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

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Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The

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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.


PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS:

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 158
EAN: 9781594201486
ISBN: 159420148X
Label: Penguin Press HC, The
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2007-12-27
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Studio: Penguin Press HC, The


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment
• Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment
• Stumbling on Happiness
• Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out
• Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

good deal -
it didn't come fast but i wasn't in a hurry so it doesn't matter to me
the book is in great condition just as mentioned

not a new approach, and not specific enough... -
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.

Top up our happiness tank -
The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want We teach the importance of connecting and creating strong networks through Positive Networking--discovering what you can do for others. Books like The How of Happiness offer empirical data on why "what-can-I-do-for-you relationships" are the most effective. The bonus? It comes back to you. You will be happier as a result of how you interact with others. We love the author's admission that, in the beginning of her research, touchy-feely advice such as verbalizing what you are grateful for, thanking people for what they have done for you, etc. didn't sit well with her dark eastern European mind-set. But Dr. Lyubomirsky's research provided her with proof that we can top up our happiness tank. Use these practices in the How of Happiness not only in your business life, but share it with you family. There are lifetime benefits here!

Sometimes How To is How Not -
Sorry to drizzle on her parade, but Prof. Lyubomirsky's book, while it has a lot of useful stuff, also misses or muffs in important ways.

First the worst: She advocates religiosity or spirituality in a naive way that ignores the downside. It should be obvious that comfort and solace and even feelings of exaltation can be spurious, in the sense that they inevitably entail self betrayal. After all, such feelings can be had through drugs, or in the most glaring contemporary case through committing yourself to Moslem jihad and "martyrdom" through murder. I haven't done a double-blind study of those who chose "martyrdom" over those who declined, but I'd bet the former were happier.

Next, she misuses the term "meaning," implying or at least suggesting that you can find "meaning" in life through dedication to something "larger" than yourself. She completely fails to analyze this term or show that it is rightfully used in the ways she implies. In blunt fact, there is no established "meaning" in any rational sense beyond your own biological drives, which are still very poorly understood.

A lot more could be said, but I'll stop at one more note. She mostly ignores the power and traps of legacy, or cultural inertia. Almost all of us are misled in many ways by our indoctrination, often rhe result of evolutionary pressures that sacrficed the individual for the genome. Your interests are not always those of your genome, and you need to break free.

Robert C.W. Ettinger

Excellent Guide to Increasing Positive Emotions -
I strongly recommend this book for anyone seeking to increase the amount of positive emotions and happiness in their lives.

I am an avid reader of psychology and self-help books, with a background in counseling and science. I am planning to become a therapist, and recently became interested in the new field of positive psychology.

While I had absorbed many useful insights from excellent books dealing with conquering negative emotions and depression, such as David Burns' "Feeling Good" and Harriet Braiker's "Getting Up When You're Feeling Down," I had always felt there must be more to psychology than that.

The new field of positive psychology -- moving beyond dealing with negative emotions into building one's positive emotions and strengths -- has been very exciting to me.

Professor Lyubomirsky's book is one of the best books in the field that I have read so far.

She synthesizes the results of dozens of scientific studies to create useful, practical, simple, common sense tactics for people to use who want more happiness and general positive emotions in their lives, and who also want to build up their positive strengths.

A reader does not have to have a science background or a counseling background to implement the strategies she extracts from scientific research done on happiness.

I am now on my third re-reading of her book. It is written in a clear, easy-to-read style, but it is soundly based on complex scientific studies.

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