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Happiness Lessons In 2011

These are the elements of happiness. If you want to boost your happiness, try tackling one element. Get more “feeling good,” say. Or eliminate a source of “feeling bad.” Think about whether you “feel right” about the shape of your life. And look for an area in your life where you can create “an atmosphere of growth.”

Lesson 1: To be happy, you need to consider feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.

People often focus on the first half of this statement, but the second half is just as important. It turns out, studies show, that happy people are more altruistic, more likely to volunteer, more interested in other people’s problems, and they are also better leaders and better able to bring about changes, when they try to do so.

Lesson 2 : One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy; One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.

Lesson 3 : You’re not happy unless you think you’re happy.Happiness only exists in your brain when you choose to put a label on some sensation and call it that.

Lesson 4 : Your body matters.It sounds obvious, but it’s easy to overlook! Get enough sleep, exercise regularly, get some sunshine, go to a doctor if you need to.

Philosophers and scientists agree: a KEY to happiness is strong relationships with other people. Building strong bonds should be one of your top priorities in life.

Lesson 5 : Happiness is other people.

For most people, making an effort to keep surroundings in decent order really pays off in happiness.

Lesson 6 : Outer order contributes to inner calm.

Lesson 7 : Happiness comes not from having more, not from having less, but from wanting what you have.Simply having a bunch of things is not the key to happiness. Our data show that you also need to appreciate those things you have. It’s also important to keep your desire for things you don’t own in check.

Lesson 8. You can choose what you do, but you can’t choose what you like to do.To make a happy life, you need to know yourself and acknowledge your own nature. For some people, this is a real challenge.

Lesson 9 : “There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” –Robert Louis Stevenson.Ultimately, genuine happiness can only be realized once we commit to making it a personal priority in our lives. This may be new behavior for some of us and a bit intimidating. Be gentle with yourself. It will all unfold. Today you may not be familiar with the happiness habit. But like any new behavior, happiness can be learned."

Lesson 10 : The days are long, but the years are short.A new year is upon us, and I have been reminiscing about the year that will be passed. It seems as the years go by time speeds up and slows down at the same time. We should enjoy what we have right now. 

This is lessons learned in happiness by Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen is a best selling author and former lawyer. She studied happiness by making it a project. During The Happiness Project, Gretchen spent a year test-driving lessons in happiness from Aristotle to Oprah.

Happy New Year 2011Sompong Yusoontorn