Life, Liberty, And 10 Ways to Pursue Happiness, From the Experts

Independence Day Weekend — a time to kick back, spend time with friends and family and celebrate our inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness! And after all, what good is all this food and fitness and health living business if it’s not helping make you happy?

Healthy bodies, healthy relationships, good food and green living shouldn’t be end goals in and of themselves but tools to help you and those around you get the most out of life. In that vein, here’s a roundup of some of the best research and/or advice on happiness we’ve come across recently:

The Best Is Yet to Come: Our culture might glorify youth, but “from the mid-forties, people tend to become ever more cheerful and optimistic, perhaps reaching a maximum in their late seventies or eighties,” researchers say.

Don’t Worry, Get Busy: We’re always complaining about wanting more leisure time. But would those long summer-vacation days of our childhoods really make us happy as adults? Not according to a study published in the Journal Psychological Science, which found busy people are happier than those with lots of down time. Researchers say full schedules lead to a sense of accomplishment and stimulation; those with long, lazy days usually end up feeling bored and uninspired.

All the Small Things: Turns out that things as simple as smiling, keeping a journal, volunteering, and walking can bring you a big-time happiness boost.

Money Can’t Buy Happiness—But It Can Help: A 2010 study released by Princeton University claims making $75,000 annually (for a family of four) is a benchmark of happiness. According to the study, when people make less than $75K a year, they’re more prone to unhappiness, but earning more than that amount does not increase a person’s happiness.

Don’t Go to Bed Mad: Mom was right—according to new research in the journal Personal Relationships, unresolved conflict can cause you to lose sleep and put you in a bad mood the following day.

Getting By: “Your life might not look how you want it to for a while,” my dad said. “But you can still do whatever you want to do, or keep trying at it, at least. Your life will be how you like it again. And until then, you just have to muddle through.”

Happy Meals: Comfort foods don’t have to be bad for you; these five fruits, veggies and grains that can improve your mood.

Satisfaction: In his latest book, Flourish, Martin Seligman says there are five things crucial to well-being: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. It’s not how good or cheerful you feel at any given moment that determines whether you’ll be satisfied with life, but the feeling that you’re creating value in the world.

Don’t Fight The Feeling: Humans are creatures of habit, and respond to rewards and consequences. So if that’s true, why fight it? Put some rewards in place for good behavior.

Love the Way You Lie: According to the new book Born Liars: Why We Can’t Live Without Deceit, telling little white lies makes us more reproductively-attractive and gives us balance; without them, we are prone to illness, depression, and even reality-induced insanity.

It’s All About Balance: Being physically healthy is, no doubt, invaluable to maintaining a healthy mind, but happiness is its own beast, and you can’t get it just by working out and eating strawberries. Just like you need a work-life balance, you need a mind-body balance, too.