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

A ll of us want to be happy, even if we dont 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 its even possible for youwhat I hope this book will spur you to dois to understand that becoming happier is realizable, that its in your power, and that its one of the most vital and momentous things that you can do for yourself and for those around you.

What are the meanings and mysteries of happiness? Is it possible to acquire more of it, and can new happiness ever endure? These are foundational questions to which I have devoted my entire career as a research psychologist. When I was beginning my investigations, as a twenty-two-year-old psychology graduate student, the study of well-being wasnt a well-regarded choice, the subject matter considered elusive, unscientific, soft, and fuzzy. But recently happiness has exploded as a hot topic in the social science community, a symptom, perchance, of the Western twenty-first-century individualistic zeitgeist.

Alas, has happiness today become a fad, like hula hoops, big hairdos, and Fonzie? It can certainly appear so, with the market saturated with newspaper and magazine pieces, television documentaries, books, quotes, blogs, and podcasts on the topic, the vast majority of which are relatively uninformed by empirical data. Not infrequently, this frenzy drives researchers like myself to want to keep a distance, yet I think its essential to engage in the national discussion about happiness and insist that it abide by strict scientific standards. Why? Because I believe deeply in the importance of the scientific study of happiness and well-being. The majority of people in the world, across vast continents and cultures, profess that being happy is one of their most cherished goals in lifefor themselves and, above all, for their children. Whats more, happiness offers myriad rewards, not just for the happy person but for his or her family, workplace, community, nation, and society. Working on how to become happier, the research suggests, will not only make a person feel better but will also boost his or her energy, creativity, and immune system, foster better relationships, fuel higher productivity at work, and even lead to a longer life.1 Happiness, in my humble opinion, is the Holy Grail, the meaning and the purpose of life, as Aristotle famously said, the whole aim and end of human existence.

The science of happiness deserves to be more than a fad. Striving to be happy is a serious, legitimate, and worthy aim. If you consult the ancient texts in history, literature, or philosophy, youll also find that its eternal. Many of us suffer, and many more feel empty and unfulfilled, yet to attain more joy, less anguish, more tranquillity, and less insecurity is a venerable goal. I have been conducting research in this field for eighteen years, initially as a doctoral student at Stanford University and then and now as a professor at the University of California, Riverside. In the intervening years I have seen the science of happiness grow as part of a movement called positive psychology, the psychology of what makes life worth living. The label comes from the conviction that empowering people to develop a positive state of mindto live the most rewarding and happiest lives they canis just as important as psychologys traditional focus on repairing their weaknesses and healing their pathologies. The focus on flourishing and fulfillment may seem like a wise and obvious choice, yet psychology for the last half of the twentieth century was fixated on disease, disorder, and the negative side of life.2