its immediate comprehension either, not least because joy is not a concept, nor indeed a word, that we are entirely comfortable with, in the present age. The idea seems out of step with a time whose characteristic notes are mordant and mocking, and whose preferred emotion is irony. Joy hints at an unrestrained enthusiasm which may be thought uncool… It reeks of the Romantic movement. Yet it is there. Being unfashionable has no effect on its existence… What it denotes is a happiness with an overtone of something more, which we might term an elevated or, indeed, a spiritual quality. A century and a half after Thoreau extolled nature as a form of prayer and... posted on Aug 22 2018 (9,707 reads)

unhappy and in the way. Our country’s ideas about old women are so toxic that almost no one, no matter her age, will admit she is old. In America, ageism is a bigger problem for women than aging. Our bodies and our sexuality are devalued, we are denigrated by mother-in-law jokes, and we’re rendered invisible in the media. Yet, most of the women I know describe themselves as being in a vibrant and happy life stage. We are resilient and know how to thrive in the margins. Our happiness comes from self-knowledge, emotional intelligence and empathy for others. Most of us don’t miss the male gaze. It came with catcalls, harassment and unwanted attention. Instead, we ... posted on Feb 27 2019 (468,811 reads)

youth. I’ve seen intergenerational connection help children learn to read, graduate from high school, and go on to accomplish their dreams. But I’ve only recently come to realize some of the biggest benefits of bringing old and young together. As I recount in my new book,  How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations, when younger and older connect, the intergenerational relationships built are a route to success in early life and a key to happiness and well-being in our later years. The benefits of intergenerational connections Forty years ago, the eminent Cornell University professor and child psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner fa... posted on Jul 14 2019 (6,933 reads)

my circumstances may not be exactly as I wish, I still have reason to be grateful. Right now, as I sit in my cell, it’s hot and the air is stale — but I hear a little bird chirping happily somewhere outside my window. ~ Scott Zirus, TX Does gratefulness truly make us happy? How does gratefulness serve us during difficult times? What is your experience of gratitude as a person who is incarcerated and denied so many of the freedoms and privileges associated with happiness?These are some of the questions we explored through Grateful Anyhow, a recent project in partnership with Prisoner Express (PE) that engaged approximately 350 incarcerated men and women ... posted on Aug 28 2019 (5,520 reads)

up, Nipun's mission was to either become a Himalayan yogi or a tennis pro. Whatever it was, he wanted to "be the best." He excelled at school and went on to study computer science and philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. Impressing his lecturers, he immediately got a job as a software engineer, quickly finding himself on the corporate ladder. The wisdom of Nipun at age 25 was to realise that this ladder actually had no end and didn't lead to more happiness or even a feeling of success as was promised to him. And so, while many of his peers were becoming full-time workaholics, he became a full-time volunteer, and has stayed that way ever since.... posted on Nov 19 2019 (7,504 reads)

we love. But we don’t have to figure it all out. We don’t have to become tangled up in our unknowable future as if it were an unsolvable dilemma. We don’t have to handicap the odds in this high- stakes evolutionary horse- race in order to respond. We can cut through all the mind chatter by asking a deeper and more essential question: Can I find in myself a no-matter-what commitment? Under the worst- case scenario, can I still tap into the well of uncaused, unreasonable happiness? Can I still relate to my fellow humans, and to all of life, with care and love? Can I still, to the fullest extent possible, remain present as a force for good in every moment? A no-matt... posted on Feb 3 2020 (8,692 reads)

sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor.  That's not my business.  I don't want to rule or conquer anyone.   I should like to help everyone if possible. We all want to help one another -- human beings are like that.  We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful.  But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. ... posted on Nov 3 2020 (9,537 reads)

its immediate comprehension either, not least because joy is not a concept, nor indeed a word, that we are entirely comfortable with, in the present age. The idea seems out of step with a time whose characteristic notes are mordant and mocking, and whose preferred emotion is irony. Joy hints at an unrestrained enthusiasm which may be thought uncool… It reeks of the Romantic movement. Yet it is there. Being unfashionable has no effect on its existence… What it denotes is a happiness with an overtone of something more, which we might term an elevated or, indeed, a spiritual quality. A century and a half after Thoreau extolled nature as a form of prayer and... posted on May 4 2021 (4,902 reads)

stuff. About three years ago the prime minister invited me for a conference. I delayed my trip to Copenhagen for two days just to do this meeting in Bhutan. I’d done my book, Soil Not Oil; we’d just finished the study on the Himalayas, “Climate Change at the Third Pole”. So I talked of all this and then the prime minister asked me to come back and help the transition to a 100 per cent organic Bhutan. As he wrote in his letter, “The only way we’ll grow happiness in a society which is largely agriculture is by growing organic.” From our experience, he could see what the Green Revolution has brought. A quarter million farm suicides. Cancer; ther... posted on Aug 23 2021 (4,675 reads)

and Buddhists. This makes sense because you do not need to subscribe to any particular religion or believe in any God to meditate. Though Harris does not realise it, the same is true of prayer. It is possible to be a praying atheist, a “pray-theist” if you like. In fact, Tibetan Buddhism offers a prayer for the “four immeasurables”—loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity—that some atheists may find appealing: May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness. May they be free of suffering and the cause of suffering. May they never be disassociated from the supreme happiness which is without suffering. May they... posted on Sep 21 2021 (6,552 reads)

