The secret of happiness

Secret of happiness is to remember the good times, say scientists

The secret of happiness may be elusive as simple as remembering the good times and forget the sorrow; a new study reported yesterday the university.

For people who look at the past through rose tinted glasses are happier than those who focus on the negative experiences and regrets, according to new research published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

The study helps explain why a person has a strong influence on the happiness of a person and the results suggest that people with certain personality traits are more fortunate than others because of how they think about their past, present and future.

The study looked at how to 'notes on the "peoples of the Big Five personality traits" refer to their approach to time and life satisfaction.

The 'Big Five' model assesses how extroverted, neurotic, open, conscientious and pleasant a person, and individual rates as high or low on each personality trait rather than to assign them a personality type.

"We found that the highly extraverted are more satisfied with their lives because they tend to take a positive and nostalgic of the past and are less likely to have negative thoughts and regrets. People high on the neurotic scale are essentially the exact opposite point of view of the past and are less happy as a result, "said Ryan Howell, assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University, who wrote the study with SF State higher degree Jia Wei Zhang.

"This is good news, because although it may be difficult to change your personality, you may be able to change your perspective of time and increase your happiness," said Howell.

The authors suggest that enjoying happy memories or painful reframing past experiences in a positive light could be effective ways for individuals to increase their life satisfaction.

Numerous studies over the past 30 years have suggested that personality is a powerful predictor of life satisfaction of a person. These findings help explain the reason for this relationship.

"Personality traits influence how people look at the past, present and future and it is these different perspectives on time pushing the happiness of a person,”Howell said.