The Good Side Of Bad Moods

Tune Out the Happiness Pushers, Who Strive for a Steady State of All-is-right-with-the-world Joy. For a Peaceful, Healthy, and More Satisfying Life, You Need to Get Comfortable With Your Less Sunny Feelings, Too. Don’t Worry. Be Grumpy.

- Kate Rockwood

Six years ago, when British journalist Ruth Whippman moved to the U.S. with her husband and children, she was surprised to find that small talk always seemed to turn to the same subject: happiness, and how to get more of it. It came up at the park with her mom friends, in lines at the grocery store, and one time—no lie—with her gynecologist in the middle of a Pap smear. “I was literally in the stirrups when she started talking to me about Gretchen Rubin’s book Happier at Home,” Whippman says. In England, she jokes, people settle for being reasonably content, but in America they seem determined to achieve round-the-clock smiley faces.