Author:
Eliana Liotta
Publishing house:
Theseus’ Ship
Date of publication:
30-05-2019
Happiness is a gift we should give to ourselves. After all, we deserve it.
It is said that we are born to suffer, but studies prove that human history advances in search of joy, our life principle. This is evidenced by art, music, and falling in love. The full smile is the best identifiable expression on the face: perhaps because those who can recognize it find a friend, and friends train good humor. A hug sedates stress; having lunch together stimulates endorphin production. With the closeness of others, cascading risks of depression, heart disease, and hypertension drop.
The new essay by Eliana Liotta, author of the best-sellers Age Is Not the Same for Everyone and The Smartfood Diet, suggests 25 ideas for trying to live joyfully: they are Trials of Happiness. For the first time, a book brings together the relevant scientific evidence on the topic, the feedback coming from laboratories and population surveys. And for the first time, doctors and researchers from a major scientific institute and university hospital, San Raffaele in Milan, are collaborating on a project that explores an unquantifiable yet essential ingredient in a person’s health.
Trials of happiness are the attempts that each of us can experience. Individual gestures, sometimes simple actions that can teach us to gain satisfaction from everyday life. Despite difficulties, losses, illnesses. Happiness is a choice and is in our gaze.
But chemistry also matters. Our mood is like a building, whose pillars are nothing but combinations of atoms and whose building blocks are proteins and hormones, foremost among them serotonin. Even at the dinner table we can cultivate happiness by choosing foods that influence smiles and body well-being: happyfoods.