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Zoom In On ...

The most popular tags used with happiness articles. Use this to zero in on a subtopic. For a list of all tags, see our index.
tagarticles
happiness333
positive psychology154
middle age107
self-help104
mid-life crisis102
aging90
depression86
midlife crisis - man / male84
baby boomers71
men71

happiness

Start Here: Our Key Articles About happiness

Study: If You Want To Be Happy, Get Off The Sofa

Greg's picture

A while back we wrote about Harvard's most popular class, Positive Psychology, in which students learn how to make themselves happy.

Should they load up on pre-law courses instead? Would making a lot of money make them happier? »more»

How To Be Happy: Information and Resources

Greg's picture

This page lists many ways you can learn more about improving your short- and long-term happiness. »more»

If you haven't read our "Happiness Week" features, that's a good place to start. It's a week's worth of articles that use Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar's book "Happier" as a guide and toolkit for improving your happiness every day.

Experts: Middle Age is Depressing

Wesley's picture

According to a comprehensive study of data from 80 countries, researchers at Britain's Warwick University and America's Dartmouth College have confirmed what people in their forties have known for years, middle age is indeed truly miserable. Researchers discovered that "for both men and women the probability of depression peaks around 44 years of age. »more»

Goals – Learn the Important Difference between Should and Want

Deborah Hayes's picture

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. - Ellen Goodman »more»

How to Trump Being Dumped

Dating Goddess's picture

To trump: outshine, outclass, upstage, eclipse, surpass, outdo, outperform; beat, better, top, cap; be a cut above, be head and shoulders above, leave standing.

A friend told me he’d been dumped by his last sweetheart, and was still stinging from it many months later.

Me: What was the reason for the breakup? »more»

Harvard's Most Popular Course: How To Be Happy

Greg's picture

Harvard's most popular course isn't freshman econ, it's ... happiness. The Boston Globe tells us about Positive Psychology, with 855 students: »more»

Oldest Boomers Say Health, Money Are Biggest Problems

Greg's picture

If traditional "middle age" is from 40 to 60, then the first baby boomers are moving on. But a survey of 800 people born in 1946 shows that many aren't ready to be "old." Although generally satisfied with their lives, virtually all plan to continue to improve their lives. »more»

What makes people happy? Why the rich so poor at allocating time for things that make them happy

Wesley's picture

Why are we reading so much about happiness of late?

Fortunately for those of us who want to maximize our personal happiness, happiness has become an increasingly important topic of research. »more»

Interview with Dr. Dan Mroczek on neuroticism, happiness and longevity

Wesley's picture

Most people want to live happy and live long. Can you have it all?

The good news: happiness and longevity seem to be positively correlated -- in other words, longer-lived people tend to be happier, and happier people tend to be long-lived. »more»

Women and Midlife Depression: Is Everything You 'Know' Wrong?

Greg's picture

Empty nests. Menopause. Midlife crisis. Those are some of the reasons midlife is supposed to cause depression in women.

But as with so much information about midlife, that is at best only part of the story. »more»

Can You Organize Your Way To Happiness (And Health Too)?

Greg's picture

Happiness for some may mean a bike ride at dawn, or spending time kicking a soccer ball with the kids. But for a part of humanity -- maybe even you -- happiness is checking items off a to-do list or contemplating an empty email inbox.

Odd? Certainly to some. But what they would consider borderline obsessive-compulsive behavior may also make the productivity-obsessed happier and healthier. »more»

Our Most Recent Articles About happiness

Dreams... Do you have one?

Deborah Hayes's picture

One of the things that can be drummed out us as we age is our ability to dream. When we were younger they came so easily. Somewhere along the way this ability, those delicious ever changing desires, ambitions and dreams become so deeply buried we seem to be unable to find them. Where did they go? »more»

Why Are You Doing This to Me?

hlesbrown's picture

That is the cry of the "innocent victim" . . . most often followed by, "After all I've done for you!" Does this sound at all familiar? »more»

12 Tips on How To Stay Happy from Sonja Lyubomirsky

Wesley's picture

Useful checklist on how to become and stay happy from author Sonja Lyubomirsky:

