Don't Forget to Be Happy Today!

You Happy

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by Jen Angel

posted Oct 31, 2008

Excerpted from Yes Magazine

Scientists can tell us how to be happy. Really. Here are 10 ways, with the research to prove it. Click on each number to see the 10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy.

YES! MAGAZINE INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC, 2008. Photo by Niko Guido, istock.
In the last few years, psychologists and researchers have been digging up hard data on a question previously left to philosophers: What makes us happy? Researchers like the father-son team Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, Stanford psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, and ethicist Stephen Post have studied people all over the world to find out how things like money, attitude, culture, memory, health, altruism, and our day-to-day habits affect our well-being. The emerging field of positive psychology is bursting with new findings that suggest your actions can have a significant effect on your happiness and satisfaction with life. Here are 10 scientifically proven strategies for getting happy.
		Savor Everyday Moments Pause now and then to smell a rose or watch children at play. Study participants who took time to “savor” ordinary events that they normally hurried through, or to think back on pleasant moments from their day, “showed significant increases in happiness and reductions in depression,” says psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky. top
		Avoid Comparisons While keeping up with the Joneses is part of American culture, comparing ourselves with others can be damaging to happiness and self-esteem. Instead of comparing ourselves to others, focusing on our own personal achievement leads to greater satisfaction, according to Lyubomirsky. top
		Put Money Low on the List People who put money high on their priority list are more at risk for depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem, according to researchers Tim Kasser and Richard Ryan. Their findings hold true across nations and cultures. “The more we seek satisfactions in material goods, the less we find them there,” Ryan says. “The satisfaction has a short half-life—it’s very fleeting.” Money-seekers also score lower on tests of vitality and self-actualization. top
		Have Meaningful Goals “People who strive for something significant, whether it’s learning a new craft or raising moral children, are far happier than those who don’t have strong dreams or aspirations,” say Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener. “As humans, we actually require a sense of meaning to thrive.” Harvard’s resident happiness professor, Tal Ben-Shahar, agrees, “Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning. Whether at work or at home, the goal is to engage in activities that are both personally significant and enjoyable.” top
		Take Initiative at Work How happy you are at work depends in part on how much initiative you take. Researcher Amy Wrzesniewski says that when we express creativity, help others, suggest improvements, or do additional tasks on the job, we make our work more rewarding and feel more in control. top
		Make Friends, Treasure Family Happier people tend to have good families, friends, and supportive relationships, say Diener and Biswas-Diener. But it’s not enough to be the life of the party if you’re surrounded by shallow acquaintances. “We don’t just need relationships, we need close ones” that involve understanding and caring. top
		Smile Even When You Don’t Feel Like It It sounds simple, but it works. “Happy people…see possibilities, opportunities, and success. When they think of the future, they are optimistic, and when they review the past, they tend to savor the high points,” say Diener and Biswas-Diener. Even if you weren’t born looking at the glass as half-full, with practice, a positive outlook can become a habit. top
		Say Thank You Like You Mean It People who keep gratitude journals on a weekly basis are healthier, more optimistic, and more likely to make progress toward achieving personal goals, according to author Robert Emmons. Research by Martin Seligman, founder of positive psychology, revealed that people who write “gratitude letters” to someone who made a difference in their lives score higher on happiness, and lower on depression—and the effect lasts for weeks. top
		Get Out and Exercise A Duke University study shows that exercise may be just as effective as drugs in treating depression, without all the side effects and expense. Other research shows that in addition to health benefits, regular exercise offers a sense of accomplishment and opportunity for social interaction, releases feel-good endorphins, and boosts self-esteem. top
		Give It Away, Give It Away Now! Make altruism and giving part of your life, and be purposeful about it. Researcher Stephen Post says helping a neighbor, volunteering, or donating goods and services results in a “helper’s high,” and you get more health benefits than you would from exercise or quitting smoking. Listening to a friend, passing on your skills, celebrating others’ successes, and forgiveness also contribute to happiness, he says. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn found that those who spend money on others reported much greater happiness than those who spend it on themselves. top

Keys to Successful College Writing

Here are eight habits of mind essential for success in college writing:

* Curiosity – the desire to know more about the world.

* Openness – the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world.

* Engagement – a sense of investment and involvement in learning.

* Creativity – the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas.

* Persistence – the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects.

* Responsibility – the ability to take ownership of one’s actions and understand the consequences of those actions for oneself and others.

* Flexibility – the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands.

* Metacognition – the ability to reflect on one’s own thinking as well as on the individual and cultural processes used to structure knowledge.

Source: Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing Council of Writing Program Administrators

Link to 1A Blogosphere Spring 2013

 Instructor Knapp Website


Homework: Due by midnight Sunday April 7th

Step One: Read the information at the following links:

Click here for a Tutorial on MLA citations.

Click here for Instructor Knapp's attribution information:

Step Two: Create a new post titled: MLA Information
Define the type of sources you used for your Iran Topic Report.
For example: online newspaper, online website with no author, print article, the bible, online web page with multiple authors, or I quoted a source that was quoted in my source.

