From Wikipedia in 2012
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness
Wikipedia article on Happiness
Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources. Various research groups, including Positive Psychology, endeavor to apply the scientific method to answer questions about what “happiness” is, and how we might attain it.
Philosophers and religious thinkers often define happiness in terms of living a good life, or flourishing, rather than simply as an emotion. Happiness in this sense was used to translate the Greek Eudaimonia, and is still used in virtue ethics. Happiness economics suggests that measures of public happiness should be used to supplement more traditional economic measures when evaluating the success of public policy.
Book Excerpts
The How of Happiness, by Sonja Lyubomirsky
Authentic Happiness by Martin E. P. Seligman. 2002.
The Happiness Hypothesis, by Jonathan Haidt. 2006.
Learned Optimism by Martin E. P. Seligman. 2002.
Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert. 2006.
Excerpts from book:
A Thousand Paths to Happiness, by David Baird. 2000.
If you try to move a thousand bricks at once it will be impossible—but say to yourself, “I can move that pile and do so easily a few at a time.” So is perseverance rewarded with happiness. Little by little.
You can’t feel accomplishment if you don’t start something and complete it. Read a book, make a model, clean a mess, do a good deed.
It is easier to be happy when you are not surrounded by the confusion and the clutter of life.
Use your life for something you really believe in.
Books on Happiness
The Happiness Project
Web Articles
Barking Up The Wrong Tree: Things you didn’t know about happiness
Barking Up The Wrong Tree: Things that are proven to make you happier
My Own Writing
Things That Contribute To Happiness
Happiness comes from learning and applying new skills.
Taking classes is a great way to increase your happiness because:
– It’s mentally engaging.
– You’re learning new skills and knowledge, making yourself more capable.
– You’re you become a more interesting person.
– You’re around other people, who also share a common interest.
The key to happiness is focused action.
Happiness requires structure.
Happiness factors:
– Being with family and friends.
– Making a contribution. Helping others.
– Having a life partner.
– Developing and applying skills.
– Being in nature.
Happiness comes after you start to take action, not before.
When you’re working directly on your highest priority problems and your actions are yielding visible progress, you’ll feel happier.
I’m happiest when I have a workable plan and I’m working my way steadily through that plan.
Action that yields visible progress creates happiness.
You will only be calm if you have a workable plan.
“There is no happiness without action.”
-The How of Happiness
To be happy, you need both pleasure and progress.
Busy people are happier.
Movement yields happiness.
All through school, they teach you that the most important thing is knowledge. But in life, the most important thing is action.
Two little want and too little progress yields stagnation. Too much want and too little progress yields frustration. Steady want and steady progress yields satisfaction.
One component of happiness is a feeling that you’re progressing and advancing.
“You’ve got to see visible progress to keep your spirits up.”
– Bear Grylls
Happiness lies in action; in the acquisition and use of skills.
If you have insufficient processes in place to structure your free time, then it (and your life) will quickly become unstructured and disordered, and you will feel stressed and anxious.
A sense of meaning and purpose in your life seems to be an essential component of happiness.
My happiness doesn’t depend on how much I have compared to others, but how much I have done and become compared to what I could have.
A lot of your happiness (or lack thereof) is based on your perception (or misperception) of how your life is going.
One method to increase happiness is to create meaning by writing a narrative about your life.
When you’re experiencing happiness, look around. Try to notice the elements that are creating the experience. Are you with friends? Are you physically moving? Are you perceiving beauty?
You have to believe in something to be happy.
Happiness seems to be like good health: it doesn’t come from just one thing, but from doing lots of things right.
Maybe happiness is an emergent property.
Components of Happiness
Happiness Evokers
— extras–
Paradoxically, action creates energy.
Action creates clarity.
Action is the answer.