The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Sonja Lyubomirsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2008

A groundbreaking, practical guide to attaining happiness based on innovative scientific research, The How of Happiness is a powerful contribution to the field of positive psychology and a gift to people who have sought to take their happiness into their own hands. Drawing upon years of her own pioneering research with thousands of men and women, psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky reveals that much of our capacity for happiness is within our power. Detailing an easy-to- follow plan, including exercises in new ways of thinking and understanding our individual obstacles, The How of Happiness offers a positive and empowering way to sustain a new level of joy in our lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Finally we have a self-help book from a reputable scientist whose advice is based on the best experimental data.”
—Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness

“Is lasting happiness attainable or a pipe dream? For the last eighteen years, University of California—Riverside professor of psychology Sonja Lyubomirsky has studied this question, and what she reports might even sway pessimists.”
—U.S. News & World Report

“Lyubomirsky’s central point is clear: a significant portion of what is called happiness . . . is up for grabs. Taking some pages out of the positive psychology playbook, she coaches readers on how to snag it.”
—The New York Review of Books

“The right place to look for science-based advice on how to become happier.”
—Martin Seligman, author of Learned Optimism

About the Author

Sonja Lyubomirsky is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, and an award-winning researcher.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Reprint edition (December 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143114956
• ASIN: B002HREKC8
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (109 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,117,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sonja Lyubomirsky, P.h.D., is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside. She received her B.A. from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in social psychology from Stanford University. Lyubomirsky and her research have been the recipients of many honors, including the 2002 Templeton Positive Psychology Prize and a multiyear grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. She lives in Santa Monica, California, with her family.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

209 of 230 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An insider's account of happiness, December 31, 2007

By 

Grateful Reader (Davis, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want (Hardcover)

Which would you prefer: A second-hand account of happiness research written by a science popularizer or an insider's version written by one of the most original and creative scientists within the field of happiness studies itself? For me, the choice is an easy one. Sonja Lyubomirsky has earned her credentials as a leading expert on happiness-increasing strategies and she generously shares with her readers the secrets she has learned from rigorously conducted scientific studies. From expressing gratitude to taking care of one's body, she pours out the evidence for twelve happiness-enhancing strategies, offering persuasive rationales and practical suggestions for their implementation. The final chapter deals with the reality of depression, a topic often ignored in Pollyannish popular accounts of the happy life. You may want to start the activities before you finish reading the book, but do both and those all around you will be grateful that you did.

175 of 193 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars not a new approach, and not specific enough..., June 27, 2009

By 

goatcurry (Atlanta GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want (Mass Market Paperback)

I tried to follow the suggestions in this book. First of all, if you really want to use this as a how-to guide, its format is not conducive to that. The very few specific actions it recommends are buried in text that is full of anecdotes and studies that are supposed to sell you on the thought that doing these actions will make you happy. Also, according to the author the solution to all of your problems seems to be writing in journals: your "Best Possible Selves" journal in which you are trying to cultivate optimism by imagining what your life will be like one it is exactly the way you want it to be, your "Goals and Subgoals Journal," your "Trauma" journal, in which you write about traumatic experiences you've had as a way of coping with stress, a "Gratitude journal" in which you are writing what you are grateful for, etc etc etc. While I can see how writing can help people become more optimistic and grateful, lighter in spirit and more focused, the author does not give specific advice on what questions to ponder while writing.

I felt after reading this book (several times) that it was a less helpful, more commercialized version of a much better, more helpful and more specific book which was written several years ago, "The Emotional Toolkit" by Darlene Minnini (also a PhD from California, although from UCLA). The Emotional Toolkit cites the same studies that The How of Happiness cites and more, but is more focused on the reader and what he or she can do, not exclusively on selling the idea of what they should do. It gives specific suggestions, which How does not; such as listing questions to ask yourself while writing in a journal, for example, and questions to ask yourself to shift your thoughts from negative to neutral (instead of How's simply telling you to "stop" the negative thoughts because negative thoughts are bad for you).
So, if you really want to help yourself, I would not go for How of Happiness.

130 of 143 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Skeptical about the "Science" of Happiness? Buy (don't steal) this Book !, January 13, 2008

By 

Beth Waddel "Ph.D" (Pullman, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want (Hardcover)

As a psychologist for twenty years, it has been drilled into my head that as psychologists we are both scientists and practitioners. Having been a clinician for the majority of my career as well as a book-a-holic, I have been anxiously awaiting Lyubomirsky's book. As Gilbert accomplished in Stumbling on Happiness, Lyubomirsky accomplished in this fine piece of work, a wonderful marriage of both the "science" of psychology as well as the "practical" aspects of psychology. A dream for scholars and clinicians...what a fine contribution this book is to our field.

Lyubomirsky has created a work which will be interesting, challenging, and useful to researchers, practitioners, and the general reader as well. Her book answers the questions about happiness by backing up her assertions with a fine review of the empircial literature. "Harumph", no more touchy-feely stuff for the "soft science of psychology"...Lyubomirsky has created a book that will appeal to both my neighbors as well as my colleagues. This book would be appropriate in a psychology graduate course or a local reading group....

Her tone is deliciously real and edgy, her presentation delightful and well-thought out, and her suggestions concrete, specific, realistic and engaging.

There is something for everyone in this book.

I hate goals, I rebel against goals, tell me I "should" and I certainly won't. Well, after reading this book, taking the tests, I have actually done some goal setting that I might find I can complete without gritting my teeth and gutting it out.

Thanks, Sonja, I will be thinking of you tomorrow at 6am as I head out to the gym.

Beth Waddel, PhD.