"But perhaps the most striking difference was in an area in the left prefrontal cortex--the site of activity that marks happiness. While the monks were generating feelings of compassion, activity in the left prefrontal swamped activity in the right prefrontal (associated with negative moods) to a degree never before seen from purely mental activity ( Read more... )

People with generally positive outlooks show greater resistance to developing colds than do individuals who rarely revel in upbeat feelings, a new investigation finds.
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However, have you ever been so ecstatic that you cannot sit down and focus on paying bills or proofreading your child's homework? There might be a scientific basis to your ( Read more... )

ScienceBlog and CogDaily articles on recent studies of the effects of "thinking faster". Very good reading.

Also, CogDaily now has a podcast!

"Kennon Sheldon (Cal-San Diego) and Sonja Lyubomirsky (Cal-Riverside) creatively examined differences in well-being for university students over the course of several months, capturing real life changes in life circumstances and happiness related intentional activities. The main conclusions drawn from the three studies were that changing ( Read more... )

CBC radio show on the Science of Happiness.

See also: The physiology of stress.

It is not surprising that in a recent US Time magazine poll, money ranked a lowly 14th to the question, "What are your major sources of happiness?" According to the poll, happiness increased as income rose to $US50,000 ($A66,000) a year. (The average annual income in the US is about $US43,000). But after that, money didn't have a significant effect ( Read more... )

"You could fill a library with all the research showing an association between happiness and success - no surprise there, why wouldn’t success lead people to be more happy? But after conducting a comprehensive review of 225 studies, collectively involving more than 275,000 participants, Sonja Lyubomirsky at the University of California and ( Read more... )