With Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and high school and college graduations upcoming, there will be plenty of gift-giving and well wishes. When those start pouring in, let yourself be grateful the best way to achieve happiness according to several new studies conducted by Todd Kashdan, associate professor of psychology at George Mason University.
Gratitude, the emotion of thankfulness and joy in response to receiving a gift, is one of the essential ingredients for living a good life, Kashdan says. Kashdan’s most recent paper, which was published online this week at the Journal of Personality, reveals that when it comes to achieving well-being, gender plays a role. He found that men are much less likely to feel and express gratitude than women. [continue reading…]
Denis Campbell, health correspondent The Observer, reports that people who are industrious, disciplined and ambitious live up to four years longer than those with more impulsive personalities, a new study has found. Conscientious types, often seen as boring,actually have the right personality to ensure that they live to a ripe old age. Researchers found that their characteristics mean they arehappier, more likely to lead stable lives and less tempted by drink, drugs or risk-taking – all of which helps guarantee their health. Link to continue reading
Can happiness be bought? To find out, author Benjamin Wallace sampled the world’s most expensive products, including a bottle of 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc, 8 ounces of Kobe beef and the fabled (notorious) Kopi Luwak coffee. His critique may surprise you.
Dan Gilbert believes that, in our ardent, lifelong pursuit of happiness, most of us have the wrong map. In the same way that optical illusions fool our eyes — and fool everyone’s eyes in the same way — Gilbert argues that our brains systematically misjudge what will make us happy. And these quirks in our cognition make humans very poor predictors of our own bliss.
The premise of his current research — that our assumptions about what will make us happy are often wrong — is supported with clinical research drawn from psychology and neuroscience. [continue reading…]
