Jon Stewart Interviews Harvard Happiness Professor

As you might imagine Jon Stewart of Comedy Central has a little different take on the academic contributions to the field of happiness. Professor Tal Ben-Shahar’s author of Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fullfillment made the unfortunate decision, for Tal, to be interviewed on Jon’s show. See Tal Ben-Shahar interview.

As counterpoint you will find reviews of John Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom and Tal Ben-Shahar’s book in OhmyNews. an English language Korean publication.

The books are inspired by the discipline of positive psychology which began 10 years ago; and use research data to make their point.

The positive psychology movement has changed the face of mental health. Instead of focusing exclusively on pathology, this new discipline helps people develop and maintain a sense of wellbeing. This is a good thing.

Our Conversation with Author Sonja Lyubomirsky: On Happiness and Depression

First, I would like to thank Sonja for talking with us. Before we get started, I would like to give our readers some background.

Our guest is Sonja Lyubomirsky a professor of psychology at University of California, Riverside; she’s written a best selling book The How of Happiness A Scientific Approach To Getting The Life You Want. She also has a blog by the same name at “Psychology Today”.

Sonja received her B.A. from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in social psychology from Stanford University. Her research has won her honors such as the 2002 Templeton Positive Psychology Prize and a multiyear grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.

There has a lot of great work being done in the fields of psychology and neuroscience which demonstrate that positive feelings, thoughts and experiences can help with depression and these things can help to bring about positive physiological changes in the brain (See OCD Patients Rewire Their Brains)

The purpose of our talk today is to discuss how the work she’s doing might help people who have problems with depression. So lets get started.

Q: Would you give us an overview of your book The How of Happiness?

Sonja: Yes, the book is basically about the way that people can become happier. All of it is based on scientific research.

My book highlights 12 proven happiness strategies that people can use to improve their sense of wellbeing such as expressing gratitude; avoiding over-thinking and social comparison; and taking care of your body. There are sets of activities you can do to implement each strategy.

One of the unique things about the book is that the reader can take a personality-activity fit test to determine what strategies are right for them so that they can tailor their own program.

Q: Are there strategies that are more effective than others for people with depression?

Sonja: It’s likely that some are more effective but there hasn’t been enough research

For one person, cultivating optimism and gratitude might be good ones and performing acts of kindness may not. It would be difficult for a person to focus on acts of kindness if they are unable to leave the house.

The best strategies for an individual are based on their circumstances, needs and goals.

Q: The How of Happiness talks about the trauma challenge. What does this mean for people struggling with depression?

Sonja: Sometimes when people have a traumatic experience such as sexual abuse or the death of a loved one or some other loss, they become very depressed. Their level of functioning declines and they can’t do the things they used to do.

After such a tragedy happens, there are three paths: surviving; recovering back to where you were; or actually thriving.

Perhaps a person whose has suffered trauma can discover strengths and support they never knew they had or develop some positive interpretation about what happened.

It’s important for me say though, that I don’t want the idea of the trauma challenge to set somebody up for failure. No matter where a person is they shouldn’t think badly about themselves by thinking “It’s been awhile since the trauma and I’m supposed to start thriving. What’s the matter with me?”.

Happiness activities can help move a person along what ever the path they are on.

Q: Is there anything particularly promising on the behavioral research horizon for people with depression.

Sonja: We’ve identified lots of strategies and activities that can make people happier. The research focus now is on trying to really understand how and why they work. This will help us to better tailor programs to each person.

Q: Thanks for talking with us today.

Sonja: Happy to do it. You’re welcome.

The Happiness Curve Allows You to Feel 20 Again

If your a man around 40 or a women about 50 and in the doldrums, cheer up happiness may be right around the corner.

A study of nations around the world has identified that after men and women pass their special age they become happier. Once happiness turns up it keeps on going.

In fact happiness is “U” shaped, you start out in happy and vigorous in your 20’s and then buffeted by experience it starts downhill. Finally the sense of wellbeing or lack of it levels off and then starts back again only to continue through your later years. Two scientists in the article explores some theories about why this phenomena takes place.

So You Think You Know What Will Make You Happy

According to Daniel Gilbert who wrote Stumbling on Happiness, our imaginations can be very misleading when it comes to predicting what will make us happy.

There are 3 mistakes we often make when we are contemplating our future.

Error 1. What Is Will Be.

For instance being depressed and unable to conceive of anything that would bring you happiness.

Error 2. Tricked By the Good Old Days

When our recollection of something in the past is incomplete, we let our imagination fill in the blanks. If we make a choice for the future based on a more imagined than real memory, we may be setting ourselves up for disappointment or avoid examining a better option.

Error 3. Imagination Runs Wild

After about a year lottery winners are no happier than the average person. ”Nough said.

Here are 3 tips to help you decide what will really make you happy.

Tip 1. When Intuition Tells You to Trust Your Gut, Don’t.

Test your gut feelings by getting a second opinion from somebody who knows you. “I see myself moving to the Maine coast in a couple of years. What do you think?” Ask yourself why did I come with this now?

