The evidence is quite clear that giving makes us happier. In our resource we have found that for longer term happiness, it is better to give than to receive.
Of course that’s also correlated with creating connection, because kind actions involve others and you do create a connection when you help someone. And the research is also clear that strong relationships and connections with others is also highly correlated with happiness.
In my opinion, connection to others is what makes life worth living.”
-Sonja Lyubomirsky
Do love, kindness, and altruism make us happier? How do we end the current loneliness epidemic? What is perceived partner responsiveness?
Find out in this week’s episode of The Learn to Love Podcast, where your host Zach Beach interviews the psychologist and author Sonja Lyubomirsky on Kindness, Happiness, and Connection.
Listen on:
Apple Podcasts || Stitcher || TuneIn || Google Podcasts || Spotify|| Amazon Music || Castbox
about Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D.
Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside.
Originally from Russia, she received her bachelor’s at Harvard University and her Ph.D. in Social/Personality Psychology from Stanford University. Lyubomirsky currently teaches courses in social psychology and positive psychology and serves as the Department of Psychology’s Vice Chair.
Her research has been written up in hundreds of magazines and newspapers and she has appeared in multiple TV shows, radio shows, and feature documentaries in North America, South America, Asia, Australia, and Europe.
She is the best selling author of The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want, as well as is now translated and published in 23 countries, and The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy, But Doesn’t, What Shouldn’t Make You Happy, But Does, which have been translated and published in dozens of countries.
Stay connected with Sonja Lyubomirsky:
Website|| Research|| The How of Happiness ||Twitter
Links from the show
- 10 Tips to Help You Stop Ruminating
- How Much of Your Happiness Is Under Your Control?
- The Hedonic Treadmill – Are We Forever Chasing Rainbows?
- New Love: A Short Shelf Life – NYTimes
- Sri Swami Satchidananda – The Woodstock Guru
- Thomas Hobbes – Nasty, Brutish and Short
- What Is Situational Loneliness And Why Does It Occur?
- Perceived Partner Responsiveness, Daily Negative Affect Reactivity, and All-Cause Mortality: A 20-Year Longitudinal Study
- Harry Reis
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