few years ago, I delved deep into Buddhism, a philosophy that resonates with me, and makes more sense than any religion I experienced in my younger years—even though I continue to be grateful for the Science of Mind teaching my mother introduced me to at age twelve. The Buddhists believe “life is suffering,” and this teaching helps me navigate through life in an honest way. I’m not going to lie and say my enlightenment led to nirvana. I never reached a point of happiness, which I concluded is overrated. What is happiness anyway? Rather, I found a state of grace, which is far more poignant than happiness could ever be. As noted in Ephesians: “For it is ... posted on Feb 8 2022 (2,591 reads)

and medicine are just beginning to catch up. Simply put, for most of us, it is far more helpful to focus on the things in life for which we can express gratitude than those that incline us toward resentment and lamentation. The benefits of gratitude When we focus on the things we regret, such as failed relationships, family disputes, and setbacks in career and finance, we tend to become more regretful. Conversely, when we focus on the things we are grateful for, a greater sense of happiness tends to pervade our lives. And while no one would argue for cultivating a false sense of blessedness, there is mounting evidence that counting our blessings is one of the best habits we can... posted on Nov 13 2022 (4,920 reads)

more able to be responsive, for example. Wonderful. I mean, we would all say hallelujah. So that is by no means bad or wrong. We will still stay in a context of trying to improve something that doesn’t exist, however, if we don’t make the turn to that more primary question I put forward, which is, Who am I? What am I? What is it that is longing to know my inherent wholeness? What is that, and what is it like to trace that longing back to its source? That’s where our real happiness lies, in knowing who we truly are and in specifically knowing the heart of who we truly are. By heart, of course, I’m not talking about the organ. I’m talking about the core expe... posted on Jan 17 2023 (2,914 reads)

the moon.” We have no such assurance. The best predictions are still matters of probability rather than certainty, and to the best of our knowledge every one of us is going to suffer and die. If, then, we cannot live happily without an assured future, we are certainly not adapted to living in a finite world where, despite the best plans, accidents will happen, and where death comes at the end. Alan Watts, early 1970s (Image courtesy of Everett Collection) What keeps us from happiness, Watts argues, is our inability to fully inhabit the present: The “primary consciousness,” the basic mind which knows reality rather than ideas about it, does not know the f... posted on Sep 19 2023 (4,039 reads)

Tanenhaus is worried about the future of his hometown. As a fourth generation resident of Binghamton, New York, and executive director of Binghamton’s housing authority, he’s watched his city of 50,000 residents transform from a thriving upstate New York community with a strong manufacturing base to one with a shrinking population and rising crime rates. Like other towns around the U.S. hit by the current economic downturn, Binghamton is experiencing an increase in drug use and delinquency among its youth, which troubles Tanenhaus. “The neighborhoods are deteriorating,” he says. “There are a lot of people working hard to improve the quality of life here. B... posted on Jun 2 2011 (11,312 reads)

to express our fundamental aliveness. The meaning in our daily work, then, comes from engaging in this creative poetry of life. This is not a new idea. In my own work, I've been encouraged to discover that the beyond-profit perspective is familiar for those who concern themselves with value-creation. In a strategy consulting exercise with a product manager at a reputed web services company, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the intrinsic value driving his company's business was "happiness of users." Profits mattered, as they allowed the company to continue increasing productivity and extending capability. I pressed further. "Do you mean that the happiness of your us... posted on Aug 8 2011 (14,348 reads)

translating the insight from this particular story into the general world of human psychology, where error abounds in a multitude of realms. Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average explores the cognitive mechanisms behind everything from forgetting our passwords to believing we can multitask (which we already know we can’t) to overestimating the impact of various environmental factors on our happiness. It’s essentially a study of human design flaws, examining our propensity for mistakes through a fascinating cross-section of psychology, neuroscience and behavioral economics. We d... posted on Nov 11 2011 (9,110 reads)

I once heard between two friends. “Why do you do what you do?”  “To maximize the good. And you?” “Aesthetics.”  I spent years trying to understand this answer. At first, it made no sense whatsoever. I’d spent my life trying to perform, improve, excel, achieve, each moment fueling the next like my body was on fire and a lake just ahead. Like the first friend who answered, I lived in a world of right and wrong, where right led to happiness and wrong to suffering.  But aesthetics? To me that word had only to do with art, and only to do with a single moment in time. How does that look? How does it make me feel&nbs... posted on Nov 8 2011 (38,574 reads)

fewer hours could save our economy, save our sanity, and help save our planet.     Millions of Americans have lost control over the basic rhythm of their daily lives. They work too much, eat too quickly, socialize too little, drive and sit in traffic for too many hours, don’t get enough sleep, and feel harried too much of the time. It’s a way of life that undermines basic sources of wealth and well-being—such as strong family and community ties, a deep sense of meaning, and physical health.   Earn less, spend less, emit and degrade less. That's the formula. The more time a person has, the better his or her quality of l... posted on Jan 12 2012 (45,034 reads)

… it pushed me to really examine my life and spurred me to get it together. To get a grip and get my life back on track.” Inspired, he went home that night and got his grandmother a last-minute gift: the URL of a Tumblr blog he had started to track his progress. He knew the implicit promise would be a tough one to keep. He called the blog Ben Does Life. “It wasn’t just the weight loss,” he explained. “I wanted to overhaul everything. I wanted to find that happiness Meemaw was asking about.” One of Meemaw’s gifts to Ben that Christmas Day was a button-down shirt, size XL. “If it’s too small, you can exchange it,” she said. ... posted on Jan 4 2012 (11,908 reads)