In looking back on this month, we notice a prevalent theme among respected media outlets and the articles they’ve chosen to run: The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker all featured fascinating pieces on happiness in the month of May. (Do they talk to each other beforehand or something? 
) When you have a free few minutes, you might find the following articles informative and compelling, and you will certainly gain some great conversation pieces for the next dinner party you attend!
1) From The New Yorker: Don’t! The Secret of Delayed Self-Control by Jonah Lehrer. This piece is based on research done in the late 1960s at a nursery school on the campus of Stanford University. The gist of the experiment was this: four-year-olds were presented with one irresistible treat (often a marshmallow). They were told that they could either eat the marshmallow right away, or if they were willing to wait a few minutes, they could have two marshmallows. Most kids couldn’t handle the waiting period – they either simply chose to eat their marshmallow instantly, or they attempted to wait, but broke down and ate their marshmallow before their waiting period was up. About thirty percent of the children, however, successfully waited the full fifteen minutes and were given their delicious reward of two whole marshmallows. The nursery school kids in this experiment are now fully-grown adults, and there is a strong correlation between the happiness they experience in their lives today and whether or not they waited for that second marshmallow when they were four years old. The lesson? Learning the art of delayed gratification as a child may be a surprising key to that child’s happiness later in life.
2) From The Atlantic: What Makes Us Happy? by Joshua Wolf Shenk. In this engrossing, beautifully-written piece, a journalist gains unprecedented access to one of the greatest longitudinal studies of happiness ever conducted: 268 Harvard students in the 1930s were followed throughout their entire lives – through “war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age”. The insights and conclusions gleaned from this in-depth study offer incredible realizations about the human condition and how we find happiness.
3) From The New York Times: Happy Like God by Simon Critchley. Whereas the other two articles mentioned here are based on scientific studies, this piece is a philosophical discussion of what it means to be happy, particularly in our modern technology- and distraction-filled world. The author’s description of the state of true happiness reminds us very much of the reason that so many people practice yoga and meditation.
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