The how of happiness

The how of happiness

What makes us happy? how can we become happier? Is happiness sustainable?

These are fundamental questions . that the author Sonja Lyubomirsky treats in her book “The how of happiness”, as a scientific approach to getting the life each of us wants.

In fact I found some very interesting findings, in this book.

First, that 50% of our happiness derives from a genetically determined ”set point”. And , “life circumstances determine our happiness at a scale of 10%. But the remaining amount 40% is determined by our behavior. This allows the author to set up some kind of activities that can be called the “happiness strategies”. In a very clever way, she claims that we can not change our genetic set point, our life circumstances don’t have a lasting impact on our happiness, but we can manage our happiness through out some intentional activities. I basically, agree that focusing on changing the life circumstances is a misguided hope to find happiness , because it doesn’t permit you to life the present, but keeps you all the time engaged in changing the future, and in fact there is no guarantee that these different conditions will make you happier.

I find very well stated that possession doesn’t make people happier because they are always out of you. I would add that human nature loves competition and I believe that one is ever completely pleased with what he has got. I recall that if a man had a valley with gold would pretend for another.

All the activities that Sonja proposes to become happier are meaningful: expressing gratitude, cultivating optimism, avoid over thinking, practice acts of kindness, nurture social relationship, develop strategies for coping, learning to forgive, increase flow experiences, savoring life’s Joys, Committing to your goals, Practicing religion and Spirituality, taking care of your body.

And, I find them very useful because they are concentrated at the social nature of a human being, the feelings and emotions, not at money or material possession.