Mindfulness the key to happiness?

This article is engrossing and fascinating.

To draw us away from these negative thought cycles, positive psychologists emphasise the crucial role of focusing on the good aspects in our lives: recent research suggests that if we’re grateful for what we have, we’re likely to be happier, healthier and less vulnerable to depression.

As glib and contrived as it may sound, focusing on what is good about our lives is a tried and tested behavioural technique that appears to have long-term benefits. “Gratitude diaries can really work,” says DrIlona Boniwell, a senior lecturer in applied positive psychology at the University of East London. “In studies we’ve found that if you manage to write down three things each day that are going well, and do it for longer than a week, it will make a difference; levels of wellbeing rise even up to six months after completing written journals.”

The herculean challenge, of course, is to bear all these techniques in mind without reflecting too deeply on what we don’t have, and why we are not happier in the first place – as Williams says, this can be a fast track to brooding and yet more dissatisfaction. He suggests starting with the smaller details in life: training your poorly-disciplined mind not to wander away from the present moment. “If you’re drinking a cup of tea, are you really enjoying that tea or planning what you’ll be doing in half an hour? The problem is, we tend to plan, and to grade life: ‘When I get home from the supermarket, then I can relax’; ‘When I go on holiday, that’s when life is good’; ‘When I’m at work, that’s when life isn’t interesting.’ But these are all moments of your life you’re not living. It turns out that if we can be present right here and now, then happiness will follow.”