Feeling blue? Cheer up. I have great news. Psychologists have finally figured out the keys to happiness.
Happiness is 50 percent genetic, says University of Minnesota researcher David Lykken. Ok, so maybe that is not such good news. Life got you down? Blame your genes. Ok, blame half of it on your genes.
What about that other 50 percent?
Prescription drugs? Nope. No happy pills for you. Money won't do it -- well, it works in the short run, but the happiness dividends run out it seems, according to research.
So ... what works?
You have some choices according to psychologists. First up, is the "flow".
One route to more happiness is called "flow," an engrossing state that comes during creative or playful activity, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has found. Athletes, musicians, writers, gamers, and religious adherents know the feeling. It comes less from what you're doing than from how you do it.
Not do it for you? ... here's another choice.
Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California at Riverside has discovered that the road toward a more satisfying and meaningful life involves a recipe repeated in schools, churches and synagogues. Make lists of things for which you're grateful in your life, practice random acts of kindness, forgive your enemies, notice life's small pleasures, take care of your health, practice positive thinking, and invest time and energy into friendships and family.
Not into making lists or random acts of kindness? Greg Easterbrook, author of The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse (Random House, 2004) offers this:
"Research shows that people who are grateful, optimistic and forgiving have better experiences with their lives, more happiness, fewer strokes, and higher incomes," according to Easterbrook. "If it makes world a better place at same time, this is a real bonus."
Ok. So the answer to happiness is ... (drum roll) ... think happy thoughts.
Which begs the question ... if happiness is that easy, why do polls show that most Americans are no happier today than they were 50 years ago despite significant increases in prosperity, decreases in crime, cleaner air, larger living quarters and a better overall quality of life?
Easterbrook, also a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institute, goes back to Freud, who theorized that unhappiness is a default condition because it takes less effort to be unhappy than to be happy.
"If you are looking for something to complain about, you are absolutely certain to find it," Easterbrook told LiveScience. "It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don't make it. Most people take the path of least resistance. Far too many people today don't make the steps to make their life more fulfilling one."
The reason for unhappiness ... (drum roll) ... laziness. In short, it is easier to be miserable than be happy.
Science has weighed in. Now it is your turn to weigh in... what say you?
You know, there might be something to that. Although I'm somewhat skeptical of Easterbrook's writings (he has a history of letting his politics excessively color his writings even when his writings aren't political in nature).
Posted by: tgirsch | April 05, 2006 at 17:22
A cumulative ten years of attempting to think happy thoughts (half of them dating, half of them married) came "this" close to destroying my marriage. A little therapy and a daily dose of antidepressants turned it around inside of a year.
It would be unchristian of me to try to describe what kind of violence I feel towards people who say "Just think happy thoughts!"
Posted by: carlaviii | April 05, 2006 at 17:37
p.s. The turnaround was five years ago. We've gotten more done in those five years than in the previous twenty of our lives.
Depression is like chronic pain: if you've never experienced it, you don't understand it.
Posted by: carlaviii | April 05, 2006 at 17:40
carlaviii:
Well there's a pretty big difference between run-of-the-mill unhappines and clinical depression.
Think angry thouhgts! :)
Posted by: tgirsch | April 06, 2006 at 14:25
Carlaviii,
I can relate. "Think happy thoughts" doesn't work on depression. "Snap out of it" or "stop being so lazy" doesn't work on depression. Depression has some biological roots, I'm convinced, having struggled with it mightily myself since my teens, and having suffered at least two extended major depressive episodes as an adult.
There's also the question of how to define "happiness." I'm not so sure we're promised "happiness" as Christians. We are promised "joy" and "peace," but always in the broader context of the pain and struggle of life.
Posted by: dopderbeck | April 06, 2006 at 15:02
I was waiting for someone to challenge the basic presupposition about happiness ... tnx to Mr. Opderbeck for knocking it out of the park.
First, what is happiness? Go listen to this podcast :
http://www.str.org/mp3/032606.mp3
Advance to the 55 minute mark and push play. Happiness may be different than what you thought it was.
Second, who said happiness was the official goal in life, or even a worthy goal in life?
Three, is happiness ever promised anywhere in the Bible? There are plenty of promises as far as what will come if you follow Christ -- try to find happiness in the list.
Four, having said all that ... isn't it interesting how non-Christians like Easterbrook (and other researchers) discover the major role that 'forgiveness' plays ... I find that intriguing. Makes you think. How do we find forgiveness in life? How do we forgive in life? What correlates with people who have learned how to receive and grant forgiveness? Note to Christians : forgiveness is a big deal, and everyone gets that ... even the psychologists.
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | April 07, 2006 at 08:06