Study on people with major depression. Three groups: Exercise 30 minutes a day 3 times a week Take Zoloft Exercise and take Zoloft...
Mind wandering is when our mind is thinking about something other than what we should focus on. Ruminating, jumping around, etc. Studies...
Kindness Finding ways to be more kind improves your happiness. In one study, people were asked to do 5 acts of kindness. They could do...
If you enjoy an activity, you have an intrinsic motivation to do it. Once people give you extrinsic motivations to do it, and then take...
Signature Strengths Martin Seligman made a list of 24 attributes that tend to be correlated with happiness, and that aren’t culture...
Concretely Reexperience Your Reference Points Say you got your dream job, and then a year later it has now become your reference point,...
Savoring Activities that enhance savoring: Talking to others about how good you feel Looking for others to share it with Thinking about...
Because of hedonic adaptation, don’t invest too much in stuff - especially long lasting stuff. Things that stick around and don’t change...
Most people’s happiness is not due to the absolute outcomes, but the relative outcomes. Medvec (1995) showed that the happiness of...
Lyubomirsky did some research on the role of genetics and life circumstances on happiness. She found that genetics affects about 50% of...
Material “Stuff” In 1976, they asked 12000 freshmen what material items would make them happy, and then followed up with them 20 years...
Gilbert showed that college students, when rejected for a job, did not become particularly unhappy. For a fair decision, they were very...
Savoring is the act of stepping out of an experience to review it and really appreciate it while it’s happening. Think about why a...
The GI Joe Fallacy: People who know what makes us happier (e.g. psychologists) are not necessarily happier or better able to practice...