1. Count your blessings. Express gratitude for what you have both privately and to others.

2. Cultivate optimism. Practice seeing the bright side of everything.

3. Avoid over-thinking and social comparison. Don't dwell on problems.

4. Practice kindness. Do good things for others. »more»

Reinventing Yourself (or, Learning How to Fly)

hlesbrown's picture

If you haven't yet noticed my attraction to silly things, let me now bring it to your attention. I discovered a long time ago that, very often, silly things contain far more wisdom than sensible things. It's one of the great ironies of our universe. Take, for example, that incredibly silly series of books by Douglas Adams that goes by the title The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There's enough silliness (and, consequently, wisdom) in those pages to last a person the better part of a lifetime. Take, for example, the excerpt from the Guide that appears in the third book of the trilogy (Life, The Universe, and Everything) under the heading "RECREATIONAL IMPOSSIBILITIES." According to Adams, the Guide says this about flying: "There is an art, . . . or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."* »more»

Goals – Learn the Important Difference between Should and Want

Deborah Hayes's picture

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. - Ellen Goodman »more»

Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year... Having More Fun"

Wesley's picture

There may be no more perfect book for the LifeTwo audience than Gretchen Rubin's new book "The Happiness Project". Rubin spent a year as a one person focus group testing every possible way to increase personal happiness. Part memoir and part "how to fix your life", "The Happiness Project" is a joy to read. »more»

Cat-a-tonic

ctomshaw's picture

Let’s just get this out of the way right up top here. Yes. It’s true. I am a single man in his 50s who lives alone with a cat. And no, this does not mean that as I write this, I’m listening to a Streisand CD before getting dressed in my best Star Wars t-shirt to join my mom for the early bird dinner at Denny’s. »more»

What is the Goal of Old Age?

Lisa's picture

At midlife, some of us find ourselves in a crisis due in part to the feeling that we're living as we will when we're old--we do the same old things every day, looking at that same old face across the table, talking about the same old things, being annoyed in the same old way, and seeing our opportunities diminish slowly as our health problems increase. It's terrifying. »more»

Don't Call it a Midlife "Crisis"

Kitara R. Wilson's picture

By definition, according to the Penguin English Dictionary 2nd Edition sitting here on my desk, a crisis is "a time of acute difficulty or danger..." So if you break that down, to embrace the term "midlife crisis" really translates into "my life is in or is headed for acute difficulty or danger". »more»

Reconnect With You

Kitara R. Wilson's picture

The more I step into this place of being open about early midlife celebrations, the more women I've noticed coming forward with their stories of frustration and loss. And when I say "loss", what I'm hearing more and more is that they've lost sight of who they are and are frustrated about who they've become. »more»

Men of a Certain Age

Lisa's picture

Anybody interested in the TV show? It's on TNT. Let's watch it and discuss! It's about 3 men in their fifties and what they go through in career and personal lives. Should be good.

Why can't it just be the end of an era?

WomanAwake's picture

I'm really glad I found this site. I came here looking for advice to figure out which road to take in our marriage. I read other's stories and game plans for making things work and "hanging on" through the mid-life crisis. I thought I would find the way to fix things in my relationship. What I actually found was clarity. I am a 40-year-old woman who no longer feels trapped in crisis! »more»

The F Word

ctomshaw's picture

Divorced life has taught me a lot these past three years. For instance, I’ve learned how to truly make the moments with my kids count. I’ve confirmed that what I assumed in high school is, in fact, true – dating really sucks. Also, I’ve discovered a dozen different dinners that can be made entirely during a single commercial break during an NFL game. »more»

Parental role models and us

Lisa's picture

I'll cut right to the chase: I think my parents taught me that love is putting up with a lot of ill treatment and staying no matter what.

My own notion of love was that it would be like having a best friend and lover for the rest of my life, and we would have little problems but we'd adjust. »more»

Time to get organized: Buffet Time Management for Creative People

BFoster's picture

You can usually spot a creative person because they seem lost and confused or doing too many things at once. Time management simply bedevils creative types. Whether it’s keeping focused on projects or just getting the stuff of life done, a bubbling cauldron of chaos is usually close at hand. »more»