Are there places around the globe that actually nurture happiness? A groundbreaking new book explores the four parts of the world where people are happiest and reveals the cultural dimensions and personal habits that explain their unusually high level of well-being. This book is “Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way,” the latest from Dan Buettner, New York Times best selling author of ”Blue Zones.” 

What lifestyle secrets can we learn from the world’s happiest people? In THRIVE Dan Buettner, reports on the surprising findings from his five-year global study on the keys to personal happiness. In addition to sharing his extraordinary accounts of the happiest people on the planet, Buettner examines how their unique lifestyles correlate to their extraordinary well-being.

Finally — and most importantly — Buettner details how to incorporate these powerful characteristics into our daily routine so that we, too, can THRIVE. Employing a vast amount of data, scientists have identified places around the world where people experience higher levels of happiness than the rest of us. In pursuit of the quest to determine what these people do that’s unique and how we can adapt their secrets to fit our lives, the National Geographic Society sent Buettner on assignment to the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark; the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon; the town of San Luis Obispo in California (arguably the happiest place in America); and perhaps counter-intuitively, the island of Singapore, a region known for its draconian justice system.

To unravel the complicated mystery of how each of these four geographic pockets, and specifically their culture, geography, government policies and behavior of their thriving citizens, stack the deck in favor of happiness, Buettner began his research plumbing the most comprehensive databases – tens of millions of data points collected over the past 70 years and representing 95 percent of the world’s population – to determine which factors most directly impact happiness. In addition, he gathered valuable insights from social scientists, economists, politicians, writers, demographers, physiologists, anthropologists and even comedians in each location. But one cannot stop there. As Buettner explains, “It is critical to the understanding of happiness that you actually get to know the remarkable people who are verifiably experiencing it, those who are not just happy today, but who are thriving.” (“Thrivers” rank themselves as very happy now – at least an 8 on a scale of 10 – and also believe that they will be even happier in the next five years.) In THRIVE, Buettner vividly profiles a real estate tycoon, a homemaker, a lawyer, a teacher, a prime minister, a businesswoman, a wine maker, a faith healer, a talk show host and a garbage man. All have remarkable stories of happiness, well-being and a deep satisfaction with life that contribute to the bigger picture of happiness in their regions.

To find out how you too can learn to THRIVE, be sure to tune in for our interview with Dan Buettner.

To your health!

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