they have the need of Psychological help and self-development. Therefore they better select very carefully books and series of books of known specialists, proven to be good and famous or better visit a good "shrink" . Modern cognitive methods are superb, in general in self-development but they also a tool of manipulation. I have met people misguided and overloaded with literature that made a mess in their head. They'd visualize blue colors and activate chakras , reading in the same time " the body language" signs, the aura and analyze the genealogy of their friends in order to survive their existence in a normal social group and manage the conflicts within.
I hope my friend Box you understand that my comment is not against the book you post or the particular writer but I found the opportunity to speak my mind about some books.
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