This document discusses several myths about happiness through summaries of research findings and quotes from experts and philosophers. It addresses the following myths: 1. Happiness is either genetic or not - while genetics play a role, research shows people can become happier through commitment and effort. 2. Happiness is a destination - lasting happiness has more to do with behaviors and mindset than life circumstances. Positive emotions increase resilience and life satisfaction over negative emotions. 3. People always adapt to their set point - while adaptation occurs, it can be slowed through actively appreciating experiences and using novelty. 4. Negative emotions always outweigh positive - positive emotions protect from consequences of negative emotions over time. 5. Happ

1. Happiness
Facts, myths, quotes…

2. Myth 1: Either you have it or
you don't.
Say you have two kids you've raised just
the same, but they have opposite
personalities -- one sour, the other sunny.
This makes it hard to dispute the fact that
genes play a powerful role in each
person's happiness. And there's evidence
that suggests genetics contributes to
about 50% of your happiness "set point" -
- the level of happiness that seems most
normal for you.

3. But that's a far cry from 100%, says
Sonja Lyubomirsky, PhD, author ofThe
How of Happiness: A New Approach to
Getting the Life You Want and professor
of psychology at the University of
California, Riverside.
"If you do the work," Lyubomirsky says,
"research shows you can become
happier, no matter what your set point is.
You probably won't go from a one to a
10, but you can become happier. It just
takes commitment and effort as with any
meaningful goal in life."

4. Not only can you become happier, she
says, but it gets easier over time. Work
on nurturing relationships, writing in a
gratitude journal, committing random acts
of kindness, or developing a program of
morning meditation or exercise. Changes
like these -- proven methods for
enhancing happiness -- can become
habits after a while, which means they
eventually take less effort.

5. Myth 2: Happiness is a
destination.
Many people think of happiness as a
destination or acquisition -- whether it's
marriage, money, or a move to a new
location. Sure, things like these can
contribute to happiness, but not as much
as you might think, Lyubomirsky says.
They account for only about 10% of your
whole happiness picture.

6. If you've done the math, you now realize
that about 40% of your happiness is in
your hands. Lasting happiness has more
to do with how you behave and think --
things you control -- than with many of
life's circumstances.

7. Robert Biswas-Diener, co-author of
Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of
Psychological Wealth, agrees.
"Happiness isn't the emotional finish line
in the race of life," he says. It's a process
and a resource. Biswas-Diener says
there's a mountain of data showing that
when people are happier, they become
healthier and more curious, sociable,
helpful, creative, and willing to try new
things.
"Happiness is not just an emotional flight
of fancy," he says. "It's beneficial for the
long run, serving a real function in our
lives."

8. In psychological lingo, this is called the
broaden-and-build theory of positive
emotions, says Michael A. Cohn, PhD, a
postdoctoral researcher with the Osher
Center for Integrative Medicine at the
University of California, San Francisco.
Cohn recently conducted a study with 86
college students who submitted daily
emotion reports. The researchers
measured the students' ability to flexibly
respond to challenging and shifting
circumstances and used a scale to
assess life satisfaction. The study
showed that positive emotions increased
resilience -- skills for identifying
opportunities and bouncing back from
adversity -- as well as life satisfaction.

9. Myth 3: You always adapt to
your happiness set point.
It's true that people tend to adapt fairly
quickly to positive changes in their lives,
Lyubomirsky says. In fact, adaptation is
one of the big obstacles to becoming
happier. The long-awaited house, the
new car, the prestigious job -- all can
bring a temporary boost but then recede
into the background over time.

10. Why does this happen? One reason, Lyubomirsky says, is that
we evolved to pay more attention to novelty. For our
ancestors, novelty signaled either danger or opportunity – a
chance for a new mate or food, for example. We're attuned to
contrasts, not sameness. But that also means we readily
adapt to positive experiences that happen to us, Lyubomirsky
says.
"I argue that you can thwart adaptation, slow it down, or
prevent it with active ways of thinking or behaving," says
Lyubomirsky, who, after moving to Santa Monica, Calif., found
herself adapting to her beautiful surroundings. To counteract
this trend, she put effort into appreciating the view she saw
when running on a path overlooking the ocean. She says she
now savors that view every day, trying to see it "through
theeyes of a tourist."

11. To help thwart adaptation, you can also
use novelty to your advantage. For
instance, if your home has become a little
ho-hum, you might try rearranging
furniture or hosting parties for a variety of
friends. Voluntary activities like these are
most effective because they require you
to pay attention, Lyubomirsky notes.

