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

What an important and well-crafted book! Concerning its physical properties, the book I received nicely matched the images shown in the product listing. The print was crisp; the paper stock was of good, typical quality; the spine was sturdy. The writing style was just as I hoped it would be: practical, clear, concise, and unstintingly scientific, but not overly complex. Every chapter is evidence-based and actionable. Although research on happiness is constantly advancing, one unexpected way in which this book is valuable is that it gives the reader a framework for keeping pace with research developments. For example, instead of following science news about happiness in general, this book might inspire a reader to follow science news about current research findings on relationship quality and gratitude. Lyubomirsky has done humanity a great favor with this affordable, science-based, practical guide.

“All of us want to be happy, even if we don’t admit it openly or choose to cloak our desire in different words. Whether our dreams are about professional success, spiritual fulfillment, a sense of connection, a purpose in life, or love and sex, we covet those things because ultimately we believe that they will make us happier. Yet few of us truly appreciate just how much we can improve our happiness or know precisely how to go about doing it. To step back and consider your deep-seated assumptions about how to become a happier person and whether it’s even possible for you—what I hope this book will spur you to do—is to understand that becoming happier is realizable, that it’s in your power, and that it’s one of the most vital and momentous things that you can do for yourself and for those around you.” ~ Sonja Lyubomirsky from The How of Happiness People often ask me what ONE book I would recommend they read that I think best captures how to create an ideal life. I’ve never given an answer as nothing’s ever really met that standard. Now I can: The How of Happiness. This is the 87th Note I’ve worked on and it’s been fascinating to see the same Big Ideas repeated by philosophers, mystics and modern-day self-help gurus. It’s even more exciting, in fact, EXHILARATING (!!!), to see so many of these Ideas SCIENTIFICALLY TESTED and *PROVEN* to be effective. (Pardon the yelling. This book gets me a little excited. :) And that’s what this book is all about. As a research psychologist and University of California professor of psychology, for the last 18+ years Sonja Lyubomirsky has been testing various ways we can increase our level of happiness as she’s played a leading role in the nascent positive psychology movement that’s creating a science of optimal living. SUPER COOL stuff. I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend you get the book. It’s packed with happiness assessments and scientifically proven strategies for boosting your level of happiness that I think you’ll really dig. Let’s explore some of the Big Ideas: 1. Why Be Happy? - Compelling reasons. 2. The 40% Solution - Focus here! 3. The Work of Happiness - It takes consistent effort. 4. 12 Happiness Activities - What’s your favorite? 5. Happiness Activity #1: - Expressing gratitude. So bust out your journal and imagine your ideal self as we move to embody the hows of happiness, will ya?!? :) More goodness— including PhilosophersNotes on 300+ books in our ​*OPTIMIZE*​ membership program. Find out more at brianjohnson . me.

