When the modern world decided that happiness is the ultimate goal of existence they tried to devise ways to achieve it. Scientists, psychologists and intellectuals went a step further. They attempted to defragment happiness, pull it apart, study its composition, then recreate it in the lab, and actually mass produce it. After all, people die trying to be happy all their lives and still it remains a pursuit at best. So why not deconstruct it, study it and put it together?
The research scientists have discovered the chemical messengers released in the brain which make people feel happiness at a very cerebral and spinal level. They found that chemicals like dopamine, endorphins and opiates have the power to induce a happy state when released in the brain. Big discovery! But with the happy high produced by these neuro-transmitters came the ugly low which was highly undesirable.
The academicians went a scale higher. They found safety in numbers and launched several large scale studies to understand the happiness mind zone. There are actually universities e.g. the Philadelphia university where they teach a course on happiness! One study sent ‘happiness ambassadors’ to 206 countries to study what makes people happy. They concluded that it is food and family which are a source of happiness globally. No wonder!
But the most prolific and profound work on happiness has been done at Harvard in a largest ongoing study encompassing over 8 decades and thousands of subjects. They recruited thousands of newly married middle-income couples and followed them up over a period of decades. The parameters of happiness were carefully crafted in the form of a questionnaire which they filled at regular intervals. The results were quite enlightening.
They found that with the increase in income to about 3-4 fold; the happiness index did not grow in the same proportion. In fact in a large segment of the target population it actually came down with a rise in resources! Thereby it got confirmed yet again that money is not linked to happiness.
The results of the study go something like this. They initially divided people into 2: those that have a genetic predisposition to unhappiness and depression and the rest. The genetically predisposed always were vulnerable to depression and less likely to experience happiness even if it hit them in the face!
Among the rest they further divided and eliminated a group which had situational unhappiness for some reason. E.g. one can’t expect to study happiness objectively in a person whose kid is sick or who has lost a parent or has a debilitating incurable disease. These situations can make the happiest of souls touch rock bottom. So it finally boiled down to the rest of the population which they called the ‘cognitive’ group to unravel the enigma of actual indicators which give humans happiness.
Here it goes;
- Physical fitness is a source of happiness to most.!
- A career in something one is trained to do!
- Kids! Big time happiness!
- Pursuing a hobby unrelated to work!
- Buying things which one is planning to or saving for some time! There you go shopaholics, no happiness in random sprees!
- Intimacy with someone you care about and who about you! Clearly ruling out affairs, one has to grasp the difference between pleasure and happiness In fact the acts which may give one pleasure can lead to unhappiness in life! Also intimacy includes physical, mental and emotional intimacy.
- Faith and spirituality! Mind you, they did not mention the church or any other organized religious institution
- Overcoming an obstacle or a fear!
- Having something meaningful to do in a day.
- Money correlates with happiness but the rate diminishes with more money. When corrected for social status, showed no correlation between income and happiness?
- However, the amount of spare time people have, as well as their control over how much spare time they have, correlates with happiness. More generally, there is a significant correlation between feeling in control of one's own life and happiness levels
- Looks are important but nothing suggested that good looking people are more happy while it did suggest that very beautiful people are often unhappy Also the ugly-duckling-to-swan transformation did not necessarily guarantee happiness. Ever wondered why people who undergo plastic procedures and cosmetic surgeries are seldom happier than their not so perfect contemporaries.
- Happiness is contagious. And so is sadness!
Happiness is a collective phenomenon:
- Soccer fans celebrating after a win do look like a
- happy community!
Perhaps the most significant finding turned out to be that those people who are in harmony with their inner mindset and the projection they make, are the happiest. Alas a life of pseudo projection of happiness is indeed hollow and is the main cause of serious unhappiness.
Consider these quotes: Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
~Mahatma Gandhi
But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?
~Albert Camus
