This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Buy This Book !, Positive Psychology Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Great new book on the market by Sonja Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want !!!
The psychological community has been waiting for this treasure to “come out” and wow, we have not been let down.
The BEST NEWS is that she has integrated research and theory so it’s not one of the touchy feely, cliche filled “happy books.” Indeed she has done a stellar job of presenting the research and empirical evidence to back up all the concepts she presents. So, even though Grandma Millie would agree with her findings, Dr. Lyubomirsky, presents the evidence so even the grumpiest of people will find it difficult to argue with the statement that HAPPINESS CAN BE ACHIEVED BY SKILLS AND HARD WORK….
The good news….
If we view happiness as a pie….(see the movie Waitress…thinking of pies) you will see that 50% of our happiness is determined by our genes ( happiness set point), 10 % by life circumstances, but the GOOD NEWS is that 40% is determined by our INTENTIONAL ACTIONS !
So, we CAN change our thoughts, behaviors and INCREASE (or as so many do, DECREASE) our happiness….by managing our daily behaviors and thoughts.
So, here we go…rather then focus on what we can’t control, we can focus on what we can control that blessed 40 %.
Too often we focus on the 10 % Life Circumstances ( eg being widowed, divorced, empty nested, rich, poor, challenged in some way) as if those life circumstances really DETERMINE whether or not we are happy. Instead, as numerous research studies convincingly points out, shifting the focus to how we construct our daily activites….thoughts, feelings, and behaviors… we can REALLY have CONTROL and IMPACT on our subjective sense of happiness and well-being, which in turn will improve not only our quality of life, but additionally the quality of our relationships as well.
This will work even with the genetically challenged, or those folks whose set point for happiness is low…we all know the folks who are “gloom and doom” in the face of even a “fun” life experience. Surely, those folks will have to work harder at developing their happiness muscle (that 40%)…but the good news is…it is possible.
Challenge One: Happiness Strategy One GRATITUDE : How have you expressed GRATITUDE for the blessings in your life? Have you even turned the light on those fortunes, or is your lens set permanently on “poor me”, scarcity rather than abundance, or “life sucks” ? If that’s the case, do yourself a favor for today…think about all you have to be grateful for, you will be glad you did. And, better yet, buy THIS book and DO THE WORK she so beautifully outlines in the book.
Blog on,
Beth
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