The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want | Sonja Lyubomirsky

The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want | Sonja Lyubomirsky | Proven techniques for developing and maintaining a positive outlook

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The How of Happine...

	The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want Sonja Lyubomirsky Penguin Press HC, The, 2007 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 37 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

You can change your personal capacity for happiness. Research psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky's pioneering concept of the 40% solution shows you how Drawing on her own groundbreaking research with thousands of men and women, research psychologist and University of California professor of psychology Sonja Lyubomirsky has pioneered a detailed yet easy-to-follow plan to increase happiness in our day-to-day lives-in the short term and over the long term. The How of Happiness is a different kind of happiness book, one that offers a comprehensive guide to understanding what happiness is, and isn't, and what can be done to bring us all closer to the happy life we envision for ourselves. Using more than a dozen uniquely formulated happiness-increasing strategies, The How of Happiness offers a new and potentially life- changing way to understand our innate potential for joy and happiness as well as our ability to sustain it in our lives. Beginning with a short diagnostic quiz that helps readers to first quantify and then to understand what she describes as their "happiness set point," Lyubomirsky reveals that this set point determines just 50 percent of happiness while a mere 10 percent can be attributed to differences in life circumstances or situations. This leaves a startling, and startlingly underdeveloped, 40 percent of our capacity for happiness within our power to change. Lyubomirsky's "happiness strategies" introduce readers to the concept of intentional activities, mindful actions that they can use to achieve a happier life. These include exercises in practicing optimism when imagining the future, instruction in how best to savor life's pleasures in the here and now, and a thoroughgoing explanation of the importance of staying active to being happy. Helping readers find the right fit between the goals they set and the activities she suggests, Lyubomirsky also helps readers understand the many obstacles to happiness as well as how to harness individual strengths to overcome them. Always emphasizing how much of our happiness is within our control, Lyubomirsky addresses the "scientific how" of her happiness research, demystifying the many myths that unnecessarily complicate its pursuit. Unlike those of many self-help books, all her recommendations are supported by scientific research. The How of Happiness is both a powerful contribution to the field of positive psychology and a gift to all those who have questioned their own well- being and sought to take their happiness into their own hands.

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A unique marriage of self-help and science

In this book, psychology professor Sonja Lyubomirsky presents a simple, step-by-step process to creating a happier life. What is unique about Lyubomirsky's approach is that each and every recommendation she makes is supported by decades of research and scientific evidence; in short, the twelve happiness activities she presents have been thoroughly vetted in their ability to produce ongoing feelings of pleasure and contentment in one's life.

The basic premise of this book is that 50% of one's "set point" happiness is genetic, 10% is related to life circumstances, and the remaining 40% is changeable through our own activities. Lyubomirsky suggests that all of us can be happier if we simply engage in any one of the 12 happiness activities which she describes in detail in this book. However, she acknowledges that certain activities will be a better "fit" for certain individuals, and so she includes a "Person-Activity Fit Diagnostic" to determine which activities might work best for you. (Note: Those who find themselves to be depressed upon the initial assessment are encouraged to skip ahead to the book's postscript, "If You Are Depressed.")

Once you have identified your best fit happiness activities, Lyubomirsky recommends actively pursuing up to four of them. Some of these activities may well be things that you are already doing in your life, such as expressing gratitude, nurturing social relationships, practicing religion, and engaging in physical activity. Lyubomirsky goes on to explain that in order to provide sustainable happiness, these activities need to include several "hows," including eliciting positive emotion, providing optimal timing and variety, including an element of social support, involving motivation/effort/commitment, and finally, becoming a habit.

This book is similar in style to Daniel Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness in that it presents a wealth of scientific evidence in an extremely readable format. Although Lyubomirsky isn't quite the entertainer that Gilbert is, her writing is interesting and engaging. As a psychologist myself, I know that I will use the concepts presented here in my work with my clients, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book as a direct resource for my clients as well.

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Proven techniques for developing and maintaining a positive outlook

Dr. Sonia's text is filled with descriptions of empirical studies that help lift the moods of everyday people. If you want to feel better, practice some of the techniques that she advocates. The book presents several methods for turning your attitude about people and events around to a balanced and optimistic point of view.

Your Happiness

The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want

A thorough book on becoming happier based upon research by one of the world's leading happiness experts. The book is based on scientific research not conjective. The author writes well and makes this an interesting read. Indentifies the areas that we can influence to help us create a happier life and indicates those that we can't do anything or much about, such as our genetics. Helps the reader identify happiness activities that fit her/his interests,values and needs. Emphasizes the importance of gratitude, positive thinking,kindness and social relationships in finding happiness. Provides many helpful suggestions on managing stress, hardship and depression. A very worthwhile book that provides the reader with a guide to what is likely to produce positive results and what is likely to do nothing more than spin our wheels.

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All according to plan.

Not really much to say, everything went according to plan. Made the buy, and the product arrived in the projected time frame in perfect condition.

Thank you very much.

Happiness for Dummies

By titling this review, "Happiness for Dummies" I don't meant to insult readers or the author. I am thinking of that series of how-to books "_____ for Dummies". That is what this book reminds me of. It is an extremely tightly organized book. You can just see the outline format the author must have used peeking thourgh every few pages. Every idea has a number associated with it. There are twelve big ideas, two cross-references, X further activities, etc. It is also full of short quotes and brief references to scientific studies. Again, I could just see index cards with quotes on them and notes about this or that study being put to work by the author. In contrast, Jonathan Haidt's "The Happiness Hypothesis" with its various references to literary works, religious and philosophical thinking throughout the ages and more generally discursive style seems to me to be a more sophisticated work and may be better suited to some readers. Also, although I loved the 50/40/10 idea that is one of the book's principal arguments and the one that has probably attracted the most press, I wasn't as sold on the strength of the inference as I had hoped I would be.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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