Do you think thousands of years ago people thought as much as we do about happiness? This is of course a rhetorical question, but one that I would like you to keep in mind as you read this article.
While people have always questioned the meaning of life, today we live in a much different reality.
Unlike those earlier times, our world is greatly shaped by media, advertising, virtual networks, celebrities and something even by avatars.
Aristotle, who lived about 2300 years ago, believed that human nature is good.
He also believed that man - unfortunately - is not born with the ability to lead what he called the "Good Life".
What we would define today as a "satisfying" or "fulfilling" life.
No matter how we define what a "Good Life" means today, there are studies that point to commonalities among all human beings in terms of the end-results.
In other words, most people want to be happy and satisfied with their life.
They want to be healthy, find love, companionship, and everyone strives to find some type of meaning.
What differs, of course, are the ways in which we can achieve happiness, and what exactly constitutes meaningfulness or fulfillment for each individual.
If we only change our minds Research in the area of happiness is quite new - not much more than a couple of decades.
In the 90's it become known as Positive Psychology.
Even though it's a nascent science, there is already an impressive amount of empirical studies and consistent results that have led to some very interesting conclusions.
The overwhelming knowledge that we now have on happiness could easily lead one to believe that the path to happiness has at finally been identified.
However, it is also important to acknowledge the work and dedication that it takes to attain overall well-being, and then to sustain it.
At a very basic level, research in the area of Positive Psychology has shown that there are two areas that have made our lives difficult and unquestionably frustrating.
The first such occurrence, has to do with what is called "friction between emotional and deliberative processes".
Basically what this means is that we are horrible at predicting how we will feel in the future as a result of our decisions and choices that we make in the present moment.
And, for better or for worse, this is true with both significant things like having kids, as well as less significant things, like the place where we go on vacation.
Loewenstein, an economist from Carnegie-Mellon, and one of the first to look at this phenomenon with Daniel Kahneman (a Psychologist who in 2002 won the Nobel Prize in economics), says that a life without forecasting errors would most likely be a better, happier life.
And while we cannot ever hope to lead such a life, there are ways that we can limit bad decisions.
For this to happen, Lowenstein and others say that we should invest more of our time in intrinsic vs.
extrinsic goals.
Intrinsic goals are about belonging - investing time with friends, family and the community, reading, exercising, playing an instrument, studying a new language or other activity that develops our potential.
Extrinsic goals are those that are focused on external rewards and praise, as well as material goods.
These not only give us much shorter-lasting feelings of satisfaction then what our brains would have us believe, but also in the end do not leave us with any positive residual side effects.
Think about when you last bought your last car.
How long did it take for the excitement to subside, and how long before you started to think about the next, better car you would like to buy? The other elements that Loewenstein identified as critical to satisfaction/happiness is what he termed the "empathy gap" - hot and cold states that we find ourselves in at the time of making important decisions.
We are said to be in a hot state when we are aroused in some way by a promise of an emotionally desirable outcome - whether mental or physical.
It's basically like being in Vegas and sitting at a Black Jack table with a bunch of chips and someone told us it's definitely our lucky day.
Our emotionally desirable outcome kicks in and all of a sudden we see ourselves with all the money we are about to win.
Making a decision while in this "hot" state, without first re-balancing, not only leads to very poor, regrettable decisions, but has nothing to do with what is a more realistic outcome in its opposite, i.
e.
"cold" state.
A better understanding of how we are literally "set up" by our brains in the long term for less desired states is critical, in other words, if we want to get to a path toward a happier life.
Live longer, love stronger Consider the question of what makes a life meaningful or worth living.
Prof.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, one of the founders of Positive Psychology, has spent most of his life thinking and researching this subject.
He also looked into the potential of what makes people healthier, protects them against the assaults of aging, improves relationships and even prolongs life span.
While the philosophical approach to happiness is important, Csikszentmihalyi and others in the Positive Psychology movement believe that the data we have today helps us better understand how we can model ourselves against those that have achieved happiness, and increase our chances for success much more quickly.
One way Czikszentmihalyi approached this topic is from the perspective of creativity.
Modeling extreme talent and creativity in individuals such as artists, composers and writers.
In another study and the book The Evolving Self, Czikszentmihalyi outlines how we can decrease chaos and "entropy" in simple daily activities.
