12Oct '11

Chapter 4: Do good, be happy

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How can I do good and feel more happy?

Learn how being nice and doing good things can raise your own happiness. Kindness and gratitude are two very beneficial character traits that can be trained like everything else and by being kind and grateful you create win – win situations.

You make people around you more happy while increasing your own happiness.

Essential Knowledge in this Lesson:

An easy way to be more happy is to make others happy and appreciate what you have.

Maybe you remember how it made you feel when you helped that old woman with her heavy luggage or when you offered your seat in the subway to someone who seemed to need it more than you. Being kind is treating others with compassion and trying to understand their situations. By learning to be more kind with others you also learn to be more kind with yourself. Being grateful is simply appreciating what you have, how life is. It helps you to be more in the moment and step out some of the mental constructs that are obsessed with what could be or what could have been. It helps you to get a reality check and center yourself more in the present moment.

Sources:

Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389

Seligman, Martin E. P.; Steen, Tracy A.; Park, Nansook; Peterson, Christopher (2005). Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions. American Psychologist, Vol 60(5), Jul-Aug 2005, 410-421.

LYUBOMIRSKY Sonja (1) ; SHELDON Kennon M. (2) ; SCHKADE David  (2005) Pursuing happiness : The architecture of sustainable change. Review of general psychology, 2005, vol. 9, no 2 (95 p.)

Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. A., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803-855

Watkins, Philip C.; Woodward, Kathrane; Stone, Tamara; Kolts, Russell L. (2003). GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS: DEVELOPMENT OF A MEASURE OF GRATITUDE, AND RELATIONSHIPS WITH SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, Volume 31, Number 5, 2003 , pp. 431-451(21)

Lyubomirsky, S. (2007). The how of happiness. New York: The Penguin Press.

Optimism is associated with mood, coping and immune change in response to stress. Segerstrom, Suzanne C.; Taylor, Shelley E.; Kemeny, Margaret E.; Fahey, John L., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 74(6), Jun 1998, 1646-1655.

Stephen G. Post , 2005, Altruism, happiness, and health: it’s good to be good, International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Volume 12, Number 2, 66-77, DOI: 10.1207/s15327558ijbm1202_4