12. Myth 4: Negative emotions always outweigh the
positive ones.
For quite some time, research has indicated that negative emotions are
more powerful than positive ones, Cohn says. For example, studies
show that people don't have equal reactions to winning $3 and losing
$3, he says. The loss tends to have a stronger effect than the gain.
Negative emotions might edge out positive emotions in the moment,
Cohn says, because they're telling you to find a problem and fix it. But
positive emotions appear to win out over time because they let you build
on what you have, a finding reinforced by Cohn's recent study.

13. "We found that as positive emotions go
up, there comes a point where negative
emotions no longer have a significant
negative impact on building resources or
changing life satisfaction," Cohn says.
"Positive emotions won't protect you from
feeling bad about things, nor should they.
But over time, they can protect you from
the consequences of negative emotions."
This may not be true for people with
depression or other serious disorders,
although they do show benefits when
positive emotions are added to
conventional psychotherapy, Cohn notes.

14. Myth 5: Happiness is all about
hedonism.
There's more to happiness than racking
up pleasurable experiences. In fact,
helping others -- the opposite of
hedonism -- may be the most direct route
to happiness, notes Stephen G. Post,
PhD. Post is co-author of Why Good
Things Happen to Good People: The
Exciting New Research That Proves the
Link Between Doing Good and Living a
Longer, Healthier, Happier Life.

15. "When people help others through formal
volunteering or generous actions, about
half report feeling a 'helper's high,' and
13% even experience alleviation of aches
and pains," says Post, professor of
preventive medicine and director of the
Center for Medical Humanities,
Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at
Stony Brook University in Stony Brook,
N.Y.
"For most people, a pretty low threshold
of activity practiced well makes a
difference," Post says. This might involve
volunteering just one or two hours each
week or doing five generous things
weekly -- practices that are above and
beyond what you normally do.

16. First documented in the 1990s, mood
elevation from helping is associated with
a release of serotonin, endorphins -- the
body's natural opiates -- and oxytocin, a
"compassion hormone" that reinforces
even more helping behavior, Post says.
Could compassion be rooted in our
neurobiology? A National Academy of
Sciences study showed that simply
thinking about contributing to a charity of
choice activates a part of the brain called
the mesolimbic pathway, the brain's
reward center, which is associated with
feelings of joy.

17. "Although just thinking about giving or
writing a check can increase our levels of
happiness, face-to-face interactions seem
to have a higher impact," Post says. "I
think that's because they engage the
[brain's] agents of giving more fully
through tone of voice, facial expression,
and the whole body."

18. Myth 6: One size fits all.
If you're seeking a magic bullet or mystical elixir to enhance your happiness, you're bound to be sorely
disappointed. There is no "one size fits all" for happiness.
Instead, there are many ways to boost your happiness. Here are options to try:
Pick an activity that is meaningful to you, Cohn says. Whether you choose an activity that promotes a
sense of gratitude, connectedness, forgiveness, or optimism, you'll be most successful if your
choices are personally relevant to you. And, he adds, this may also keep you from adapting to
them too quickly.

19. Assess your strengths and develop practices that best use these gifts, Post suggests. Are you a good
cook? Deliver a meal to a shut-in. A retired teacher? Consider tutoring a child. The possibilities
are limited only by your imagination.
Vary your activities because promoting happiness is largely a question of finding a good fit,
Lyubomirsky says. To that end, she helped Signal Patterns develop a "Live Happy" iPhone
application that starts with a short survey to identify the happiness strategies that you're suited to,
such as journaling or calling someone to express gratitude. "You can lose your will [to do those
activities] if it's not a good fit," Lyubomirsky says.
And when it comes to happiness, maintaining your will -- and acting on it -- might just put a pleasurable,
meaningful life well within reach. WebMD

20. “Happiness is the meaning
and the purpose of life, the
whole aim and end of
human existence.”
― Aristotle

21. “One swallow does not
make a summer,
neither does one fine day;
similarly one day or brief
time of happiness does not
make a person entirely
happy.”
― Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics

22. “...happiness does not consist in
amusement. In fact, it would be
strange if our end were
amusement, and if we were to
labor and suffer hardships all
our life long merely to amuse
ourselves.... The happy life is
regarded as a life in conformity
with virtue. It is a life which
involves effort and is not spent
in amusement....”
― Aristotle

23. “True happiness is to enjoy the present, without
anxious dependence upon the future, not to
amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to
rest satisfied with what we have, which is
sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The
greatest blessings of mankind are within us and
within our reach. A wise man is content with his
lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what
he has not.”
― Seneca

24. “There is only one way to
happiness and that is to
cease worrying about
things which are beyond
the power or our will. ”
― Epictetus

25. “The happiness of your life
depends upon the quality
of your thoughts.”
― Marcus Aurelius,
Meditations

