What do you think?
Rate this book
TIME The Science of Happiness: New Discoveries for a More Joyful Life
“Don’t worry, be happy.” Sounds simple enough, yet many encounter setbacks in their pursuit of happiness. What if we could definitively say: “If you do this, you will achieve a happier and healthier life?” What if we could unlock the key to happiness? Enter Science.
In an all new special edition from TIME, The Science of Happiness: New Discoveries for a More Joyful Life , editors investigate exclusive, cutting-edge research from the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness. Focusing in on the debate surrounding whether or not there is a direct relationship between happiness and health, this special edition explores the factors that affect happiness in three outlined sections - mind, life and spirit – and considers aspects such as positivity, optimism, purpose, family, finance, spirituality, and gratitude, in order to examine happiness from different angles. Although the research included in The Science of Happiness is a work in progress, it is a step toward unlocking the key to happiness by grounding a cute catchphrase in fact and science.
In an all new special edition from TIME, The Science of Happiness: New Discoveries for a More Joyful Life , editors investigate exclusive, cutting-edge research from the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness. Focusing in on the debate surrounding whether or not there is a direct relationship between happiness and health, this special edition explores the factors that affect happiness in three outlined sections - mind, life and spirit – and considers aspects such as positivity, optimism, purpose, family, finance, spirituality, and gratitude, in order to examine happiness from different angles. Although the research included in The Science of Happiness is a work in progress, it is a step toward unlocking the key to happiness by grounding a cute catchphrase in fact and science.
96 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 24, 2016
71 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 22, 2019
The biggest benefit of reading this - book? booklet? - is the reminder of all the reasons I have to be happy, all that is going well for me that I don't always consider. One of my teens showed interest in it, and I picked it up in the supermarket aisle.
Do I seek happiness? Somewhat, but not exclusively. I believe we have deeper purposes than just our own enjoyment. The philosophy of seeking happiness at the expense of all else is hedonism, and that can endanger much that is good.
For the most part, I did enjoy this read, but I was disappointed in TIME. I thought they would've done a better job with notes to the exact scientific reference. But for most of it, they just said, "Science says ..." or "One study says ..." without ever telling us whom, exactly how such a thing was tested, how large of a sample size they had, etc, much less giving a link where we could find the data. I was disappointed because I considered TIME to be more reputable than that.
In fact, I'd just told my aunt the other day that whenever someone tells me, "Science says ..." without ever referencing what study they're talking about, I'm already suspicious. I was disappointed to have to apply that same criterion for TIME. Sigh. They did, however, give the reference part of the time. What was up that the editors didn't catch that? Or did they want to minimize the pages and ink?
I had heard the quote before: "Most folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be." But, I hadn't realized that Abraham Lincoln had said it. That's a fact I find interesting, because Lincoln himself had his bout with depression, and was, perhaps, even suicidal at an earlier stage in his life.
I'll argue a little with the advice to "Forget self-improvement," in which the authors reference Willibald Ruch. Yes, we do need to have an awareness of and appreciation for our own character strengths. But it does need to be balanced with some form of character growth, or we will end up stubbing our toe on the same piece of furniture over and over again, figuratively. If we can appreciate our current strengths, AND become stronger where we are weak, I think that would help overall, mentally and physically. But the effect of having both wasn't studied, just the effect of one or the other on happiness - appreciating our strengths or focusing on self-improvement. And I suppose it would matter if one were overcoming some big troubling aspect of oneself and seeing progress or just nit-picking oneself.
Maybe I shouldn't have been, but I was surprised with the section, "How to Bounce Back" about resiliency. I was pleasantly surprised that the topic had even been considered in a book on happiness. It makes sense, because part of happiness is learning to be resilient with the unhappy parts of life, and working our way back to a happier state.
