Harvard's Leadership & Happiness Laboratory

JFK asked, "What can you do?" Our answer - Lift up our brothers and sisters in bonds of love and happiness. "The real purpose of life is to make yourself happy and make every human being a happy human being. ...You exist to dispel the suffering of others." -His Holiness the Dalai Lama 🎥 Ansel Dickey // OVRLND.studio

Here's a fact you probably know (and experience): we spend less time with our neighbors, and, as a result, know them less. This trend is indicative of the larger problem of societal loneliness, so we set out to discover what the best science has to say on the subject. Happily, there is plenty to learn—and plenty to do—to revivify neighborliness in America:

The literature on child play is robust, but its prescriptions—that movement, boredom, and fearlessness are a boon for well-being—rarely overlap with the managerial science. That's a shame, argues Dilan Gomih, and a missed opportunity: The workplace would do well to learn from what Aristotle called "the energy of youth." Explore these ideas in this month's Issue of Seeking the Good:

When stretched thin, you might notice that incomplete tasks linger in your mind. This lingering causes both tension and heightened awareness of what we've yet to finish, which, for goal-oriented folks, results in a form of cognitive dissonance. Thankfully, a winning strategy exists to stem the discomfort: in our view, “visualization.” This week's Issue moves beyond shallow notions of visualization (think vision boards), and highlights how scholars say we can use this cognitive tool to improve athletically, academically, and even stem anxiety:

In his 1916 book The Possessed, Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote: “It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man’s life is usually made up of nothing but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.” It turns out Dostoevsky was correct—which means that forming good habits is a serious endeavor. This week, we investigated the literature to give you a guidepost for making good ones, and breaking bad ones:

Medicine and spirituality are seemingly at odds, but perhaps they shouldn't be. In the August Issue of Seeking the Good, Tarinee Kucchal draws from her surgical background and Hindu tradition to argue why medicine could benefit from taking an intellectual adventure into the metaphysical:

The data on marriage is clear: It makes us happier, but only if we practice good relationship habits that lead to a lifetime of love. How should couples tackle questions relating the division of labor in a household? For newlyweds, what little acts of kindness work best? And when conflict arises, how can couples deploy "mature" defense mechanisms? The answers are below, and they'll help to make your marriage work:

Humans evolved the ability to ruminate—within reason, at least—to come to grips with life’s problems. But today, our ruminative instincts tend to be maladaptive to modern life. The solution rests in meditation, a practice by which we detach from ourselves and think analytically about our problems. The best research provides hints about the differences between the two, and how to quell your rumination forthwith:

Across the West, fertility rates are in decline—and that, argues Clay Routledge, is because the aspiration to become a parent is in decline. Yet as Dr. Routledge suggests, parenthood is consistently ranked as the most meaningful and fulfilling aspect of one’s adult life. How can we understand this paradox? And how can we revivify family formation to boost meaning across American culture? You’ll find the answers in July’s Issue of Seeking the Good:

The concept of sacrifice is as old as humanity itself. The most ancient idea of sacrifice revolves around religious traditions, wherein humans offered up objects or gave up vices in an effort to obtain a higher good. Yet the concept of sacrifice has endured well into the twenty-first century, and for good reason, given its many benefits. What are the best strategies to sacrifice appropriately? For what goals should we sacrifice? And how can we know when sacrifice becomes a cost, rather than a benefit? You'll find the answers in this week's Issue: