The Myths of Happiness

I read children's picture books and travel narratives and creative nonfiction and literary fiction and Books About Happiness.

Yes, Books About Happiness. It's one of my favorite genres.

I've read Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman and Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Leyman and Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project and Happier at Home and the Dalai Lama's The Art of Happiness and Sonja Lyubomirsky's earlier book, The How of Happiness.

How could I pass up Lyubomirsky's new book, The Myths of Happiness?

Of course I couldn't.

And I am happy to report that reading it was four hours happily spent.

Lyubomirsky's underlying theme relies on the truth of two quotes: Pasteur reminds us, “Chance favors the prepared mind,” and Socrates notes, “He who is not contented with what he has, Would not be contented with what he would like to have.”

Chapter by chapter, Lyubomirsky examines all the myths of happiness we Americans hide in our hearts—all the I'll Be Happy When's and all the I Can't Be Happy If's—and explodes them, using a lovely combination of scientific research and case studies.

Turns out, we are much more resilient than we think we are. We keep walking through great traumas with scarcely more than a few months' dip in happiness. We keep walking through great good fortune with scarcely more than a few months' rise in happiness.

Interesting. Unexpected. Good to know.