Happy

I recently read a great article in USA Today by Marilyn Elias about happiness. It said that psychologists have been doing research as to why people are happy, and summarize on these factors:

1. How much time a day do you spend on average with close family and real friends?

2. How much good do you do for other people? (Forgiving people, trusting people, helping people, and giving things...)

3. What percent of your day is spent in "flow": in an activity that you enjoy so much that while you are doing it you focus completely only on it, with no other thoughts coming into your mind? (Relates to mindfulness.)

The article cited studies that said material possessions are not neutral to happiness, they are actually negative! Time to start giving stuff away, killing two birds with one stone :-)