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A happy person is someone who experiences positive emotions, like joy, and interest.

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Pyschology today says that you can reach happiness by having a good friend and a family member that you trust will make your day. They can cheer you up with a conversation or just make you happy.

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Happiness is best achieved through living an ethical life. A good life is a happy life. Good relations and taking responsibility not only make a happy life possible; they are happiness itself.

But good people aren't always happy. Why? Because goodness is an ideal state; it something you aim at, a kind of moving target. Happiness may be achieved but mostly it is occasional and fleeting. Conditions change and you aim again. Even the best archer doesn't always hit the bull's-eye. External conditions make it easier to achieve happiness. For example, an archer is more likely to hit a target if she uses the best-made bow than if she used a poorly made bow. No one, though, has everything that is needed-peaceful times, perfect health, a just society, loving parents, caring teachers.

No one can be happy all the time. But you can approach happiness with a good family, a good friend, a good government, good enough possessions, and adequate health. The great archer with the inadequate bow will oust the incompetent archer with the latest and best equipment.

I accept Goethe's comment, "I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming."

Happiness, while not possible all the time, is possible at least some of the time. More than that, you can look back on your life and say that you were happy. Happiness is the overall assessment of your life, not the episodic moments. It's Seurat's pointillist picture from a distance, not the dots up close.

True happiness is the gentle pulling away from yourself by which you find a better self that can prosper. Loving the right things and loving them in the right way is the key. Ethical relationships make it more likely than not that as you look back on your life you will be able to say, "I have lived a good life."

Still, there is something about happiness that is independent of virtue. This is the happiness that is found in the joy of existence, the delight in simply being. This can be experienced either with others or in moments of solitude. Which form it takes, I suppose, is a matter of temperament. Individual dispositions and upbringing will lead people to find happiness in different ways. Some are, by nature, social, others more solitary. I may find happiness in the company of people while you may prefer a walk in the woods. You may enjoy the quiet of a good book, or perhaps it is the conviviality of the dinner table you seek. Some love cities, others the countryside.

But whichever way you find happiness, it is always accompanied by love, for happiness is ultimately the love of life, the celebration of living. The mark of happiness is that you are sensitive to the world around you, that you acknowledge your dependence upon your surroundings and that you are filled with loving-kindness.

You want to take care of that which you love, and you are solicitous toward it. The person who finds happiness through love is the person who can be trusted to bring happiness to others. This is the meaning behind Lao Tzu's aphorism, "The person who loves the world as his own body may be entrusted with the empire."

There are those who possess everything they claim to have wanted but still aren't happy. They think they can be happy yet indifferent, happy while independent. The truth is the opposite: happiness requires gratitude and an acknowledgement of interdependence with that which is around you. More wealth doesn't make you happier; deeper and better relations do.

The places of happiness are infinite, the sources never-ending. And you inhabit those places not because they have been pursued but because you have opened your heart and have allowed them in.

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Happiness is best achieved through living an ethical life. A good life is a happy life. Good relations and taking responsibility not only make a happy life possible; they are happiness itself. But good people aren't always happy. Why? Because goodness is an ideal state; it something you aim at, a kind of moving target.

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Pyschology today says that "56 dog owners who reported that their pet fulfilled their social needs ,more effectively." This shows that your pet can help you with your social life. When you come home they are so excited to see you so after a long day of work they come to the door to greet you with love so it makes your day better.

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Social support is essential for psychological and physical well-being, but are people the only source for our sense of belongingness? For example, lonely people are often advised to get a dog or a cat to quell their social isolation, but is it really the case that pets can fulfill one's social needs, serving to improve owners' happiness, well-being, and even their physical health? A new study suggests the answer is a resounding yes!

Research conducted in our lab just published on-line in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology indicates that pets provide meaningful social support for owners, improving their lives. Whereas some past research found that people facing serious health challenges (e.g., recent heart attacks, HIV) fare better with pets, the current work found that everyday people can benefit from pet ownership as well.

In three different studies, we found consistent evidence that pets represent important social relationships, conferring significant benefits to their owners ( McConnell et al., in press). In one study involving 217 community members, pet owners exhibited greater self-esteem, were more physically fit, were less lonely, were more conscientious, were more socially outgoing, and had healthier relationship styles (i.e., they were less fearful and less preoccupied) than nonowners. Another interesting finding was that pet owners reported receiving as much support from their pets as they did from their family members (e.g., siblings, parents), and that people reported being closer to their pets as they were also closer to other people. Thus, people did not turn to pets because their human social support was poor -- instead, owners seem to extend their general human social competencies to their pets as well.

In a second study, we found that 56 dog owners who reported that their pet fulfilled their social needs more effectively (e.g., felt that their dogs provided a greater sense of belongingness, meaningful existence, control, and self-esteem) were happier and healthier (e.g., less depressed, greater self-esteem, less lonely, less stressed out). In this study, people benefited in terms of health and well-being both from human sources and from pet sources of social support independently, and once again, there was no evidence that people relied on pets more when their human social support was lacking.

