48 AMERICANWAY
OCTOBER 1 2008
P S Y C H O L O G Y
Also, thanks to positive psychology, we
now know that a big chunk of our individ-
ual happiness is genetic.We have a natural
set point—a sort of happiness zone— that
we’re stuck with. So if we’re not naturally
cheery, no amount of therapy will make us
so (thanks, Mom and Dad). But there are
flavors of happiness we can control, or, in
the languageof theDeclarationof Indepen-
dence, pursue.
In fact, we can even take courses in how
to craft such a pursuit. The godfather of
positivepsychology,MartinSeligman,PhD,
director of theUniversity of Pennsylvania’s
Positive Psychology Center, launched the
first such course in2003. Before long, uni-
versities across theUnitedStates— includ-
ing the University of California, Berkeley;
Princeton; and the University of Texas —
added similar courses to their curricula. Tal
Ben-Shahar’s positive-psychology class is
the singlemost popular course at Harvard
University.
The syllabi for these classes should carry
this black-box warning, if not about the
courses themselves, then about chasing fe-
licity ingeneral:It’shardwork.AsBenjamin
Franklin observed, theDeclaration of Inde-
pendenceonlygivespeople the right topur-
suehappiness; youhave to catch it yourself.
HAPPINESS IS…
A goodhabit.
Abutterfly thatwill rest onyour shoulder if
you sit still enough.
A cudgel optimists use to beat pessimists
silly.
Positive psychology as a discipline wants
to set in motion a positive-feedback loop:
Think good thoughts and you’ll be happy,
do good and you’ll feel good, smile and the
world smileswith you, etc. Thehappier you
are, the more good thoughts you’ll have.
And themore good things youdo, the hap-
pier you’ll become.
Of course, the details of each approach
are much more nuanced, but in essence,
this is the philosophy: Negative leads to
negative, andpositive leads topositive.
The thing is, some people think good
thoughtsnaturally.Otherpeople—andnot
just the Eeyore types — have to be tricked
into it. Lead them to tiptoe through the
tulips repeatedly and regularly, preferably
taking a few detours to do good and be
nice, and said tiptoeing becomes habitual
for them.Habitual positive thinking equals
habitual happiness.
At least, theoretically.
Justasphysical exercise isproven tostave
off heart disease and cancer, happiness ex-
ercise isshown, instudyafter study, toactu-
ally aid emotional resilience. But although
well-meaningdoctors,medical researchers,
and government types have pounded the
physical-exercise drum for decades, people
aren’t exactly thronging the gym or track.
Happiness calisthenics, which are still new
and not widely publicized, have even fewer
adherents. As anyone who’s ever tried to
keep a New Year’s resolution knows, we
mortals resist change about asmuch as we
resist paying taxes. If sticking to goodhab-
its were a cinch, everyone you knowwould
Three aDay for Better Health
This is an exercise for your gratitude muscle.
Every night, write down three things you
were thankful for that day. The key phrase is
every night
.
Play toYour Strengths
Identify your character strengths— curiosity,
perseverance, self-control, etc. — and use at
least one of them every day. Even better, ap-
ply them to a task you detest. (Go to www
.authentichappiness.organd take theVIASig-
natureStrengthsQuestionnaire.)
Get in the Flow
Take on a challenge that’s barely within your
grasp. The act of stretching to do something
difficult—but not beyond you—will get you
into that blissful state called flow, when time
seems to stop and the world seems to disap-
pear. Do it regularly. You’ll be happier even
when you’re not flowing. (For more on flow,
startwithMihály Csíkszentmihályi. It’s an en-
tire branch of very interesting research.)
Serve Somebody
Volunteer. Helping other peoplewill make you
happier for as long as you keepdoing it.
GET
HAPPY
These techniques
are guaranteed
toboost your
happiness quo-
tient— and not
justmomentarily.
be fit and healthy, and have a clean desk,
a lint-free dryer filter, and absolutely no
credit carddebt.
You can lead a human to the happiness
well, it appears, but getting him to come
back todrink everyday is another story.
HAPPINESS IS…
A perfect score on a positive-psychology
quiz.
Apoint of view that canbe taught.
Like intelligence — you either have it or you
don’t. But with education, good actors can
fake itwell enough to fool a Freudian.
We can indoctrinate the young by teach-
ing happiness in school — something that
is alreadyhappening. Perhaps the strangest
thing about these classes isn’t the fact that
theyexistor that they’re immenselypopular
but what happens after the semester is fin-
ishedand the syllabus isfiledaway.
“Somestudentsgotreallyexcited, sentme
letters later, thekindof letters I’venever re-
ceived before,” saysMark Setton, aUniver-
sityofBridgeportphilosophyprofessorwho
teaches a course that explorespsychological
perspectives on happiness. “One student
was going to commit suicide and stopped
herself by concentrating on something I’d
taught during that course. I realized this
stuff can changepeople.”
In true trickle-down fashion, the teach-
ing of positive-psychology techniques is
spreading to high schools and even some
elementary schools. Setton is one of the
people trying to get it to trickle faster. He
started the website pursuit-of-happiness
.orgas ago-toportal for teacherswhowant
a littlehappiness in their classrooms. Even-
tually, he’d like to have an entire happiness
curriculum, every lesson a multimedia
wonder, in order to get the happiness gos-
pel to as many students as possible. When
we talked, he’d just receivedan e-mail from
apotential happiness teacher inNepal.
Amy Fineburg, a high school teacher in
Alabama, teaches a positive-psychology
unit and helped develop anAmerican Psy-
chological Association curriculum for sec-
ondary students. It’s free to anyone who
requests it. Her own students are eager
consumers. “Intuitively, it’s something they
want toknowabout,” she says.
Theseclassesincludesomeofthenewhap-
piness theoryaswell aspractical exercises to
