The key to happiness is keeping a diary and writing down the things that make you smile.

Author Stefan Klein has found that being happy is a skill that can be learned like a foreign language, and one way to train ourselves to be happy is to write down the little things that cheer us up each day — a technique he practices himself.

Klein, who analyzed psychological research for his book “The Science of Happiness,” added he often writes about his three young children, despite occasionally finding them “incredibly annoying.”

Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, the German-born researcher said that decades of study into happiness has shown that people who are clinically depressed often believe there are no sources of joy in their lives.

But a study by Italian psychiatrist Giovanni Fava found that when patients were asked to keep diaries of events that made them happy, it “helped them a lot to get better.”

Klein said, “It is incredibly simple — you just sit down in the evening and write down the moments when you feel happy and the circumstances.

“The exercise is to simply make you more aware of these moments to know yourself better. Even in states of severe depression there are moments of happiness, but the person suffering it doesn’t believe they have those moments in their lives.”

If you decide to take Klein’s advice, you can make yourself even happier by recommending the technique to others.

Happiness occurs when the brain releases endorphins — chemicals that trigger positive feelings — and scientists have found this occurs not only when we achieve one of our own goals, but when we help someone else achieve theirs.

Klein added it is important not to dwell on the times we felt sad, saying, “Going deep down into your negative feelings, [the idea] it has a cathartic effect, and you have to cry your tears out and shout your fears out, is really wrong.”

保持幸福的诀窍就是用日记记下让你快乐的事。作者斯蒂芬·克莱因发现保持快乐是一门技巧，它可以像学外语一样通过学习来掌握，训练我们自己快乐的方法之一就是记下每天让我们高兴的事，这门技巧他自己也在研习。克莱因在他的著作《幸福的科学》一书中进行了心理学研究，他表示，他会经常记录关于他三个孩子的事情，虽然偶尔也会发现这些孩子“出奇地恼人”。

出生于德国的克莱因在切尔腾纳姆科学节的演讲中表示，几十年来对于幸福的研究表明，那些通过临床诊断为抑郁的人通常认为生活中没有什么让他们快乐。但是，意大利精神病学家乔瓦尼·

法瓦通过研究发现，当病人被要求将那些令他们快乐的事记录下来时，“他们的情况好转很多。”

克莱因说：“这个方法非常简单，你只要每晚坐下来，然后把那些让你感到快乐的时刻与当时的情景写下来就可以了。”

“这个练习只是为了让你更多地意识到那些感觉良好的时刻，让你了解自己。即使处于严重抑郁状态，也总会有幸福快乐的时刻，但是抑郁的人却拒绝相信他们的生命中也有快乐的时刻。”

如果你决定接受克莱因的建议，那么把这个技巧告诉别人吧，这会让你更快乐。当大脑释放内啡肽（引发积极情感的化学物质）时，幸福感就会产生。科学家发现幸福感不仅仅在我们达到预期目标时产生，在我们帮助他人实现目标时也会产生幸福感。克莱因补充道，最重要的是不要一味沉浸于悲伤情绪

中，“沉入你内心的负面情绪，认为这样做有宣泄作用，你必须哭出来，将害怕的情绪宣泄出来，那都是错的。”

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

   【难以置信地】nányǐ zhìxìn de incredibly unbelievably, impossibly

    【宣泄的】xuānxiè de cathartic purgative