The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It

This little book is full of scientifically documented, common-sense techniques to improve your general mood and outlook on life, whether you are already a happy-enough person or someone who struggles with depression and low self-esteem. Abraham Lincoln is said to have said something like: "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." This book can help you change your mind and your behavior to experience more happiness, more often, regardless of the actual circumstances of your life. Because there are 100 of them, even taking a few of these suggestions can make a big difference quickly. I recommend reading the whole thing through and then keeping it out where you can conveniently pick it up and read a page or a few, say, when you're placed on hold on the phone, or when you want to read a bit before bed. This is one self-help book that really works, really easily. I can't think of a better investment.

This book features advice, the science of happiness, and brief accounts of real people reaping the rewards of following these practices (or suffering the consequences if they do not).It is neither a boring, dry, technical textbook of psychology, nor is it a bouncy, meaningless, 'slogans and nonsense' typical self-help book.Instead, it is a very readable mix of scientific findings with a healthy dose of advice and examples.It is laid out with 100 separate entries, and can be read straight through or referred to now and again as way to pick yourself up or redirect your thoughts and efforts.If you are thinking about reading a book on this topic, I think this is the one that you will find the most useful.

Many of these secrets are common sense, such as #54 "Get a good night's Sleep or #6 Cultivate Friendships; a few are debatable, such as #72 "You always have a choice." Overall, however, I find this little book fun and inspiring.Each "secret" follows this formula, as found in one of my favorites #50, "Cherish Animals." Niven gives a brief explanation of how animals have much to teach us about love. After the explanation is an anecdote: the story of an animal shelter that brings a vanload of small dogs each week to cheer up nursing home residents. Each entry concludes with a research finding: "Those with a loved pet are 22 percent more likely to feel satisfied than those without. - Barofsky and Rowan 1998."Most folks probably won't go looking up the references in the back, but my inner scientist is pleased by how Niven, a Ph.D. handled the research. Each reference is:1. alphabetically listed in the back by author (with journal information), so curious souls can easily look up the study.2. a meta-analysis (an analysis of multiple studies of the same topic). So when Niven says, "regular readers are about 8 percent more likely to express daily satisfaction" compared to non-readers, this is based on multiple studies, not just one.My only complaint about the book is that there's so much empty space. Many pages have 3 to 4 inches of empty space, well over half the page. Conclusion: Fun, inspiring, easy reading. A great gift idea when you don't know what to give.

I am generally skeptical about these kinds of books, but I've never read a book on this subject that was so clearly based in reality.100 Simple Secrets of Happy People is about the things happy people tend to do - everything from taking walks to watching less TV to not spending their time chasing goals they don't care about. It is written to be easy to use and understand, but it is based on an incredible volume of research on the daily habits and beliefs of happy people. Most importantly, after I finished it, I passed it on to my friends.

What I like about this book is that gives you really solid information about the things happy people do.Some of the advice is so practical that you could use it, and benefit from it, this afternoon. Other entries focus on the long term practices of happy people.What's most important for me about this book is that it made me feel better, because it let me see many things I'm already doing right, and many more things I could do to feel better.