Not long ago i read an interview with Daniel Gilbert, Ph.D., author of “Stumbling on Happiness” and Harvard professor of psychology, where he described his personal process to researching happiness.

He discussed that he first started to be keen on studying happiness after he encountered a lot of personal challenges (difficulties with household, friends as well as deaths of individuals that he was close to) and that he wanted to know how people can still “be o.k.” inspite of the various challenges and challenges that they can face.

Over time, his research shows that people tend to be considerably more resilient than they believe, or in other words, we are likely to cope and accommodate the challenges and curve balls that we encounter. On a personal note, Gilbert noted that this finding has led to making him less fearful in his personal everyday living. One more exciting discovery from Gilbert’s studies that individuals in many cases are happier with decisions when they can’t change their minds about it.

By Dr. Katie Shepard