The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want Author: Sonja Lyubomirsky | Language: English | ISBN:
B0010O927W | Format: EPUB
The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want Description
Learn how to achieve the happiness you deserve
"A guide to sustaining your newfound contentment." --Psychology Today
You see here a different kind of happiness book.
The How of Happiness is a comprehensive guide to understanding the elemetns of happiness based on years of groundbreaking scientific research. It is also a practical, empowering, and easy-to-follow workbook, incorporating happiness strategies, excercises in new ways of thinking, and quizzes for understanding our individuality, all in an effort to help us realize our innate potential for joy and ways to sustain it in our lives. Drawing upon years of pioneering research with thousands of men and women,
The How of Happiness is both a powerful contribution to the field of positive psychology and a gift to people who have sought to take their happiness into their own hands.
www.TheHowOfHappiness.com- File Size: 772 KB
- Print Length: 396 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 159420148X
- Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (December 27, 2007)
- Sold by: Penguin Group (USA) LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B0010O927W
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,356 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #17
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Emotions - #61
in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Emotions - #75
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Self-Help > Happiness
- #17
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Emotions - #61
in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Emotions - #75
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Self-Help > Happiness
About: Science-based ways of how to increase happiness
Review: Right off the bat, Lyubomirsky points out that we can only control 40% of our happiness (with half being genetic and 10% being environmental) but she suggest a bunch of techniques that have the backing of studies (which she cites) that have been shown to increase happiness. She notes that all techniques aren't for everyone so she encourages readers to choose the ones that fit their lifestyles. These techniques include practicing gratitude, forgiveness, goal setting, spirituality, exercise and living in the present (among other things). Ideas of of how to put these things to use are clearly spelled out. I really enjoyed this book, sources cited, great topic, well written, engaging, actually applicable to life.
Some random things I learned:
Marriage increases happiness for 2 years, then it returns to normal levels
Happiness also tends to eventually return to set point levels after both catastrophes and successes
People get happier with age
No one thing brings happiness
Overthinking (i.e. in times of anxiety, stress or insecurity) isn't good for you and just makes things worse
Helping others makes people happy
Hugging is good for happiness
The happier the person, the less he or she pays attention to what others around are doing
By Charlie
I tried to follow the suggestions in this book. First of all, if you really want to use this as a how-to guide, its format is not conducive to that. The very few specific actions it recommends are buried in text that is full of anecdotes and studies that are supposed to sell you on the thought that doing these actions will make you happy. Also, according to the author the solution to all of your problems seems to be writing in journals: your "Best Possible Selves" journal in which you are trying to cultivate optimism by imagining what your life will be like one it is exactly the way you want it to be, your "Goals and Subgoals Journal," your "Trauma" journal, in which you write about traumatic experiences you've had as a way of coping with stress, a "Gratitude journal" in which you are writing what you are grateful for, etc etc etc. While I can see how writing can help people become more optimistic and grateful, lighter in spirit and more focused, the author does not give specific advice on what questions to ponder while writing.
I felt after reading this book (several times) that it was a less helpful, more commercialized version of a much better, more helpful and more specific book which was written several years ago, "The Emotional Toolkit" by Darlene Minnini (also a PhD from California, although from UCLA). The Emotional Toolkit cites the same studies that The How of Happiness cites and more, but is more focused on the reader and what he or she can do, not exclusively on selling the idea of what they should do. It gives specific suggestions, which How does not; such as listing questions to ask yourself while writing in a journal, for example, and questions to ask yourself to shift your thoughts from negative to neutral (instead of How's simply telling you to "stop" the negative thoughts because negative thoughts are bad for you).
So, if you really want to help yourself, I would not go for How of Happiness.
By goatcurry
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