New “Live Happy” iPhone App Claims to Bring iHappiness

iPhone Can your iPhone make you happier? But of course, according to a new application called “Live Happy.” The app is meant to boost contentedness by helping users practice “positive psychology.” It’s a technique that creates spurts of happiness that research suggests may boost overall well-being over time.

The app is based on research by psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, who has found that, for example, savoring common, yet pleasurable, experiences such as a hot shower can boost happiness. According to U.S. News & World Report:

The $6.99 Live Happy app allows users to track their happiness levels and practice some of her strategies—gratitude, for example, can be practiced by texting, emailing, or calling someone from your contact list. While Lyubomirsky is not profiting financially off the new app, she will be using it to study how her recommendations work in the real world.

So are iPhone users jumping to nab this joy-bringing app? Not all of them. When we offered one iPhone devotee a free trial of the app, he responded: “You know what would make me happy? Not spending so much time staring into an iPhone screen.”

Image: flickr / William Hook

August 24th, 2009 11:45 AM Tags: happiness, iPhone, psychology, technology, weird iPhone apps
by Allison Bond in Technology Attacks!, What’s Inside Your Brain? | 6 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/11/03/want-to-cure-your-fear-of-flying-theres-an-app-for-that/ Want to Cure Your Fear of Flying? There’s an App for That. | Discoblog | Discover Magazine

[...] Content: Discoblog: New “Live Happy” iPhone App Claims to Bring iHappiness Discoblog: iChoc: New Chocolate Factory Operated Entirely by iPhone Discoblog: Why Our Oily Fingers [...]
http://www.discofood.co.uk Jenn

how ridiculous
http://www.4mmcplantfeeder.co.uk Richie

this is absurd!
http://www.highersales.net Jay

Hmmm at $6.99 I think the developers will be the happiest
http://www.legals.gifts2.eu NRG-1

$6.99 huh, I need to learn how to develop these apps!
http://www.amareway.org/ frank

Hello, and thanks for this post! The Institute of Subjective Well-Being (http://www.iswb.org/) just released a free eBook titled “Happiness Formulas: How to assess our subjective well-being? How to live joyfully in the 21st century?”.

The eBook also reviews AmAre Way (http://www.amareway.org/), a formula to measure happiness, and a way of living joyfully. AmAre is an acronym which stands for: Aware (being), Meditating, Active (being), Respectful (being), Eating properly. AmAre is an Italian word which means “to love”, and in English it sounds like interconnectedness: (I) Am (we) Are.

“Happiness Formulas” eBook summarizes some of the main findings in recent research about subjective well-being, and raises points of its own, including:
- being happy is a choice we make right here and now, by living joyfully. It is not a place to reach in the future.
- there are ways to measure subjective well-being and thinking about what such formulas mean for us, is even more important than the numbers we get out of them.
- we get happier by making other people happier
- understanding happiness requires a paradigm shift: from a digital (right or wrong, true or false) way of thinking which belonged to analogical times, to an analogical (degrees of appropriateness) way of thinking which belongs to our digital times
- SWB has strong implications for public policy and diplomacy
- SWB agents, objects and actions can be classified as hot, mild and cool
- there are several “fringe” benefits to living joyfully, for example happier people are more sociable and energetic, more caring and cooperative, better liked by others, more likely to get married and stay married, to have wider social networks and receive support from friends, show more flexibility and creativity in their thinking, are more productive and work, are recognized as better leaders and negotiators, and so earn accordingly. They are more tenacious when times are not pleasant, have stronger immune systems, are healthier both physically and mentally, and live longer.

We look forward to hearing your way of living joyfully!

New “Live Happy” iPhone App Claims to Bring iHappiness

About the Blog

Twitter

Facebook

Twidget

Archives