For about a year, I had read about resiliency when, with my dad's illness, I became part of the sandwich generation, trying to balance the needs of my parents and children. My quest started with reading Shelly Radic's "Momology: A Mom's Guide to Shaping Great Kids." The first chapter, four sections, were about resiliency and being resilient ourselves as moms. The book had been the theme book for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and our mentor moms discussed the topic of resiliency in the meeting, too. I discovered that I already, routinely, did not just some, but EVERY stress-reducing, resiliency enabling thing on their list, both in the book and from our mentors. I still felt overwhelmed, and my take-away note was just that, yes, we should try to strengthen our resiliency, but life can just be hard sometimes.
TIME's "The Science of Happiness" did have a few things to add to my reservoir about resiliency: "Like the animal whose pulse returns quickly to normal once it has outrun a predator, resilient brains seem to shut off the stress response and return to baseline quickly." I think, in my original readings of resiliency, I had focused more on 1) getting through the crises at all, rather than quickly and 2)taking some of the sting out of the process. The idea of trying to return quickly to a state of calm is an interesting one to me.
I had already discovered, about myself, that I can do pretty well through a crisis, or even a series of crises, depending on their severity, of course, but I seemed to have almost routine trouble after the crisis had ended. That's when I'd have more trouble either in overreacting to others or in my own thoughts. I called it, in my own mind, the "denouement." In literature, the part of the story after the crisis ended, when it should just be a wrap-up of any loose ends, is the "denouement." And the "denouement," in real life, is where I'd have my trouble. Coming off of the adrenaline rush to a more calm state didn't go smoothly for me. Or, as the TIME booklet phrased it, the "shut off the stress response and return to a baseline quickly."
For me, what has helped the most in that scenario, has been meditating on the verse "Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you." - Psalm 116:7. It was, in effect, reminding myself to calm down, "be at rest," reminding myself that the crisis was over "has been," and reminding myself to be grateful for all the little ways that I'd seen goodness through the ordeal, "for the Lord has been good to you." That, more than anything, has helped me through my denouements.
Another of TIME's quotes in this section: "... worrying about the future, fretting about the past. The more we use this neuronal superhighway, the more efficient it grows, and this mode of thinking becomes our default. But new research shows humans can train their brains to build and strengthen different connections that don't reinforce the fear circuit. Over time, if people use this new pathway enough, it can become the new response to stress."
I've thought that before, that we need to be careful what kinds of thoughts we feed our minds, what kinds of thoughts we allow our minds to routinely pursue.
I'll note the recommended book, in case, in the future, I should ever want to find it: "Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges." - Charney and Southwick, 2012
The article on resilience went on, moving past Charney and Southwick to two studies, one in which scientists tried to make Marines more resilient and one in which they tried to make BMX cyclers more resilient. Although the Marines showed more biological ability to calm down after trauma than they had previously, interestingly, the Marines didn't feel more resilient. My take on it was that there was a difference in the way the Marines' bodies reacted, but their souls still felt unsettled.
In the BMX study, the participants were told that the training could affect their brains, and afterwards they reported that they felt more resilient. So, in effect, telling them that in advance biased them to feel differently. Although the article's author didn't spell it out as the placebo effect, I have to wonder. Maybe such training can lower our biological responses to stress, which certainly would help greatly and is a great place to start. But, the Marines could still feel something was amiss. They didn't trust that they had healed from their experiences. And the BMX cyclists could feel differently because they had been told they would.
Another book that I enjoyed about resilience (particularly for Christians) is John Benton's "Resilient: How 2 Timothy Teaches Us to Bounce Back." It's written for Christian leaders, but I got a great deal from it, even though I'm not any sort of pastor or church leader.
In Time's "The Science of Happiness" chart on how different family structures affect happiness, they left out the category entirely of people who were single with no kids. That seems, to me, to be a significant portion of the population! As well as overlooking some of my friends.
In the article, "Jump for Joy," I liked the suggestion of "the act of savoring - mining pleasant moments for their joy - is proven to increase happiness." Or, as one friend told me during a time of grief, "focus on the moments of peace," even if those moments were rare. I found that in doing so, the moments of peace stretched longer and longer, until they began to blur together.
