19 May 3 happiness stories from around the world
Happiness is certainly in the news…
From the Scientific American comes “It’s getting better all the time: Happiness, well-being increase after 50”
Despite weighty concerns such as aging, planning for retirement or caring for older friends and family, people in the U.S. seem to get happier with age. A new study reports that these changes are consistent regardless of whether individuals were employed, had young children at home or lived with a partner. Read more here
From the Huffington Post comes this article about Gross National Happiness…
While the notions of Gross National Product (GNP) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) dominate the American political and economic landscapes, Bhutan employs notions of “Gross National Happiness” to determine how it fares as a nation. Seventy-two (72) indicators combine to determine and objectify this measure. So here it might be instructive to ask some salient questions of our own. Read more here
The Washington Post reviews what sounds like a fascinating book titled “The politics of happiness: what government can learn from new research on wellbeing” by Derek Bok. The reviewer, Martin Sieff, writes…
Jesus promised his followers unending happiness in this life and the next. Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that all men (the definition was later informally expanded to include women) were entitled to the right to pursue happiness. He stopped short of guaranteeing they would succeed in finding it.
Now Derek Bok, for two decades president of Harvard, one of the most experienced and impressive public policy minds in the past generation of American higher education, writes that the supply of happiness should be as much a government goal as the provision of health care.
Mr. Bok’s rich, challenging, remarkable new book is remarkably solid. For it is based not on the empty aphorisms so beloved by lazy and second-rate pseudo-philosophers. There is a surprisingly massive quantity of serious statistical and sociological research that has been done on the subject of happiness in both prosperous and developing societies, and Mr. Bok draws liberally and impressively upon it. His conclusions are remarkable and well worth heeding. Read more here
I hope you enjoy reading these articles and as always, I invite you to let us know if you hear of any relevant news and/or of any great stories/websites/books or anything else related to happiness or positive psychology.