Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being: the science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. Am. Psychol. 55, 34–43. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.34 Basically, although the two overlaps and each can contribute to the experience of the other, the two can be mutually exclusive (Baumeister et al., 2013). In terms of the content of this program, as mentioned above, the material presented and explored has been drawn on the one hand from the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism and Western contemplative traditions, and current scientific research found in neuropsychology on the other hand. On the scientific side, topics included the effects of mental training and meditation, the psychology and neuroscience of well-being and happiness, neuroplasticity, mind–brain–body interactions, different areas of contemplative sciences, the placebo effects, the brain circuits of attention and mind wandering, stress and anxiety, pain and pleasure, positive and negative emotions, desire and addiction, the sense of self, empathy, and compassion (for a full list of the scientific topics, see Supplementary Material). Silny, J. (n.d.). What’s so great about happiness, anyway? (The answer: plenty!). Happify Daily. Retrieved from https://www.happify.com/hd/whats-so-great-about-happiness/

Kaufman, S. B. (2016). The differences between happiness and meaning in life. Scientific American. Retrieved from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-differences-between-happiness-and-meaning-in-life/ Your happiness journal should be a collection of everything that makes your heart jump with joy. This will make you aware of your happiness and you’ll consciously do more things that make you happy.Practicing self-care doesn’t make you selfish. In fact, by opening yourself to your needs, you also become more intuitive about being kind to others.

Seeing oneself as wise, creative, and even anxious were all linked to meaning but had no relationship (and in some cases, even showed a negative relationship) to happiness (Kaufman, 2016). Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychol. Bull. 95, 542–575. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.95.3.542 Happiness is often known by another name in positive psychology research: subjective wellbeing, or SWB. The overall approach of the course was one of non-dogmatic exploration. Topics were presented not as undisputed truths, but instead as information to be shared, explored, examined, and possibly verified by one's own experience. Participants were heartily invited to doubt, explore, and test everything that was shared with them, to examine and experience firsthand whether what was being offered has validity or not.Also, you don’t have to be an artist or a writer to start with your happiness journal. Just grab your favourite journal and start exploring. You will soon find your style as you practice in your happiness journal. Nowadays, i do gratitude exercice in the morning, midday and before sleep. It’s help me stay more in positive thoughts. I like soo much. After I get up, I will brush my teeth. After I brush my teeth I will brew some coffee. After I pour the coffee in my coffee mug I will sit in the kitchen and journal for ten minutes.”

Just finished your article on happiness, or SWB and meaning . As stated in your article, happiness is fleeting and subject to feel good material goods and personal objectives. Having sex, kids, buying a new car, an opioid response. However, I thought life was supposed to have meaning that would contribute to my happiness. I chose a career based on what I thought I could contribute to my own and others lives. Rather naïve on my behalf and futile at this stage. I’m 72 years old and understand less now about the world as it is than ever before. I’ve seen the horrors of war and have moved forward from those days to marrying, having a family and building a career, the dopamine response, however I’ve lost the meaning of life and find myself unhappy, angry, reclusive and frustrated. I have done drugs, tried meditation and read books searching for meaning and happiness, which has been elusive at times. Your article helped put certain expectations of others and myself in perspective and what I need to do to achieve happiness and meaning. Thank you! ReplyWhat if you had it on your bedside table, and the moment you open your eyes, you know what you have to do next? The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Ethics Committee of the Sapienza University of Rome. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. Author Contributions In your Happiness Journal, you want to talk about gratitude a lot. Focusing on what you have expands your opportunities to reach what you don’t have.

Garland, E. L., Kiken, L. G., Faurot, K., Palsson, O., and Gaylord, S. A. (2017). Upward spirals of mindfulness and reappraisal: testing the mindfulness-to-meaning theory with autoregressive latent trajectory modeling. Cognit. Ther. Res. 41, 381–392. doi: 10.1007/s10608-016-9768-yDe Pisapia, N., and Grecucci, E. A. (2017). Mindfulness: fashion or revolution? G. Ital. di Psicol. 44, 249–270. doi: 10.1421/87329 The adopted questionnaires were those commonly used in the literature to measure a variety of traits and states linked to well-being. An exhaustive description of the self-reported measures follows below. Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) I highly recommend having your own happiy journal and fill it with everything you love. At the end of the year, you will have over 300 beautiful reasons to be happy about. Isn’t this simply amazing? Di Fabio, A., and Palazzeschi, L. (2012). The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS): Un contributo alla validazione italiana con lavoratori adulti [The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS): A contribution to Italian validation with adult workers]. Counseling 5, 207–215.