The same article mentioned a study in which it was found that the more people went on Facebook, the more their life-satisfaction levels declined. I had read a different, and I think, later study mentioned by Psychology Today that said that it depended on how one uses Facebook. Those that post (and are affirmed by others) actually are happier, but those that just scroll and read the postings of others, without posting themselves, are less happy, presumably because they are either envious of others' situations or not receiving the same level of affirmation, because they are not posting. That study didn't mention those who post and are not affirmed for it.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ie/bl...
Another TIME quote: "Chatty commuters - introverts and extroverts alike - reported having the most pleasant commutes." First, I'm glad to see that they evaluated introverts as well as extroverts. Some of the rest of this booklet seemed to be more geared towards extroverts, without considering that introverts might feel differently. Secondly, not all introverts think alike, either, and I suspect that some might find the silence, and the chance to process their workday more refreshing.
In the section "Money Can't Buy Happiness," I liked the quote, "And perhaps most tellingly, they [happy people] aren't bothered by the successes of others ... They dare not to compare."
The authors considered whether children make one happy, looking both at modern people's answers, as well as various religious texts. I thought that they did a pretty funny, but accurate synopsis of the Biblical ones - Abraham and David, among others - and ended up with a mixed bag of whether or not children make one happy. I'm surprised they didn't add "Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him." - Psalm 127:3
They could've also included this verse, which shows what a mixed bag it can be: "A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother." - Proverbs 10:1
I did like this TIME quote: "The idea that happiness should be the goal of religion is a fairly recent one, and it would have been unrecognizable to the stern Protestants who landed on Plymouth Rock, who believed that the point of existence was the glorification of God - not human happiness. That's the past, though; today, many of the descendants of those flinty Protestants now preach the prosperity gospel." Ah, yes, the prosperity gospel, the watered-down twisting of belief. The prosperity gospel, I believe, in the long term leads only to disillusionment and discouragement, not happiness, as God does not fulfill promises He never made (or promises that were taken out of context.)
I was sad to hear that the Dalai Lama's book "The Art of Happiness" also fell down that path as well. Even if I don't agree with their philosophy, I would have at least agreed that the purpose of life is beyond our own gratification and pleasure. Life can be such a beautiful mystery. Let's not degrade it by making it all about us. That goes back to hedonism that I mentioned at the beginning of this review.
It was interesting to note the finding that religion often does not lead to happiness if one does not believe like the majority, whether that's atheism in the Netherlands or Christianity in the United States. That study may not have investigated the extreme case of that, in which a minority religion is persecuted, but it makes me think of it. It's hard to be happy when one is being persecuted for beliefs, whatever those beliefs are, and there can be such a thing as verbal harassment and bullying, which are a slight form of persecution.
It reminded me of what the Apostle Paul said 1 Cor 15:19, speaking of persecution: "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." - 1 Corinthians 15:19. He then went on to say what his hopes were.
If we are to choose Christianity, we should choose it for reasons other than immediate happiness, although, yes, God often does grant peace and even joy. But those are not the same thing as happiness.
I am updating this review with two links to other articles on happiness, science, and religion:
https://www.epm.org/blog/2019/Sep/25/...
I would've answered somewhat differently than C. S. Lewis did in the article on happiness below. I would've said that while we have the legal right to pursue happiness (which is different than the legal right to happiness itself - the government can't guarantee that), while we have this right to pursue happiness, not all pursuits of happiness are equally likely to end up in happiness, either in ourselves or others.
I also would've said that the pursuit of happiness does involve more aspects than Lewis considered. I would've added choice of a vocation, hobbies, and religion among them. But I still thought Lewis had some good thoughts. Article below.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/bl...
Do I seek happiness? Somewhat, but not exclusively. I believe we have deeper purposes than just our own enjoyment. The philosophy of seeking happiness at the expense of all else is hedonism, and that can endanger much that is good.
For the most part, I did enjoy this read, but I was disappointed in TIME. I thought they would've done a better job with notes to the exact scientific reference. But for most of it, they just said, "Science says ..." or "One study says ..." without ever telling us whom, exactly how such a thing was tested, how large of a sample size they had, etc, much less giving a link where we could find the data. I was disappointed because I considered TIME to be more reputable than that.
