Newsroom: Happiness App

Newsroom: Happiness App:

Happiness Is an iPhone App
UCR psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky teams up with Signal Patterns to create “Live Happy,” activities to improve your mood.
(July 13, 2009)

Excerpts:

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Sonja Lyubomirsky, professor of psychology at UC Riverside and author of the book “The How of Happiness,” has teamed up with Signal Patterns, developers of psychology-based Web and mobile applications, to create the new “Live Happy” iPhone application.

Based on key points from Lyubomirsky’s book, the application – the first of its kind – will guide users through a set of daily activities to boost short- and long-term happiness.

Lyubomirsky’s research supports the idea that to become more happy, satisfied and fulfilled, one needs to take deliberate action to promote optimistic and grateful thinking, pursue important goals, invest in relationships, live in the present, and do away with negative thoughts. She studies what makes people happy, how people can continue and increase their happiness, and what kind of benefits are produced from a more positive outlook.

The new application will help people enhance their overall mood by helping them engage in simple activities, including:

• Goal setting/evaluating/tracking
• Expressing gratitude directly
• Keeping a gratitude journal
• Replaying happy days
• Keeping a savoring photo album
• Envisioning your best possible self
• Nurturing relationships
• Remembering acts of kindness

Users may be prompted to express gratitude by sending an e-mail or text message to someone in their contact list, or practice savoring the moment by taking a photo.

Prompts in the application will also allow users to measure their happiness on a regular basis, and will help identify which happiness strategies are right for them.

Lyubomirsky is not benefitting financially from the app, but plans to use it for research.

Lyubomirsky has extensively studied and written about the psychology of enduring emotions – specifically, happiness and depression. She explores how exceptionally happy people view themselves and their worlds, and how that enables them to stay upbeat and, most important, how less happy individuals can learn such happiness-enhancing habits.

The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world.

Read full article: http://newsroom.ucr.edu/news_item.html?action=page&id=2139
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This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.