"Conversations New York"

A Conversation About Happiness (Host: George) (http://www.meetup.com/Conversations-New-York/events/219754221/) Whole Foods 226 E. 57th. (btwn 2nd. and 3rd.) We'll be joined by members of the Happiness and Goodness Club, Manhattan and White Plains. Check for more RSVPs here - https://www.meetup.com/The-Happiness-and-Goodness-Club-Manhattan-and-White-Plains/ Get ready to get happier simply by talking about happiness! The theory behind these events comes from a classic psychology study showing that by simply talking regularly about happiness we can become much happier. While we'll depart from them however much we may wish, like by talking about gratitude, acts of kindness, meditation and other happiness techniques, the following list of 14 topics will serve as a backdrop for our discussions. 1. Keep busy and be more active 2. Spend more time socializing 3. Be productive at meaningful work 4. Get better organized and plan things out 5. Stop worrying 6. Lower your expectations and aspirations 7. Develop positive, optimistic thinking 8. Become present oriented 9. Develop an outgoing, social personality 10. Work on a healthy personality 11. Be yourself 12. Eliminate negative feelings and problems 13. Close relationships are the number one source of happiness 14. Put happiness as your most important priority. Here's some background on the research our group is based on. In 1980 three New Zealand researchers found that after eight 2-hour conversation sessions about happiness over four weeks, their subjects reported a 22 percent increase in their happiness. Continuing their twice-weekly sessions, by the sixteenth week they reported being 42 percent happier. Our list of topics comes from Fort Myers, Florida psychologist Michael Fordyce's "14 Fundamentals of Happiness." In 1977, Fordyce pioneered the science of happiness-increase with the world's first experiment designed to boost individual happiness. That's the group. It's important that our events be fun! So with that in mind, let's get serious about ramping up our enjoyment of life! Resources: For those interested in learning about the major findings from social science research about happiness, and becoming happier, here are links to several excellent peer-reviewed articles that can be downloaded as pdf files for free. (Note: Although these classic articles are somewhat dated, decades of research on happiness reveal that findings on happiness tend to be extremely stable over time.) Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.335.9655&rep=rep1&type=pdf) By S Lyubomirsky, KM Sheldon and D Schkade, 2005. 21 pages In Pursuit of Happiness: Empirical Answers to Philosophical Questions (http://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/%7Eediener/Documents/Kesebir-Diener_2008.pdf) By P Kesebir and E Diener, 2008. 9 pages. Subjective Well-Being: Three Decades of Progress (http://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/%7Eediener/Documents/Diener-Suh-Lucas-Smith_1999.pdf) By E Diener, EM Suh, RE Lucas and HL Smith, 1999. 27 pages