Scientists have discovered a gene that makes people happy, but it is said to work only in women. The findings could help explain why women are often happier than men, the team of US researchers said. The study focused on a gene called MAOA that affects the levels of feel-good chemicals in the brain. Dr. Henian Chen said its effects could be cancelled out by testosterone.
Do you know someone in the United States who is always looking on the bright side, cheering others when they need it most? In honor of the Good News Network's 15th anniversary, we will send a free gift box of gourmet fudge to five positive people nominated by WS fans to be honorary Good News Ambassadors, for their consistent efforts to inspire others.
Lunchtime conversations with strangers can sometimes lead to miraculous luck. Such was the outcome for an Alabama woman working at a sandwich shop whose friendship with a compassionate Methodist Pastor led to a fresh start.
Bleary-eyed drivers entering Washington, DC on Monday mornings, are jolted into happiness by people waving with signs with optimistic slogans from the side of the road. Held by 29-year-old Massoud Adibpour and 4 other volunteers, the signs were scrawled with uplifting messages: "Honk if you love someone!"; "Be happy"; "Don't be so hard on yourself"; and, "Smile!"
Fifteen years ago on Labor Day weekend I clicked the button for the first time that uploaded the Good News Network website, allowing anyone in the world to see it on the internet. To mark the anniversary, I am launching a contest called, What 'Good News' Means to Me. I've got some SUPER life-enhancing prizes to award for my four favorite entries.
They walk around the park together like they're in love, reports Steve Hartman. It all started when a gray goose named Maria started following Dominic every time he went to his local Los Angeles park.
After 3 1/2 days searching for his dog across the mountain trails in Santa Fe, N.M., camper Mike Stotts decided he had to accept what park rangers and fellow campers had been telling him: That no 15-year-old house dog with diminished hearing could survive that long without food or water among the coyotes and mid-August heat.
Happiness, or the lack thereof, lies at the root of what makes life meaningful. But it is sometimes hard to figure out what exactly constitutes happiness, especially in a culture like the Unites States that tends to conflate money with meaning. Roko Belic, the director of Happy, the documentary, offers four tips to develop a happiness skill set.
When he was 15, Thomas Beck escaped from a Nazi prison camp in Budapest - but he left behind his teenage sweetheart, Edith Greiman, 14. There seemed no chance of them ever seeing each other again, for Thomas eventually made his way to Australia and set up a new life. But fate stepped in.
In October, US consumer confidence hit the highest point since February 2008, and private sector businesses added more jobs than at any time in the last eight months. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the US economy added 171,000 jobs last month, 50,000 more than economists had expected.
At a petting zoo in Israel, a baboon has adopted a tiny kitten who recently strayed into its cage and then refused to leave. The baboon now cares for the kitten, checking it for fleas, and rarely lets the feline out of her sight.
Since Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan launched Method in 2000, to sell pretty bottles of eco-friendly soaps and cleaners in glowing pastel colors, the company has grown into a $100 million (£62.3m) company. Their company's culture of keeping it weird is a social mission that keeps employees happy. To stay focused on employee happiness and high-end innovative design is the business model.
Robert Emmons was shocked. The University of California psychologist found that after just ten weeks, people who kept a gratitude journal were 25 percent happier than people who didn't. People who were reminded to say thank you at least once a day were healthier and spent more time exercising. As he writes in an essay for the Greater Good Science Center, This is a massive difference. The gratitude group participants also experienced fewer symptoms of physical illness than those in either of the other two groups." This month the Center launched a web-based digital gratitude journal at Thnx4.org designed to track and promote the practice of gratitude worldwide while serving as an invaluable source of scientific data on gratitude.
Which comes first, happiness or money? A new study suggests that happier teenagers grow up to be richer adults.
A wealthy Missouri man posing as Secret Santa stunned New Yorkers, handing $100 bills to many in Staten Island who had lost everything to Superstorm Sandy.
My personal mantra is "no mistakes, only lessons." I repeat this phrase to myself frequently as I tend to make a lot of lessons. It's easy for me to get down on myself when I make mistakes. My mind wants to endlessly review the event, which results in dark feelings enveloping me. There's no escape from the torment because I can't change what's happened in the past. Lessons, however, are a thing of the future.
Tony Tolbert, a Harvard-educated lawyer in Los Angeles, decided to move into his mother's home so he could offer his own fully-furnished house to a homeless family of five, and give it to them rent-free for a year.
With so much darkness in the news lately, it's amazing how one simple idea could bring so much light to so many lives. That's what happened last weekend, when over 100 people came together to make a dream reality for their blind friend. For the legally-blind teen, her dream was to drive a car just once.Read More
As the world's fastest animals, the big cats can run up to 65 mph and need to get up to speed to burn off metabolic compounds. But the two who live at the Houston Zoo don't have much opportunity to do that. Until now. In early November, an entourage of 10 people took a pair of 5-year-old cheetah brothers to the Sam Houston Race Park.
A suicide-prevention group is generating smiles to the faces of commuters and pedestrians in Boston with their Happier Boston Campaign, which involves social interventions such as singing in elevators and asking everyone in the baseball stadium to give high-fives to everyone nearby.
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Happiness is a mindset, a conscious choice we make every day