Aristotle once said “Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” Finding true happiness is serious business, and as a result, it has become big business.
On the internet and in the bookstores, a thousand gurus tout different remedies for human misery. How do we distinguish fact from hype? We need to consult one of our greatest gurus, the scientific method. Over the last twenty years we have seen a dramatic upsurge in scientific studies aimed at discovering the causes of “subjective well being” or to put it simply, discovering what makes happy people happy. Many of the scientific studies point to certain key areas that can strongly impact our pursuit of happiness. In these pages, we review the most scientific studies, find areas of agreement, and translate the results into non-technical English. Let’s take a look at the areas of consensus that are emerging through the new science of happiness.