Why Measuring Happiness Matters: Doctor Unveils the Truth About What Truly Helps People Flourish

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PERRYSBURG, Ohio, May 2025 — The ability to accurately assess levels of happiness can help people make better decisions about how to live, who to connect with, and which goals are truly worth chasing. On a broader scale, it has the potential to reshape public policy and societal priorities, explains Psychology Today contributor and internationally known happiness expert Dr. Alphonsus Obayuwana.

For Dr. Obayuwana,

the quest to identify the causative factors and objectively quantify degrees of happiness took 30 years of research. He developed a simple equation that can assign a numerical happiness score to any individual, regardless of demographics, using a universal unit of measure called the Personal Happiness Index (PHI).

“Just like you know your blood pressure and your weight, it is important that you know your PHI,” Dr. Obayuwana said.

He shares his findings in his book, The Happiness Formula, a down-to-earth exploration of how to have and maintain a flourishing life. Dr. Obayuwana advises readers on where to look and what to look for in the “happiest living human,” provides a brief history of the positive psychology movement, debunks happiness myths, and unveils his novel equation for quantifying happiness.

“Unlike other books about happiness, which are too often filled with dos and don’ts, wishful thinking, and empty aphorisms, The Happiness Formula breaks new ground,” said Dr. Obayuwana. “Despite its title, The Happiness Formula is much more than a mathematical equation for measuring happiness. It is a book about life, the relationship between human hope and happiness, one’s overall feeling of personal satisfaction and subjective well-being.”

In addition to happiness seekers,

Dr. Obayuwana wrote the book for those who serve in helping professions, such as life coaches, chief happiness officers, directors of human services, and other types of administrators, policymakers, and researchers who are involved in the “business” of human happiness.

The book also guides happiness coaches, as it offers a strong theoretical basis and firm practical structure for happiness coaching, which currently lacks existing guidelines.

The idea of the Personal Happiness Index began in 1982 when Dr. Obayuwana was developing the Hope Index Scale (HIS) to measure human hope and prevent suicide. That scale became adopted by The Coca-Cola Company, General Motors, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and academic institutions across the globe.

In addition to the book, Dr. Obayuwana is available to discuss related topics such as why children are happier than adults, how or why achievements make people happy, and why there’s still lingering unhappiness from the pandemic.

The Happiness Formula: A Scientific, Groundbreaking Approach to Happiness and Personal Fulfillment

Publisher: Health Communication Inc

ISBN-13: 978-0757325083

Available from https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Formula-Scientific-Groundbreaking-Fulfillment/dp/0757325084

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alphonsus Obayuwana, MD, PhD, CPC, is a physician-scientist, a happiness coach, and the founder and CEO of Triple-H Project LLC, an entity that trains and certifies happiness coaches. He is a Literary Titan Gold Award-winning author who has published several peer-reviewed articles in national medical journals about human hope and happiness, including The Hope Index Scale that became widely used at the Coca-Cola Company, General Motors, the Veterans Administration, and many academic institutions inside and outside the United States. After 30 years of relentless research on human hope and happiness, he successfully derived the Triple-H Equation that is at the core of his latest book, The Happiness Formula. Find him on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alphonsusobayuwana/.