Johnny comments on How to Be Happy - Less Wrong

129 Post author: lukeprog 17 March 2011 07:22AM

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Comment author: Johnny 12 April 2011 06:31:25PM 5 points [-]

I'd agree with this. I've been doing it for over a year now and have a whole notebook full of gushy, sentimental writing about my friends, family, nature, art etc. that I would never in a million years let anyone else see.

One thing I would add - Writing a gratitude journal once a week has been shown to be more effective than doing it daily (Sonja Lyubomirsky 2007)

I guess if you do it every day it becomes a chore and you don't do it with any real emotional investment so it becomes less effective.

Great article, thanks Luke

Comment author: Jolly 19 April 2011 04:54:51AM 3 points [-]

I started off daily, and now make entries when I have particularly awesome entries to write.

This ranges from the serious - "Skydiving was amazing, I loved the rush of wind against my skin, gazing down at the water and beaches"

to more me just being silly "some days, my mind is boggled by the very fact that we are alive. existence is cool!"

It provides an incredible happiness boost when I read old entries!

Comment author: beza1e1 20 July 2014 06:11:57PM 1 point [-]

One thing I would add - Writing a gratitude journal once a week has been shown to be more effective than doing it daily (Sonja Lyubomirsky 2007)

I found two publications by Lyubomirsky in 2007. Only one contained something remotely similar to your claim:

Tkach (2005) demonstrated that participants who were randomly assigned to vary the types of kind acts they would perform on a weekly basis showed higher levels of happiness and well- being 10 weeks later relative to those who did not vary their kind acts, and relative to comparison controls.

However, this is about "kind acts", not about a "happyness journal".

Can you clarify the daily-weekly claim?

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