What makes you happy?

Yesterday, we read the article (Is Happy Catching?) in which we learned: “that good behaviors — like quitting smoking or staying slender or being happy — pass from friend to friend almost as if they were contagious viruses…And the same was true of bad behaviors — clusters of friends appeared to “infect” each other with obesity, unhappiness and smoking.”

So according to this finding, our own happiness or unhappiness is no longer our own private business. Knowing or not, willing or not, we are spreading our own mood around not only to our family members, but also to our friends, our friends of friends…It’s almost like that we are contributing to a reservoir of happiness/unhappiness of our society, and in turn the net of this reservoir will have impact on each of us. Living really is a serious business.

It is in this context, I found this article published a few years ago of research results by some psychologists that what really makes people happy:
The science of happiness
One of studies showed that the following eight steps that makes one's life more satisfactory:

1. Count your blessings;
2. Practice acts of kindness;
3. Savor life’s joys: pay close attention to momentary pleasures and wonder;
4. Thank a mentor;
5. Learn to forgive;
6. Invest time and energy in friends and family;
7. Take care of your body;
8. Develop strategies for coping with stress and hardships;

To identify what really makes us happy could help us to deliberately do those things more frequently so that we will stay in happy mood more often and in turn we help people around us living a happier life. Just like Fowler, one of the researchers in "Is Happy Catching?" said that their work had inspired him to listen to upbeat music before he arrives home from work so he will be in a good mood when he greets his family. “I try to get myself in a mental space where I’ll be happy,” he says. “Because I know that I’m not just having an impact on my son, I’m potentially having an impact on my son’s best friend’s mother.”

If you don't mind, you may like to share with us what makes you happy so we may learn from each other.