In fact, I'd just told my aunt the other day that whenever someone tells me, "Science says ..." without ever referencing what study they're talking about, I'm already suspicious. I was disappointed to have to apply that same criterion for TIME. Sigh. They did, however, give the reference part of the time. What was up that the editors didn't catch that? Or did they want to minimize the pages and ink?
I had heard the quote before: "Most folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be." But, I hadn't realized that Abraham Lincoln had said it. That's a fact I find interesting, because Lincoln himself had his bout with depression, and was, perhaps, even suicidal at an earlier stage in his life.
I'll argue a little with the advice to "Forget self-improvement," in which the authors reference Willibald Ruch. Yes, we do need to have an awareness of and appreciation for our own character strengths. But it does need to be balanced with some form of character growth, or we will end up stubbing our toe on the same piece of furniture over and over again, figuratively. If we can appreciate our current strengths, AND become stronger where we are weak, I think that would help overall, mentally and physically. But the effect of having both wasn't studied, just the effect of one or the other on happiness - appreciating our strengths or focusing on self-improvement. And I suppose it would matter if one were overcoming some big troubling aspect of oneself and seeing progress or just nit-picking oneself.
Maybe I shouldn't have been, but I was surprised with the section, "How to Bounce Back" about resiliency. I was pleasantly surprised that the topic had even been considered in a book on happiness. It makes sense, because part of happiness is learning to be resilient with the unhappy parts of life, and working our way back to a happier state.
For about a year, I had read about resiliency when, with my dad's illness, I became part of the sandwich generation, trying to balance the needs of my parents and children. My quest started with reading Shelly Radic's "Momology: A Mom's Guide to Shaping Great Kids." The first chapter, four sections, were about resiliency and being resilient ourselves as moms. The book had been the theme book for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and our mentor moms discussed the topic of resiliency in the meeting, too. I discovered that I already, routinely, did not just some, but EVERY stress-reducing, resiliency enabling thing on their list, both in the book and from our mentors. I still felt overwhelmed, and my take-away note was just that, yes, we should try to strengthen our resiliency, but life can just be hard sometimes.
TIME's "The Science of Happiness" did have a few things to add to my reservoir about resiliency: "Like the animal whose pulse returns quickly to normal once it has outrun a predator, resilient brains seem to shut off the stress response and return to baseline quickly." I think, in my original readings of resiliency, I had focused more on 1) getting through the crises at all, rather than quickly and 2)taking some of the sting out of the process. The idea of trying to return quickly to a state of calm is an interesting one to me.
I had already discovered, about myself, that I can do pretty well through a crisis, or even a series of crises, depending on their severity, of course, but I seemed to have almost routine trouble after the crisis had ended. That's when I'd have more trouble either in overreacting to others or in my own thoughts. I called it, in my own mind, the "denouement." In literature, the part of the story after the crisis ended, when it should just be a wrap-up of any loose ends, is the "denouement." And the "denouement," in real life, is where I'd have my trouble. Coming off of the adrenaline rush to a more calm state didn't go smoothly for me. Or, as the TIME booklet phrased it, the "shut off the stress response and return to a baseline quickly."
For me, what has helped the most in that scenario, has been meditating on the verse "Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you." - Psalm 116:7. It was, in effect, reminding myself to calm down, "be at rest," reminding myself that the crisis was over "has been," and reminding myself to be grateful for all the little ways that I'd seen goodness through the ordeal, "for the Lord has been good to you." That, more than anything, has helped me through my denouements.
Another of TIME's quotes in this section: "... worrying about the future, fretting about the past. The more we use this neuronal superhighway, the more efficient it grows, and this mode of thinking becomes our default. But new research shows humans can train their brains to build and strengthen different connections that don't reinforce the fear circuit. Over time, if people use this new pathway enough, it can become the new response to stress."
I've thought that before, that we need to be careful what kinds of thoughts we feed our minds, what kinds of thoughts we allow our minds to routinely pursue.
