In the self-help section of your local bookstore or public library, you can find many attempts to
give people advice about increasing the happiness and overall quality of their lives. These books are
mostly faith based, like The Purpose Driven Life, or simply made up to appeal to the gullible, like
The Secret. A striking exception is The How of Happiness, by social psychologist Sonja
Lyubomirsky, which is based on a wealth of recent research on the sources of positive emotions. She
recommends a dozen concrete activities that have been shown experimentally to contribute to
happiness: