What Happy People Know

As a health journalist, I've found few analytical tools to be handier than what I call the long view. When whipsawed by "groundbreaking" research that contradicts studies from, oh, just a few weeks before, I find that if I mix the new information into the old, then sit back and wait patiently while it ferments and settles, eventually something I might call truth will rise above the mists of the churning scientific cauldron.

The long view reveals other verities as well. I've always been fascinated by people who enjoy truly outstanding physical and mental health. After years of snooping, I've identified certain behaviors and attitudes they all share—a lifestyle, or style of living, that transcends the healthy habits (Eat this, bend that!) we extol. Here's what my notes—and the long view—tell me about the world's most robust inhabitants.

Discover the 12 happiness myths.

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100252240&gt1=31036

Everything You Know About Happiness is Wrong

Everything You Know About Happiness is Wrong

1. Know what to want.

Most of us can’t predict what will make us happy in the future, and that inability often leads us down the wrong path.

“The average American moves more than 11 times, changes jobs more than 10 times, and marries more than once, suggesting that most of us are making more than a few poor choices,” notes Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert, PhD, author of Stumbling on Happiness. One reason we so often guess wrong, he argues, is that we often imagine the future incorrectly. We forget how easily we adapt, even to painful circumstances. So when we picture what it would be like to be single again or to live in Seattle or to leave one job for another, we don’t factor in everything else—the new friends, the newly discovered interest in Cascade Mountains wildflowers—that might also affect our emotional well-being.

Unfortunately, Gilbert says, we can’t simply train ourselves to peer into the future with greater clarity. Instead, we should put more trust in other people’s experiences. “Start with the assumption that your reactions are a lot like other people’s,” Gilbert says. If you want to know whether to take a job at a new company, pay attention to the people around you when you’re there for an interview. Do they seem engaged and interested? That should count for a lot.

http://www.prevention.com/gethappy/list/1.shtml