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About Sonja Lyubomirsky
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Blog postIn fairy tales, marriages last happily ever after. Science, however, tells us that wedded bliss has but a limited shelf life. read more
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Blog postThe most compelling stories heard about Olympians are stories of redemption—of overcoming adversity to reach new heights, of suffering being redeemed. Oscar Pistorius had both his legs amputated, yet grew up to sprint in the 2012 Olympics. Bryshon Nellum endured agonizing years of recovery after being shot in the legs, yet carries the U.S. flag at the Closing Ceremonies. read more
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Blog postThe reason I rarely take any pleasure in Facebook is that it "ordinizes" our friends, family members, acquaintances, and colleagues. It takes unique individuals who have intriguing hidden sides and qualities and turns them into ordinary, unremarkable, and sometimes even boring people. read more
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Blog postThe evidence is unequivocal that being married is correlated with happiness. The evidence is also unequivocal that the causal direction goes both ways. That is, having a strong marriage may make us happy, but those of us who are happy to begin with appear to be more likely to attract a marriage partner and to erect an enduring and fulfilling partnership. read more
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Blog postIsn't it amazing how some days we wake up and the world seems beautiful—full of wonder, kindness, heroism, and brilliance? But other days, we wake to a conviction that the world is miserly and ugly, that the people around us are malevolent and small-minded, that the mole on our shoulder is cancerous, that our past is wasted, and our future is bleak. read more
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Blog postI recently published a review of Marty Seligman's new book, Flourish, in the journal Nature. It had to be significantly abridged, and I provide the original version below. read more
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Blog postI spend way too much time reading books and articles for pleasure, when I clearly could be doing something more fruitful and productive. Not long ago, after reading a book about time management (186 Hours), I decided to keep track of how I spent every hour of my week over the course of 5 weeks.
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Blog postIn Poor Richard's Almanack, the incomparable Ben Franklin wrote, "Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterwards."
He was right, but only to a point.
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Blog postDoes the "pay it forward" effect really exist? How does generosity inspire others? Is giving really better than receiving? We're going to find out.
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Blog postin my mind, one of the biggest misconceptions about money is that it can't make us happy - or rather, that the joys it offers can be only faint and fleeting. As it happens, a growing social science of money is showing how we can compensate for some of its damaging effects by getting the most out of our spending. The conclusion is that if we want to buy happiness, we need to wring as many rewarding and stretching experiences from our purchases as possible.
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Blog postWhy does having kids reduce our happiness? When posed on his late-night eponymous show, Stephen Colbert deemed the answer obvious: "Because children are a pain in the ass."
Undoubtedly they are, but I think the question is worth exploring further.
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Blog postDo you remember what the 2008 presidential election felt like? Do you remember the moment you realized that an African-American candidate, peddling hope and change, had a bona fide shot at winning the White House? Notwithstanding your party affiliation - was that not electrifying?
How quickly we forget.
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Blog postIn his recent piece for the New York Times Magazine, Jonah Lehrer describes Charles Darwin's debilitating depression, which involved "hysterical crying" and "bitter mortification," and rendered him "not able to do anything one day out of three." Amazingly, Lehrer goes on to argue that the pain evoked by the depression clarified Darwin's thinking, allowed him to concentrate more fully
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Blog postFrom a young age, I've been drawn to "psychological" authors - those writers who understand what motivates us, writers who grasp the complexity of our emotions and the mysteries of our behavior.
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Blog postMost nights, our children beg us to stage messy and elaborate food challenges – just like the ones featured on their favorite show "Chopped." read more
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Blog postI met my husband, Peter, rather randomly, at all-the-Absolut-you-could-drink benefit for the Museum of Contemporary Art. Had we not met that night, we probably never would have ever chanced upon each other. Had one of us ventured several footsteps to the right or the left that evening, my husband, my children and my home might be subtracted from the life I lead today. read more
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Blog postIs there anything to be happy about in today’s news? As a scientist and an Obama supporter, these days I sometimes don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Every other news headline appears to send a contradictory message. One warns of the economy in free fall, sending jitters, another about the Obama administration recommitting to serious science or eradicating some nasty piece of legislation loitering from the last 8 years, prompting cheers.
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Blog postThe New York Times published an op-ed piece of mine titled "Why We're Still Happy" (Dec 27, 2008). Because it was cut substantially, I thought I'd post the original here.
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Blog postThe typical home in the US today is double the size of what it was in 1940, with two or more baths and a mean of two rooms per person (!), but the average individual isn't any happier. Does a couple or small family really need to live in a four-bedroom home with a pool to have a satisfying life?
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Blog postSometimes I think our country has gone nuts. We have collapsing financial markets, unprecedented housing foreclosures, $4 gas, and an emperor without any clothes on perambulating in the midst of an incredibly critical presidential election. But despite everything, many people (myself included) have a remarkable capacity to maintain optimism and confidence and even some cheer – about ourselves and the world around us. read more
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Blog postAs I was watching Michael Phelps receive his 14th gold medal—what a week!—this is what I was thinking: “How could anything in this 23-year old swimmer’s life ever top this?” And: “After he comes down from the high, will he ultimately end up less happy than the rest of us mere mortals?”
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Blog postI had a rather interesting experience this week appearing on the CNBC show, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. The theme was that being happy will bring you cash.
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Blog postI begin with a bit of self-disclosure. I don’t have a religious or spiritual bone in my body. (Yes, maybe even less than Richard Dawkins.) But this doesn’t mean that I’m not open-minded about research on happiness and religion. As I write in my book, The How of Happiness, just because (most) religious beliefs cannot be empirically tested or falsified doesn’t mean that the consequences of having religious faith, participating in religious life, or searching for the sacred cannot be studied. <
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Blog postSingapore Airlines announced recently that it will begin flying all-business-class flights across the Pacific – Newark to Singapore started in May and Los Angeles to Singapore will start in September. The demand for business class seats is apparently enormous, so this new venture sounds like it makes perfect business sense. But the psychological scientist in me wonders whether, at the end of the day, this will prove to be such a good idea.
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Blog postAs an experimental social psychologist, my job is not to analyze anyone’s personality, let alone an individual whom I’ve never seen larger than in a 42-inch image. However, Robert Draper’s and Scott McClellan’s characterizations of George W. Bush as a staunch optimist lead me to ask, “How much optimism and confidence is good for world leaders and how much is too much?”
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Blog postWhy a new study does not show that older adults are less happy than others.
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Blog postI’ve been traveling so much lately that I’ve started to play a little game by guessing what reading material people tend to bring on airplanes. The most frequently sighted book? The Secret.
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Blog postIs it our genes? Is it where, how, and with whom we live? Or is it entirely something else?
I have two friends, Seth and Michael, and one of them is a lot happier than the other...
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Blog post“To change one’s life, start immediately, do it flamboyantly,no exceptions.”– William James
Why are some people happier than others? What are the benefits (and costs) of happiness? And is it possible to become permanently happier?
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Titles By Sonja Lyubomirsky
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