Via: oprah.com They’ve stood by each other through thick and thin, kids and cocker spaniels, haircuts and headlines. They’ve seen the world change and they’ve seen themselves change.

New research shows that in a social network, happiness spreads among people up to three degrees removed from one another. That means when you feel happy, a friend of a friend of a friend has a slightly higher likelihood of feeling happy too.

As important as your religious beliefs may be to you, they don’t necessarily make you happier, a new study in the American Sociological Review finds. What does make you more satisfied with your life, the study finds, is having friends at your congregation and a strong religious identity. “Those are the people who give you […]