We must be grateful to the people who make us happy, it is the charming gardeners who make our soul a flower. (Marcel Proust)

The Harvard Study of Adult Development, a research started in 1938 that studies the lives of over 700 people, from adolescence to old age, and tries to establish what are the factors that keep these people happy and healthy.
From the study, which is currently followed by psychiatrist Robert Waldinger and involves more than a thousand people, it emerged that wealth and fame have a minimal weight on the level of happiness.
The most important element is represented by the quality of the human relationships established:
We have found that people's brains and bodies are more satisfied with their relationships, and that they establish a stronger connection with others, keep themselves in better health and for longer. (Robert Waldinger)
A similar thesis also illustrated by Richard Easterlin, professor of economics at the University of Southern California, through the paradox of happiness:
Wealth and happiness are not the same thing because, to be happy, it is not enough to increase one's disposition of goods and services, but it is necessary to go into the sphere of relationships with other people and acquire an ever greater awareness of oneself and one's resources.
In life the number of friends or having a stable relationship is not important, what is fundamental to build quality relationships.
Learn to preserve the people who love you and who stimulate you, make that phone call you've been putting off for too long, forgive, take time, reward, and get used to doing it every day.
If there were more people in the world who desire their own happiness more than they desire others' unhappiness, we could have heaven within a few years. (Bertrand Russell)
Cultivating quality relationships also means avoiding those who have a negative attitude and who, in some way, steal our happiness.
They are easily recognizable by some attitudes:
1.
They only call you when they need something, and they are never there when you need them.
2.
They discredit your ambitions and dreams without providing valid reasons.
3.
They disrespect you, are not open to confrontation, and manifest a sense of superiority.
4.
They complain all the time.
5.
They judge and criticize your life and that of others.
TED Talk Robert Waldinger: How to Live a Peaceful Life?

From Sviluppo-personale