Although Studies 1 and 2 were correlational, we conducted a third study in the lab to experimentally examine the ability of pets to benefit people. In this experiment, 97 pet owners came to the lab and some were induced to feel socially rejected while others were not. Afterwards, pet owners either (1) wrote about their pet, (2) wrote about their best friend, or (3) drew a map of campus (a control condition). As expected, those who drew a map after experiencing social rejection felt worse at the end of the experiment than they were at the beginning of the study, showing that our social rejection manipulation was effective. However, those who wrote about their dog were just as happy as those who wrote about their best friend (both groups did not show any negative feelings, even after the rejection experience was induced). In short, thinking about one's pet staved off the negativity that accompanies social isolation as effectively as thinking about one's best friend. To borrow from the old adage, although pets may not be one's best friend, pets may be every bit as good!
Some additional observations
Overall, our research found that pet ownership was very positive. Pet owners were happier and healthier than nonowners, and thoughts of one's pet could insulate one from feeling down following a social rejection experience. Interestingly, there was no support for the "crazy cat lady" hypothesis (i.e., individuals who turn to animals because they "don't click" with people) -- if anything, people benefited more from their pets when they had better human relationships. For example, introverted people (who aren't outgoing) or narcissists (who put themselves first and feel superior to others) were less likely, rather than more likely, to enjoy positive consequences from their pets.

Also, in our research, we found no evidence that type of pet (e.g., dogs vs. cats) mattered. People were able to anthropomorphize a variety of animals species in our studies (e.g., dogs, cats, horses, lizards, even a goat) and it appears that "the power of pets" is more about what lies in the owners' mind than what lies at their feet, at the end of a leash, or in an aquarium.

Finally, one might wonder what this research has to do with "the self," which is the focus of this blog. One thing that we know about close, important others in our lives (e.g., spouses, best friends) is that they become "included in the self." That is, key people in our lives actually become enmeshed cognitively and emotionally in our self-concept. For example, "blurry lines" evolve between people's sense of self and close others, often perceiving one's own traits in close others and seeing close others' qualities as descriptive of the self. Healthy individuals empathize with close others in their lives, adopting their perspective and sharing their feelings instinctively. Our work demonstrated that pets can function similarly -- they become as much a part of the self as many family members, which undoubtedly, contributes to their power in promoting our health and happiness.

To conclude, we would not contend that pets represent a panacea for psychological well-being. For instance, our data would suggest that individuals with psychological shortcomings (e.g., negative personality types, less effective relationship styles) may find less value from pet ownership than individuals who are "real people people." Also, pet ownership entails considerable responsibility and involvement (e.g., time, money, physical engagement), and just like with any human relationship, having a low quality connection with one's pet certainly will diminish the positive consequences one can enjoy. Yet, our research indicates that for everyday people, pets are often "friends with benefits" and that one's health and happiness improves in a meaningful fashion from pet ownership.

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For more details:

McConnell, A. R., Brown, C. M., Shoda, T. M., Stayton, L. E., & Martin, C. E. (in press). Friends with benefits: On the positive consequences of pet ownership. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

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Friends with Benefits: Pets Make Us Happier, Healthier

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Social support is essential for well-being, but are people our only source for a sense of belongingness? Lonely people are often advised to get a dog or a cat to quell their social isolation, but do pets really can fulfill one's social needs, improving owners' happiness, well-being, and even their physical health?

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A professer from University of Massachusetts,Boston that relaxing takes your mind of something else and puts into relaxation mode. So when your on vacation you take time out of work and relax.

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Taking time off from work or the daily grind not only helps people de-stress and feel happier, but it also helps productivity and mood-as long as you do it right.

But the barrier to entry is high, since many Americans don't even take their allotted vacation time. Fewer Americans are going on vacation now than in the past: Data suggests that Americans used to take nearly three weeks of vacation a year in 2000, but took just slightly more than two weeks in 2015. Even when people are on vacation, more than 60% say they keep working remotely.

Yet the benefits of vacation are clear. "We know that taking a break is extremely good for one's mental health," says Susan Krauss Whitbourne, an adjunct professor of gerontology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, who frequently writes about the benefits of vacation. "It puts you in a different frame of mind, gets you out of your standard patterns and can give you time with family."

MORE: TIME Guide To Happiness

It also helps busy people hit refresh, in a sense. In one survey of 414 travelers, 94% said they had as much or more energy after coming back after a good trip, and 55% who had a low-stress trip returned to work with even higher levels of energy than before.. "It's good to just get out of the day to day drudgery," says Whitbourne.

The type of vacation matters, of course. If planned poorly, a vacation can actually lead to more stress. According to a 2010 report, a vacation where there's lots of travel stress, like figuring out transportation logistics or feeling unsafe, can make vacationers feel less happy and more frazzled than they were before the trip. Taking the time to plan the trip can help ensure things run smoothly. In that same survey, 28% of people who said they had a bad vacation also said they left planning to the last minute.

Managing expectations is also key to having an enjoyable break. Your happiness will fluctuate during a vacation, after all. "If you understand people have different happiness levels over the course of vacation, that can give you some ideas for how to spend it," says Whitbourne. "Have alone time or take a break, then come back together."

MORE: TIME Guide To Happiness

And don't forget to document your trip on your camera. "Take pictures, so that you can look back on them and the memories of vacation," says Whitbourne.

Even if your trip seems to be filled with more mishaps than good memories, all is not lost: you can usually turn weird, bad or disappointing experiences into family jokes. "Everyone has those nightmare travel stories," Whitbourne says. "But those can really bond families or partners."

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Taking time off from work or the daily grind not only helps people de-stress and feel happier, but it also helps productivity and mood-as long as you do it right. But the barrier to entry is high, since many Americans don't even take their allotted vacation time.

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Being happy is valuable it is something you want. Happiness gets you through a lot weather its a family problem or a school problem. There is always a reason to be happy and most of the time there are things that make you happy like the keys that to happiness.

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“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

“No medicine cures what happiness cannot.”
― Gabriel García Márquez