The Little Book of Lykke by Wiking

Ref: Meik Wiking (2019). The Little Book of Lykke. Penguin.

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Summary

A book about happiness from the Danish Institute on Happiness.
In evaluating (and attaining) happiness, what is your dream and how close are you feel to living that dream?
Our wealth is not measured by the size of our bank accounts but by the strength of or bonds, the health of our loved ones and the level of our gratitude.

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Eudaimonia: Greek for Happiness.
The Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility: Like most things, the more we have of something, the less happiness we derive from it.
We continually raise the bar for what we want or feel we need in order to be happy.
The downside to being ambitious is a constant sense of dissatisfaction with our achievements.
Janteloven (the Law of Jante): The law comes from a 1933 novel by Aksel Sandemose and can be boiled down to "You're no better than us." It promotes a culture where people of high status are criticized because they have been classified as better- or pretend to be better- than their peers.
Bhuddism: where the belief is that the human pursuit of everlasting happiness leads to suffering.

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I have yet to discover a more powerful force to explain human happiness than the fulfillment of our longing for love, friendship and community.
Sharing food nurtures more than our physical body. It feeds our friendships, bolsters our bonds, and nourishes our sense of community- and those factors are vital to our happiness.
Whether you look at the English world companion, the spanish word companero, or the French copain, they all originate from the Latin com and panis, meaning, with whom one shares bread.
The happiest countries have a strong sense of community, and the happiest people have someone they can rely on in times of need.
What works well in the Nordic countries is an understanding of the link between the good life and the common good. We are not paying taxes; we are purchasing quality of life. We are investing in our community.
The most important thing is to start talking with your neighbors, to learn their names, find out their skills, interests and needs and build a community around them.
If we look at the link with how often people meet socially with friends, colleagues, or relatives, we see a clear pattern. The more often people meet, the happier they are.
Social support is measured by asking whether people have somebody they can rely on in times of need.
How to Build a Community
- Create a Directory for your Building
- Establish a Book Lending Cupboard
- Build a community garden
- Start a tool-sharing program

People who reduce their consumption of social media are happier and connect more in the real world.
No people can be truly happy if they do not feel that they are choosing the course of their own life.
People report a higher level of life satisfaction when they go from employment to self-employment.
Entrepeneurs have a greater sense of purpose, of direction in life, but studies also confirm the widely held notion that greater freedom and the opportunity to be your own boss are sources of happiness both at work and outside work. Entrepeneuers hardly ever have enough free time, but they do experience plenty of freedom: the freedom to pursue a passion; the freedom to say no to a client; the freedom to schedulework around needs of the family or self.

As a happiness researcher, I cannot see a more obvious policy to improve quality of life than by providing universal health care.
In Iceland, fruit and vegetables were branded as sports candy, and this resulted in a 22% increase in sales.

Reading literary fiction improves our ability to detect and understand other peoples emotions.

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