Five stars for value. Four stars because there is so much room in the book for improvement. The pros: 1) Hooray that Sonja is putting a dent in one of the greatest insanities of our culture: The lack of intentional focus on happiness in education and science (a slight oversight for the last 2,000 years). 2) How wonderful that some money has actually been spent in research on life's most important quest. 3) It's great that we are coming to understand the value of happiness on all levels such that it is considered important to study and do research. 4) The scientific lens is a valuable lens to turn on just about any topic and this appears to be the most comprehensive effort in that direction so far for the general reader. 5) Lots of good ideas. 6) Some valuable counter-intuitive information. 7) It has already changed my life for the better. 8) It brought happiness to read. In short, how could anyone go wrong reading anything even slightly useful about increasing happiness? Read the book. The cons: Kindle cons: Questionnaires were hard to fill out on kindle. I'm building a website for myself and others to interactively and easily DO and record and even measure happiness consistent with many of the books features. The index lacks page numbers. Content cons: 1) As valuable as statistical research data is, it is incredibly blind to the complexity of the individual. You have NO information about how and why, on an individual level, the trend was set: Person a) got happier simply because they love attention and were getting more attention in some experiment. Person b) got happier because an experiment gave them some flow and focus, enabling them to feel productive and our culture teaches that we are more valuable if we are productive so they felt more valuable and this made them happy. c) got happier because the double-blind was thin and they picked up the researchers confidence that this approach would make them happier and decided to prove them right on some level. d) got happier overall but the writing part of the experiment was annoying while the thinking part was exhilarating. e) got happier because she had a crush on the researcher and WANTED to look happier for their next encounter so she would look better. I would consider the research twice as valuable if it was partnered with a personal explanation by each person in the experiment that could be dipped into online so that the subjective information could be gathered and matched more to the situation of the individual reader, who is not a statistic. This is where intuition trumps science in personal choices sometimes. And less scientific and subjective socially acceptable stories leave an incomplete picture, why not add in some data gathered through hypnosis to see how that diverges from the socially acceptable reasons people give (someone may not want to SAY that they were happier because they felt sexy around one researcher and wanted to look good, but it may have had far more bearing than the experiment). 2) You can learn so much reading about group results and suggestions but also continue one of the biggest trends in our unhappiness inherent in the culture: separation from our moment to moment experience and awareness in favor of external information about what we ought to be feeling and doing to be happy. 3) The author placed an enormous emphasis on how everything in the book was scientific at the beginning but in doing so discounted the 30% of anecdotal stories she shares about her own life, which in some cases is more informative than the science done so far. I may have missed it, but since double-blinds are considered so vital, it also was not clear in many cases if a double-blind was present in the experiments done in a classroom etc. If you are in a happiness course with a happiness expert trying to be happy that in itself is an environment predisposed to happiness. And so in some cases the lesson may be to spend more time in a happiness class experimenting rather than doing any one thing in particular. So much of what she finds HAS been common wisdom anecdotally for a long time. Which perhaps suggests that scientists need to learn to be less confident when dismissing things that cannot YET be be proved just because they don't have the measuring devices or budgets to explore the subjective terrain of consciousness with the same precision they can design a bridge. Given how vastly ignorant science remains in so many subjective areas it seems appropriate not only to invest a LOT more money in developing the science that can catch up to our internal nuances but also for scientists to be humble to the fact that there are many ways to know something without measuring it in a double-blind experiment that is very crude and still completely subjective when it comes to creating a story about WHY a certain cause had a certain result in a majority of people (but never everyone). Overall, I found the book a great use of my time. One thing not addressed in the book is the 20% of the population that is HSP, as defined by Elaine Arron. It turns out that 20% of every species thrives by taking a contrarian stance relative to the rest of the herd and has an uncommonly sensitive nervous system, making environmental control more important than it is for the other 80% of the population. This twenty percent of people may greatly distort data for the rest of the population in some experiements so it would be interesting to see how results differ when groups are first sorted into HSPs and non HSPs. As part of that 20% I find that my environment physically plays a role in my happiness much more than 10%. I also want to share, for those who do have more time and money, that it is quite possible to boost happiness 20-30% for years by constantly adjusting, improving and redesigning life and environment in small and fun ways specifically to increase happiness (I use my own subjective one to ten scale) through travel, many small home-improvements, joy-based shopping, hobbies (I've taken up radio control planes) etc. And finally, I think that happiness strategies may be cyclical. At one time my happiness, joy and pleasure came 90% from exploring romantic relationships. At another time it came 90% from inner growth and meditation. And now it is coming 90% from exploring and creating a beautiful life materially in hundreds of small ways. It's coming from living in the question: "What is the most exciting day I can imagine and how can I create that day NOW?" When I did not have any money that would have been a depressing question and meditation was exhilarating. Now that I do have the money to fly to Vegas for a Cirque du-Soleil show later in the evening that question wakes me up and engages me fully in flow - one of the states conducive to happiness. And I have no doubt that what brings my happiness will shift again within five years. All of this points to the blind-spots in research and the importance of understanding each of us as unique individuals who are not static, and do not respond statically to the same stimuli, but on a journey in which our values and what brings us happiness changes.

O que mais gostei desse livro é que é pesadamente baseado em pesquisas científicas, contendo todas as referências bibliográficas no final do livro. Diferente de muitos livros estilo "coach". Não é necessariamente um livro super "divertido" de ler, mas é muito valioso. Recomendo fortemente.

Je suis ravie avec cet achat. Merci beaucoup. Je vous souhaite de bonnes fêtes ! Que du plus +++++ ++++

I am a voracious reader of self help or behavioural books, not because I have too many problems, but because I am in love with human mind and want to get a better insight about it. This is probably the most scientific book on happiness, a welcome break from hundred other books on the topic that follow the stereotype plot of some guy renouncing the corporate world and joining a yoga/meditation retreat. Nothing wrong with those retreats, but I feel you don;t need to be a monk to achieve happiness in life. And, this book cements that belief, by sharing well researched wisdom and lots of meaningful exercises. The only thing that did not go well with me is the claim that 50% of our happiness is decided by our genes. I feel it is much lower. A must read by all means!

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