Tip 2. Stop Mulling and Start researching

If you have never been to the Maine coast, vacation there for a week or two before even thinking about moving.

Tip 3. Talk to Somebody Who Has Been There

It’s helpful to talk with somebody who has been there and done that. If you are thinking of switching careers from accounting to driving for NASCAR, interview somebody who has been on the circuit for awhile.

Our imagination has built-in blind spots. Our present circumstances, faulty memory and the excitement of contemplating a future without facts can steer us in the wrong direction. We need to counter our own biases with a dose of reality; by testing your intuition, doing some research and talking with people who’ve been there.

Credible Edibles Help Prevent Depression

At last some credible information about food and depression appears in The Economist’s article Cognition Nutrition: Food for Thought . I have been quite skeptical about some nutritional and alternative claims made on the internet; however the Economist is a trusted source. Instead of interviewing some one who survives on nuts and berries in the forest, the article discusses the work of a respected neuroscientist and other professionals.

Depression prophylactics include spinach and fish.

• “…evidence that folate deficiency is associated with clinical depression, suggests eating spinach, orange juice and Marmite, which are all rich in folic acid.”
• “the benefits of omega-3 [oil] include resistance to depression.”
• “there is a strong negative correlation between the extent to which a country consumes fish and its levels of clinical depression.”

The piece mentions other foods which can protect the brain from damage and delay the effects of age. Some edibles, including foliates and omega-3, enhance cognitive abilities.

In no way should any food be thought of as treatment for depression. I’ve tried it more than once which happens to be the definition of insanity. If you are depressed get medical treatment.

How to Stop Emotional Eating

Here are some practical tips to help you get out of the emotional eating habit. For me emotional eating is a combination of immediate gratification and apathy about health consequences.

Change Your Life for the Better.

Most people think of meditation as a way to fight stress and relax but the practice of meditation can be much more.

As you learn from this 30 minute video, insight meditation can bring about a deeper, more open and fuller level of happiness and peace. Robert Wright interviews Joseph Goldstein, Director of the Insight Meditation Center in Barre, MA.

Meditation is a practice, a skill and like any other skill, people have to devote time to it to see the benefits; however they can live a conventional life but experience more positively.

People develop a greater level of clarity and deepening degree of concentration. The overall goal of the practice is wisdom which I once heard best described as love and intelligence.

Your Wellbeing Diary Can Help Moderate Depression

A simple nightly diary can help you be less depressed and cultivate a sense of wellbeing. At most, it takes 5 to 10 minutes a day.

Professor Martin Segilman of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvannia, conducted a study with extremely depressed people. Participants were asked to remember 3 positive things that happened that day and write them down They could be things like: you ran into a friend, you started a book you really enjoy, you found a missing piece of jewelry.

By the simple act of writing these things down, 94% of the patients experienced significant relief from their depression. The most startling result was that participants went from “severely depressed” to “mildly to moderately depressed” in fifteen days.

I’ve taken this concept and created my wellness diary in which I make entries every night. Entries for the day include:

• Accomplishments;
• Acts of kindness extended to others;
• Acts of kindness extended to me;
• Occurrences for which I am grateful;
• And things I am looking forward to.

I have found this to be extraordinarily helpful in shifting my mood in a positive direction and keeping it there.

Little Things Can Make Your Mood More Positive

An article in the Huffington Post offers some tips to cultivate personal happiness.

A tip from one of the happiness gurus is that you be aware of what you are grateful for. Sonja Lyubomirsky, PhD, author of the book The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want suggests you make a daily list of things that you are grateful for. This is important to people with depression become more conscious of positive things in life.

I would take Professor Lyubomirsky’s suggestions are couple of steps further. I would also

• Focus on small incidental things such as maybe a pleasant conversation with somebody you don’t really know such as a store clerk, some driver stopped and let you pull into traffic. If something fabulous happens great put it down but also focus on the little things
• LIst acts of kindness that I extend to others; holding a do for someone, taking the time to help somebody carry something to their car.

Kindness is just as important as graditude.

Here is the full article from the Huffington Post.

Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy?

Here is Dan Gilbert’s 20 min video lecture Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy? at the TED Symposium. He’s another Harvard professor. Cambridge, MA must be one happy place.

Gilbert is a very entertaining speak. And presents empirical data which shows that our brain is wired in such a way that we tend to overate our longings and fears. He also demonstrates that we have the ability to create our own happiness but often our emotional overreactions can get in the way.

After his lecture it occurred to me that two of the foundational elements of our modern day society can -if we let them- be obstacles to our sense of wellbeing. The combination of the personal freedom that we have and an economy built on buying the next shiny thing are catalysts for a person to overate how the fulfillment of their own desires can make them happy.

The whole purpose of marketing is to elevate our longing for stuff while the idea that “I can choose this or that” or “I should have chosen this or that” can easily make us take our eye off the ball when it comes to taking in the experience of what we already have.

Perhaps I am being to philosophical. Anyway Gilbert’s lecture is fun to watch.