I'll note the recommended book, in case, in the future, I should ever want to find it: "Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges." - Charney and Southwick, 2012
The article on resilience went on, moving past Charney and Southwick to two studies, one in which scientists tried to make Marines more resilient and one in which they tried to make BMX cyclers more resilient. Although the Marines showed more biological ability to calm down after trauma than they had previously, interestingly, the Marines didn't feel more resilient. My take on it was that there was a difference in the way the Marines' bodies reacted, but their souls still felt unsettled.
In the BMX study, the participants were told that the training could affect their brains, and afterwards they reported that they felt more resilient. So, in effect, telling them that in advance biased them to feel differently. Although the article's author didn't spell it out as the placebo effect, I have to wonder. Maybe such training can lower our biological responses to stress, which certainly would help greatly and is a great place to start. But, the Marines could still feel something was amiss. They didn't trust that they had healed from their experiences. And the BMX cyclists could feel differently because they had been told they would.
Another book that I enjoyed about resilience (particularly for Christians) is John Benton's "Resilient: How 2 Timothy Teaches Us to Bounce Back." It's written for Christian leaders, but I got a great deal from it, even though I'm not any sort of pastor or church leader.
In Time's "The Science of Happiness" chart on how different family structures affect happiness, they left out the category entirely of people who were single with no kids. That seems, to me, to be a significant portion of the population! As well as overlooking some of my friends.
In the article, "Jump for Joy," I liked the suggestion of "the act of savoring - mining pleasant moments for their joy - is proven to increase happiness." Or, as one friend told me during a time of grief, "focus on the moments of peace," even if those moments were rare. I found that in doing so, the moments of peace stretched longer and longer, until they began to blur together.
The same article mentioned a study in which it was found that the more people went on Facebook, the more their life-satisfaction levels declined. I had read a different, and I think, later study mentioned by Psychology Today that said that it depended on how one uses Facebook. Those that post (and are affirmed by others) actually are happier, but those that just scroll and read the postings of others, without posting themselves, are less happy, presumably because they are either envious of others' situations or not receiving the same level of affirmation, because they are not posting. That study didn't mention those who post and are not affirmed for it.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ie/bl...
Another TIME quote: "Chatty commuters - introverts and extroverts alike - reported having the most pleasant commutes." First, I'm glad to see that they evaluated introverts as well as extroverts. Some of the rest of this booklet seemed to be more geared towards extroverts, without considering that introverts might feel differently. Secondly, not all introverts think alike, either, and I suspect that some might find the silence, and the chance to process their workday more refreshing.
In the section "Money Can't Buy Happiness," I liked the quote, "And perhaps most tellingly, they [happy people] aren't bothered by the successes of others ... They dare not to compare."
The authors considered whether children make one happy, looking both at modern people's answers, as well as various religious texts. I thought that they did a pretty funny, but accurate synopsis of the Biblical ones - Abraham and David, among others - and ended up with a mixed bag of whether or not children make one happy. I'm surprised they didn't add "Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him." - Psalm 127:3
They could've also included this verse, which shows what a mixed bag it can be: "A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother." - Proverbs 10:1
I did like this TIME quote: "The idea that happiness should be the goal of religion is a fairly recent one, and it would have been unrecognizable to the stern Protestants who landed on Plymouth Rock, who believed that the point of existence was the glorification of God - not human happiness. That's the past, though; today, many of the descendants of those flinty Protestants now preach the prosperity gospel." Ah, yes, the prosperity gospel, the watered-down twisting of belief. The prosperity gospel, I believe, in the long term leads only to disillusionment and discouragement, not happiness, as God does not fulfill promises He never made (or promises that were taken out of context.)
I was sad to hear that the Dalai Lama's book "The Art of Happiness" also fell down that path as well. Even if I don't agree with their philosophy, I would have at least agreed that the purpose of life is beyond our own gratification and pleasure. Life can be such a beautiful mystery. Let's not degrade it by making it all about us. That goes back to hedonism that I mentioned at the beginning of this review.
