Most happiness research revolves around three primary sources of potential happiness: temperament and personality, life circumstances such as health and wealth, and our focus and choices. Learn more in this week’s blog.
What Purpose Does Sadness Serve?
Does Happiness Impact Your Immune System?
Numerous books have extolled the value of happiness, resulting in “life coaching for happiness” becoming a thriving industry. Much of the research on psychological well-being is related to depression and stress with ill health. Even taking negative emotions into account, the linkage between happiness and health is distinctive (Steptoe, 2019). Studies over two decades show that happiness affects our physical health in the following ways…
Is Happiness a Choice?
In an overview of studies on happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky found that we control at least 40% of our happiness through our focus and choices (Lyubomirsky, 2013). We now know we can raise our happiness by cultivating positive emotions such as love, kindness, compassion, gratitude, hope, and inspiration. Here are some science-based ways to boost your happiness and well-being.
Are Happiness and Joy the Same?
Happiness is an emotional state—feeling happy about something means feeling satisfied—or maybe it’s an assessment of our life or someone else’s. Joy is an episodic emotion and is felt concurrent with the situation prompting this emotion and arises during activities. The following factors can explain the main differences between joy and happiness…
Rewire Your Brain for Happiness
Research on happiness indicates that only 10% of happiness is accounted for by life circumstances, with genetic differences accounting for 50%, leaving us with 40% of happiness within our control. While a rewiring of our inner world may be much more daunting than cleaning our closets, it will be worth the effort. To help you get started on this critically important task, you can practice these four areas. Give them a try!
How Does Joy Feel?
Season of Joy
30 Days of Gratitude
Giving thanks is one of the oldest concepts in society, found at the core of most wisdom traditions and religions. Robert Emmons, psychologist and expert on gratitude, defines gratitude as recognizing the goodness in our lives (Emmons, 2010). When we are grateful, we appreciate both the action and the intention behind the effort given on our behalf. Here is how we will “nudge” you to be grateful this month…
