Chapter 158: Sonja Lyubomirsky helps harness happiness by honing hearty habits

​ Sonja Lyubomirsky ​ is one of the most influential happiness researchers of our time. Sonja moved to the United States from Moscow at age 9 in the 70s. She went to Harvard and Stanford in the 80s and began studying happiness in 1989 ... longer than almost anyone else alive! Positive psychology wasn't "founded" by ​ Martin Seligman ​ and ​ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ​ for another decade. Sonja has published hundreds of papers including her ​ Most Cited 2005 paper ​ which defined the field by flipping a long-held assumption on its head: That happiness doesn't follow success but causes it. Sonja is now following up her bestsellers ' ​ The How of Happiness ​ ' and ' ​ The Myths Of Happiness ​ ' with a new book called ' ​ How to Feel Loved ​ ', a joint effort co-written with relationship expert ​ Dr. Harry Reis ​ , which is a culmination of 30 years of research that all point to one central truth: that feeling loved (not just being loved!) is a crucial ingredient of happiness. In this conversation we talk about the four horsemen that can ruin a marriage, what MDMA does to our brains, why small talk doesn't build connection, the best advice for dating, how our brains respond to love, the single best way to feel happier today, and, of course, the eminent Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky's 3 most formative books. Let's flip the page to Chapter 158 now...

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Chapter 158: Sonja Lyubomirsky helps harness happiness by honing hearty habits is an episode from 3 Books With Neil Pasricha by Neil Pasricha.

This episode is 01:27:48 long.

This episode was published on Mar 3, 2026.

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