Awaken Your Genius » Happiness Project http://awakenyourgenius.com Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:53:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 ‘The How of Happiness’: Interview with Prof Sonja Lyubomirsky http://awakenyourgenius.com/the-how-of-happiness-interview-with-prof-sonja-lyubomirsky http://awakenyourgenius.com/the-how-of-happiness-interview-with-prof-sonja-lyubomirsky#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:15:23 +0000 Ali Binazir http://awakenyourgenius.com/?p=160 There have been a number a number of excellent books on happiness published in the past few years, and I have been consuming them avidly. Not only do I use their principles to help my students and hypnotherapy clients lead happier lives, but I also enjoy applying the principles to my own life. The books are also fun to read, with accounts of quirky psych experiments and fun, touching anecdotes.

One of the best of the happiness batch is The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want by UC Riverside Professor of Psychology Sonja Lyubomirsky. Amongst all the happiness texts I’ve read (and there have been about 8), this one I found to be the most practical in its ability to increase real happiness in your life.

This is because of Prof Lyubomirsky’s judicious use of questionnaires and the Person-Activity Fit Diagnostic, which figures out which activities end up creating the most happiness for you. The results for me were somewhat surprising and allowed me to focus more of my time and energy on the activities that, unbeknownst to myself, meant the most to me.

Prof Lyubomirsky, a Santa Monica neighbor and fellow Harvard grad, was kind enough to let me into her home for a very informative interview which you can watch below. I recommend everyone, young and old, to get a copy of The How of Happiness for yourself and someone you love. There is no greater gift than enabling “the experience of joy, contentment or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful and worthwhile.” So go forth and be a happiness enabler.

In Part 1, we talk about how the book can help you custom-design your own happiness program. We also discuss savoring, flow, and 2 of the 3 happiness myths.

In Part 2, we finish up the happiness myths, get into hedonic adaptation and the infamous story of Markus and Roland.

Get your copy of The How of Happiness on Amazon

]]> http://awakenyourgenius.com/the-how-of-happiness-interview-with-prof-sonja-lyubomirsky/feed 0 Interview with Gretchen Rubin at Vroman’s Bookstore http://awakenyourgenius.com/interview-with-gretchen-rubin-at-vromans-bookstore http://awakenyourgenius.com/interview-with-gretchen-rubin-at-vromans-bookstore#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:58:28 +0000 Ali Binazir http://awakenyourgenius.com/?p=120 Here’s an interview I did last week with Gretchen Rubin, fellow HuffingtonPost.com contributor and all-around star (Yale Law grad, clerkship with Sandra Day O’Connor, supermom, etc). I caught up with her at a reading she did at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, Southern California’s oldest and largest independent bookstore. My first time there — what a place! A bibliophile’s heaven indeed. To catch Gretchen when she swings through your city, check out her book tour schedule on her excellent blog.

But I digress — voila the video. It’s just over a minute, so check it out:

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