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| February
11, 2008
The Science Of Happiness
Interview
with Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of The
How of Happiness |
Mike
Carruthers:
Are people born happy or unhappy? Research indicates that is at least partially
true.
Sonja Lyubomirsky:
And this research was done
with twins and basically shows that identical twins are much more similar in their
happiness levels than are fraternal twins. And that suggests that people are born
with sort of a baseline of happiness. Sonja
Lyubomirsky, author of the book The
How of Happiness… I
would also make the analogy with weight loss. If you have a set point for weight
that's higher than you like it, that doesn't mean you are doomed to be overweight
- it just means that you have to work a lot harder at it. And I think it's very
similar with happiness - if someone is sort of born an unhappy person, you just
have to put a lot of effort and commitment into practicing the strategies that
make people happy. Everyone
must determine for themselves whether or not they're happy but in general happy
people… Do things
differently, they act and think in ways that are different - they're more positive,
they sort of show a lot of the attributes that you would associate with happiness
- they're more grateful, they're more forgiving. And
there are plenty of benefits to being a happier person. Good
things happen to happy people. So when you become a happier person you'll be more
productive at work, you'll be more creative, you might make more money, you'll
have stronger relationships. Happier people are more likely to get married and
less likely to get divorced. They're physically healthier; some studies show they
live longer, so there are lots of benefits for being a happy person.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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