Step Three: Next, copy and paste the information from either the library tutorial or Instructor Knapp's attribution information that explains how to cite your source. Use a signal phrase to attribute this copied information. For example, according to Instructor Knapp's blog or According to the University Library website

Step Four: Briefly explain if this information helped you to better understand how to document and/or incorporate outside research. Comment on how this  information compares/compliments/supports the work you are doing in Library 10. Offer your feedback on the efficacy of the Library 10 course (and the handbook) for providing this basic documentation information.

Step Five: Go back to your Iran Topic report post and correct your attribution, including any errors on your Works Cited. I understand that the Blogger software makes the reverse indent on the Works Cited tricky, but every other aspect of the Works Cited should be corrected.

This work will contribute greatly to your second quarter blog grade. I will post your second quarter blog scores in the comment box for this post after my review beginning on April 8th.

Note:  in order to pass English 1a, students must demonstrate their knowledge of properly documented research. This is a mandatory Student Learning Outcome for all English 1a courses at Cabrillo. If you were required to revise your Topic report for a grade, then please bring me a hard copy on April 10th.

Thank you!

Welcome to Spring 2013!

Dear Students,

I am looking forward to helping you achieve your goals this semester! I use this site for all of my classes, so feel free to ask me about which page I displayed in your class if you are interested in reviewing the information again.

Or, if you are absent, please ask me for the course lesson number and I will direct you accordingly. Remember, the real learning occurs during our classroom activities and the lesson is only a launching off point, so you will need to discuss with your classmates what else you missed or come and see me during my office hours.

I have posted a copy of all of my course syllabi for this semester at the following link. You will need to make sure you check the title of the syllabus and download the appropriate syllabus. If you lose your copy during the semester, then please download and print another copy.

Please click this link and scroll down to the attachments (at the bottom of the page) to download your class syllabus. All students are required to bring a copy of the course syllabus to each class meeting.

Together, we will make this a great semester!



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Punctuation Resource

Grammar Resource

Click here to go to Instructor Knapp Website
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Fall 2012

English 2 Blogosphere

English 1Blogosphere

Great Op-Ed on Education

Summer Reading Flow Chart

Where I will be this summer and what I will be reading: Squaw Valley Community of Writers

Via Teach.com and USC Rossier Online

Commencement 2012

Earl Shorris, author and educator, dies. A reflection on the power of reflection and the importance of the Humanities.

Power of Humanities, by Earl Shorris

Instructor Knapp

Welcome to Instructor Knapp's Blog!

All work here is licensed under the
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You are free:

• to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to Remix — to adapt the work
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Sacred Territory: Studying Fiction by Sherman Alexie and Marjane Satrapi

In an interview with K.E. Semmel, published in the Writer's Chronicle (June 2011), Sherman Alexie explains that most of his fiction taps into his own life experience, but there is one area he considers too sacred to fictionalize.

"...there are certain ceremonies and sacred moments in my tribe life that I don't write about at all," Alexie states. "Most of that is religious.  Religious feeling I certainly write about, but specific ceremonies and songs I don't go near...I've written things about other people, fictionalized, that I've come to regret. So I'm very careful about that now."

Rather than explain this complex statement, Alexie moves onto how a writer can take actual events that occurred, like writing about a father dying when his own father was dying, but during the process of fitting this event into a narrative, the emotional states are changed and that change strips away the autobiographical nature of the event. In creating story, the fiction takes over. While this perspective is very interesting, especially to readers and writers of fiction, I find his reverence for "sacred moments" even more intriguing. The phrase, "...I've come to regret" reveals an ongoing tension that Alexie feels between the sacredness of his tribal roots and his fame as a Great American Novelist.

Each student will conduct an interview this semester as we build our collaborative ethnography. If I had been interviewing Alexie, I would have asked him to explain this statement by asking him more questions to try and get him to move from the general to the specific. During your interviews, try not to overlook opportunities where a general statement can be explored in a more specific way. Journalists often rely on questions that start with: Who, What, How, Where, Why?

Culture and Identity

The theme of our course asks us to look at the bonds between our upbringing—the who, where, when of our youth—and our identity. We will examine pop culture for connections between what we see and hear and how we live. Our literature will help us take a deeper look into how ethnicity, gender and religion shape our lives. Marjane Satrapi reveals 1980s Iran from the perspective of a childhood and Sherman Alexie's character navigates the rutted road between his life on a Washington reservation and becoming the first student to attend high school outside the tribe.

Through these fictional worlds, we will experience how growing up outside the mainstream has its challenges. Everyone walks the line of 'fitting in,' but for those who are bridging two radically different worlds, this process can feel a bit like walking a tight rope. Forming identity along this continuum can be a liberating and empowering experience for some; for others this journey can feel extremely difficult, and even dangerous, to navigate.

This tension is among those that we will explore as we read. As we build the context (and our knowledge) around these novels, we will also read newspaper articles on Arab Spring and current events in Libya and Iran. During our second unit groups will read and report on a variety of non-fiction, including The Ohlone Way, by Malcolm Margolin, Ishi In Two Worlds, by Theodora Kroeber, Woman Native Other, by Trinh T. Minh-ha and the anthology, Native American Voices, as well as current writings from Native Americans published in Indian Country Magazine and through Social Media.

I will collect articles in my account on Reddit.com and I suggest you do the same and link them to your blogs, so we can build our knowledge on this important topic.


Creative Commons Copyright

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National Museum of the American Indian 


Native American Ethnography