It was interesting to note the finding that religion often does not lead to happiness if one does not believe like the majority, whether that's atheism in the Netherlands or Christianity in the United States. That study may not have investigated the extreme case of that, in which a minority religion is persecuted, but it makes me think of it. It's hard to be happy when one is being persecuted for beliefs, whatever those beliefs are, and there can be such a thing as verbal harassment and bullying, which are a slight form of persecution.
It reminded me of what the Apostle Paul said 1 Cor 15:19, speaking of persecution: "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." - 1 Corinthians 15:19. He then went on to say what his hopes were.
If we are to choose Christianity, we should choose it for reasons other than immediate happiness, although, yes, God often does grant peace and even joy. But those are not the same thing as happiness.
I am updating this review with two links to other articles on happiness, science, and religion:
https://www.epm.org/blog/2019/Sep/25/...
I would've answered somewhat differently than C. S. Lewis did in the article on happiness below. I would've said that while we have the legal right to pursue happiness (which is different than the legal right to happiness itself - the government can't guarantee that), while we have this right to pursue happiness, not all pursuits of happiness are equally likely to end up in happiness, either in ourselves or others.
I also would've said that the pursuit of happiness does involve more aspects than Lewis considered. I would've added choice of a vocation, hobbies, and religion among them. But I still thought Lewis had some good thoughts. Article below.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/bl...
January 25, 2021
Mais do que livros de auto-ajuda, gosto muito de investigar e aprender mais sobre os mecanismos com que o nosso cérebro opera as nossas emoções ou o nosso estado psicológico. A felicidade foi, durante muitos anos, chutada para canto por uma psicologia desesperada para resolver doenças. Agora — há umas décadas, na verdade — a ciência voltou a olhar para a felicidade e o bem-estar com olhos clínicos.
Esta edição especial da revista TIME, The Science of Happiness, é um compilado daquilo que já conseguimos apurar cientificamente sobre a felicidade e o bem estar. Que atividades reais é que estão cientificamente comprovadas que nos podem encaminhar para uma vida mais saudável e harmoniosa? Quais são os mais recentes dados sobre a relação entre a felicidade e a saúde?
Estas são algumas das respostas e temas que englobam esta revista com uma leitura quase de livro e com uma narrativa inclusiva a todos os leitores, para que a ciência sobre o bem estar chegue a mais pessoas. Uma edição curta mas muito interessante que reforçou alguns dos conceitos que já tinha conhecimento e me fez abrir a mente para outros tópicos. Recomendo!
Esta edição especial da revista TIME, The Science of Happiness, é um compilado daquilo que já conseguimos apurar cientificamente sobre a felicidade e o bem estar. Que atividades reais é que estão cientificamente comprovadas que nos podem encaminhar para uma vida mais saudável e harmoniosa? Quais são os mais recentes dados sobre a relação entre a felicidade e a saúde?
Estas são algumas das respostas e temas que englobam esta revista com uma leitura quase de livro e com uma narrativa inclusiva a todos os leitores, para que a ciência sobre o bem estar chegue a mais pessoas. Uma edição curta mas muito interessante que reforçou alguns dos conceitos que já tinha conhecimento e me fez abrir a mente para outros tópicos. Recomendo!
September 15, 2016
A review of the topic. New information regarding diet. Great infographics and maps. More specific information regarding the happiness of residents of each state would have been helpful, since some individuals live in poverty.
September 26, 2019
Happy!
A collection of topics that a casual reader can use towards bettering themselves.
Will definitely make a small progress in your search of happiness.
A collection of topics that a casual reader can use towards bettering themselves.
Will definitely make a small progress in your search of happiness.
December 1, 2021
Informative, inspiring, interesting, and best of all, backed by scientific studies 🙂
June 23, 2019
Not enough depth
It's an interesting material to read but I felt there was not enough depth. Most of the points mentioned were not new to me.
It's an interesting material to read but I felt there was not enough depth. Most of the points mentioned were not new to me.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews