05 Jan The top 10 lessons about living a meaningful life from 2023
Although I’m sometimes known as Dr Happy; and although I’m the Chief Happiness Officer of The Happiness Institute; and although I write and talk about happiness almost every day … my real interest isn’t so much about happiness per se but more so, about how the principles of positive psychology can be understood and applied to every day life by every day people.
What’s Positive Psychology?
In short, it’s the science of thriving and flourishing. Whereas traditional psychology focused almost exclusively on distress and dysfunction, Positive Psychology focuses much more on positive emotions and what’s going well in life.
Happiness is an important part of this; but it’s not the only part. Positive emotions like happiness are definitely worthwhile, but so too are positive relationships and meaningful work and accomplishments and more.
Today, I want to share a great article that focuses on the meaning part of happiness and thriving; and more specifically, 10 insights from the science of studying a meaningful life from the year just gone …
… you can check it out and read it in full – HERE
What are some of the key takeaways from this Greater Good Magazine summary article? Well, how about …
- happiness means different things in different cultures. That might sound obvious but we often overlook it or neglect its import
- the research into understanding happiness is strong and getting stronger
- being kind to others is antidepressant, boosts happiness, and really is one of the most therapeutic things we can do, especially those of us with mental ill-health
- the practice of compassion, and self-compassion, is VERY important
- despite what we might read or see on the news, people AREN’T become less ethical, the world ISN’T becoming worse!
And there’s so much more. Again, you can read the full and original article HERE if you’re keen but otherwise, just give some thought to what happiness means to you, and how you can best life a real and meaningful life!