26. “Very little is needed to
make a happy life; it is all
within yourself in your
way of thinking.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

27. “Now if a man thus favoured died as he
has lived, he will be just the one you are
looking for: the only sort of person who
deserves to be called happy. But mark
this: until he is dead, keep the word
"happy" in reserve. Till then, he is not
happy, but only lucky...”
― Herodotus

28. “The robb'd that smiles,
steals something from the
thief.”
― William Shakespeare,
Othello

29. “With mirth and laughter
let old wrinkles come.”
― William Shakespeare,
The Merchant of Venice

30. “You must be the best
judge of your own
happiness.”
― Jane Austen, Emma

31. Le Bon David
“Reading and sauntering and lounging and dosing, which I call
thinking, is my supreme Happiness.”
"Tendency to joy and hope is true happiness; tendency to fear
and melancholy is a real unhappiness."

32. Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the
expression of real suffering and a protest against real
suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature,
the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless
conditions. It is the opium of the people.
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the
people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on
them to give up their illusions about their condition is to
call on them to give up a condition that requires
illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in
embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which
religion is the halo.
― Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right

33. “For every minute you are angry
you lose sixty seconds of
happiness.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

34. “The advantage of a bad
memory is that one enjoys
several times the same
good things for the first
time.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

35. “What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after
you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This
life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to
live once more and innumerable times more' ... Would
you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and
curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once
experienced a tremendous moment when you would
have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I
heard anything more divine.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science: with a Prelude in Rhymes and
an Appendix of Songs

36. “A quiet secluded life in the
country, with the possibility of
being useful to people to whom it
is easy to do good, and who are
not accustomed to have it done to
them; then work which one hopes
may be of some use; then rest,
nature, books, music, love for
one's neighbor — such is my idea
of happiness.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Family
Happiness

37. “Pierre was right when he
said that one must believe
in the possibility of
happiness in order to be
happy, and I now believe in
it. Let the dead bury the
dead, but while I'm alive, I
must live and be happy.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

38. “Seize the moments of
happiness, love and be
loved! That is the only
reality in the world, all else
is folly. It is the one thing
we are interested in here.”
― Leo Tolstoy

39. “Happiness is like a
butterfly; the more you
chase it, the more it will
elude you, but if you turn
your attention to other
things, it will come and sit
softly on your shoulder.”
― Henry David Thoreau

40. “There are two ways to get
enough. One is to continue
to accumulate more and
more. The other is to
desire less.”
― G.K. Chesterton

41. “Each morning when I open my
eyes I say to myself: I, not events,
have the power to make me happy
or unhappy today. I can choose
which it shall be. Yesterday is
dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet.
I have just one day, today, and I'm
going to be happy in it.”
― Groucho Marx

42. Life's chief concern
If we were to ask the question:
“What is human life's chief
concern?” one of the answers we
should receive would be: “It is
happiness.” How to gain, how to
keep, how to recover happiness, is in
fact for most men at all times the
secret motive of all they do, and of
all they are willing to endure.
William James

45. “Of all forms of caution,
caution in love is perhaps
the most fatal to true
happiness.”
― Bertrand Russell, The
Conquest of Happiness

46. “You will never be happy if
you continue to search for
what happiness consists of.
You will never live if you
are looking for the meaning
of life.”
― Albert Camus

47. “Think of all the beauty
still left around you and be
happy.”
― Anne Frank

48. “Whoever is happy
will make others
happy.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

49. “Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a
target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like
happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does
so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to
a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's
surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must
happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it
happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your
conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the
best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the
long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you
precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

50. “If you want others to be
happy, practice
compassion. If you want to
be happy, practice
compassion.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness

51. “The present moment is
filled with joy and
happiness. If you are
attentive, you will see it.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step:
The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

52. “Remember laughing? Laughter
enhances the blood flow to the
body’s extremities and improves
cardiovascular function. Laughter
releases endorphins and other
natural mood elevating and pain-
killing chemicals, improves the
transfer of oxygen and nutrients to
internal organs.
Laughter boosts the immune
system and helps the body fight off
disease, cancer cells as well as viral,
bacterial and other infections.
Being happy is the best cure of all
diseases!”
― Patch Adams

53. “Having a great intellect is
no path to being happy.”
― Stephen Fry

54. “Don't cry because it's over, smile
because it happened.”
― Dr. Seuss

55. “This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was
this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for
pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested
for this problem, but most of these were largely
concerned with the movement of small green pieces of
paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the
small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

56. “What does it matter?
Science has achieved some
wonderful things, of course,
but I'd far rather be happy
than right any day.”
― Douglas Adams, The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy