If You Want to be Happy for the Rest of Your Life

"You can thank your parents—in part—for how happy you are; roughly half of human happiness is genetically determined. Another 10 percent comes from your life circumstances, like how happy you are with where you live. But because people quickly adapt to changes, swapping Midwest winters for West Coast warmth, say, won't lead to a lasting boost in life satisfaction, according to longtime happiness researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California-Riverside. What can give us a lasting boost is how we think and behave, she says: About 40 percent of our happiness is under our conscious control...."

Continue reading Lindsay Lyon's article for US News and World Report on Sonja Lyubomirsky's research, "How Positive Psychology Can Increase Your Happiness. It could be a crock of doodlie doo, but it's worth a shot, ain't it?

The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA

I caught up with the two episodes of HBO's Big Love I missed while I was on vacation last night. Donna Fargo may have written the song "I'm the Happiest Girl in the Whole USA" and made it famous, but Rhonda Volmer (played by Daveigh Chase) owns it now, man. Brava, Daveigh!