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Part - II

Albert’s adventures have inspired me to, once again, drag the psychological literature. The psychological study of well-being and happiness is still a relatively new field. However, despite its relative youth, the field has already delivered some powerful insights and advice.

But before we get to these, let’s start at the beginning. Why be happy? The psychological literature shows that effectively the benefits of happiness can be broken down into three areas. These may seem like a long list of the blindingly obvious, but all are based on careful scientific studies (rather than cheap self help books!).*

• Social rewards
  • Higher odds of marriage
  • Lower odds on divorce
  • More friends
  • Stronger social support
  • Richer social interactions
• Superior work outcomes
  • Greater creativity
  • Increased productivity
  • Higher quality of work
  • Higher income
  • More activity, more energy
• Personal benefits
  • Bolstered immune system
  • Greater longevity
  • Greater self control and coping abilities

So let’s assume that you share the desire to enjoy this list of happiness-induced benefits (and I’d be surprised if anyone had issues with any of these benefits), how do you go about becoming happy?

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* Anyone wanting more on the benefits of happiness is referred to the massive volume of work carried out by Professor Lyubomirsky (http://faculty.ucr.edu/~sonja).

Source: The Net