Volume 5, Article 22
Befriending the butterfly: A multidimensional review of strategies to facilitate happiness and wellbeing
Tim Lomas, Richard Cowden and Tyler VanderWeele
Citation: Lomas, T., Cowden, R., & VanderWeele, T. (2021). Befriending the butterfly: A multidimensional review of strategies to facilitate happiness and wellbeing. European Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, 5, 22, 1-23. https://www.nationalwellbeingservice.org/volumes/volume-5-2021/volume-5-article-22/
Processing dates: Submitted: 14th May 2021; Resubmitted: 21st September 2021; Accepted: 28th September 2021; Published: 21st December 2021
Abstract
Happiness has been compared to a butterfly that ever eludes one’s deliberate efforts to grasp it. However, recent decades have seen a wealth of research which suggests it may indeed be possible to facilitate happiness – and wellbeing more broadly – or at least invite its appearance. This paper offers a narrative review of this literature, taking an expansive multidimensional approach to allow the broadest possible view of what such facilitation may involve or permit. This means not only looking at individualised strategies and activities (e.g., meditation), as reviews in this arena tend to limit themselves too, but also efforts to make people’s sociocultural contexts more conductive to happiness and wellbeing. While remaining cognizant of the limitations of the existing literature, this paper provides evidence for practical strategies that may facilitate happiness and wellbeing in sustainable ways.
Keywords: happiness; wellbeing; intervention; activity; multidimensional
Biographies
Dr Tim Lomas is with the Human Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9458-6185
Dr Richard Cowden is with the Human Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9027-4253
Professor Tyler VanderWeele is with the Human Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6112-0239