The premise is to add complexity in all our activities, instead of choosing things that are easy but leave us drained energetically.
One simple example is choosing to watch TV vs.
going for a walk, or anything else that engages our minds and/or our senses.
Based on some of this work, Czikszentmihalyi outlines 5 critical points that can help us thrive and become our best selves.
1.
Learn to enjoy life - appreciating existence as much as possible vs.
just going through the motions.
2.
Seeking out complexity - hedonism also can create meaninglessness and sometimes be misaligned with what is right for our spirit.
Stretching the self and building the muscle of curiosity and interest is a difference between someone who is 30 and appears listless vs.
someone who is 75 but fresh and exciting.
3.
Mastery of wisdom and spirituality - ability to see beyond the appearance of things and ability to detach oneself enough from thought and emotion to see that we have choices.
4.
Ability to invest psychic energy in the future - an ability to trust that what is to come is an opportunity that is aligned with what is good for us vs.
worrying about the present or about what is to come.
5.
An investment in a harmonious future - a focus on the future that is self-centered can backfire and take us to a place we never wanted or imagined for ourselves.
Seeking out that which is for the welfare of others, guarantees greater fulfillment and meaning in life.
If I'm rich then I'll be happy Income and happiness have been a point of controversy for a very long time.
Gallop Polls have demonstrated that income is not a predictor of life satisfaction, but many other studies argue exactly the opposite.
Daniel Kahneman is one of the pioneers in the study of life satisfaction and has focused in much of his work on social policy as related to happiness and well-being.
In the last two years, Kahneman was able to shed some critical light on this argument.
His findings point out that income (above 60K in the US), only affects our "experiencing self" (how satisfied we are with our overall experience of life) vs.
our "remembering self" (how happy we actually think we are based on the story we tell ourselves).
With this discovery, Kahneman was able to demonstrate that the way we ask the question is critical to understanding how people really feel about their lives.
Here is an example that Kahneman gives to help us better understand how an assessment of our life really works.
Lets say we go on vacation and have a wonderful time for a week, but something horrible happens on the last day - let's say we get sick and then lose our passport - most likely we will remember and tell the story to ourselves as a negative experience, even though most of the vacation was enjoyable.
What's even more interesting about the study, is that people make future decisions based on their remembering self - so in this example, based on the last day of that vacation.
In the last decade a significant amount of research has also surfaced on the topic of what is termed in Positive Psychology as subjective well being (SWB).
Basically it's way to understand how we personally perceive happiness for ourselves.
Some of this fascinating research shows how ones values, and subsequently goals, can be affected by a particular culture or social environment leading to different states of well-being and life satisfaction.
One particular area of research centers on the topic of "person-environment value congruency".
The research demonstrates how congruency between an individual's value hierarchies and the values prevailing in a particular social environment affect well-being and/or are beneficial to our well-being.
The research also shows that the more our values are incongruent with those of a particular social environment, the more negatively our well-being is affected and the less likely we will be in reaching the goals that are most highly associated with our internal happiness.
One example could be where a person primarily values autonomy and relatedness but is placed in an environment that values materialism.
Another example could be where an accountant is looking for a creative environment where he can let his imagination expand, but is having an impossible time doing so in a traditional CPA firm where order and structure prevail.
Other common situations have to do with an environment that emphasizes belonging and collectivism and people wanting to attain personal goals around values of independence, and vice-versa.
While there is a lot to be gained from adaptation and survival, it is clear that there are also higher order needs that should be considered when looking at well being within a cross-cultural context.
The internal conflict that is created by suppressing ones own values to those of a particular social environment can potentially lead to a life of adaptation but not a life that is meaningful or one that is in-line with ones intrinsic expectations.
Stay tuned for more There is no question that a great number of people around the world are interested in the topic of happiness.
For some it could be working toward a better life, while for others it might be bringing more meaning to oneself and others.
There are also those who struggle and hope for less pain and suffering on a daily basis.
No matter how we look at our lives, happiness is something that is an underlying theme throughout most of the world.
Many researchers and psychologists are looking for ways to better understand how to make us happier and more satisfied.
Studies at Stanford University in active collaboration with the Dali Lama, are trying to understand phenomena like meditation, while others are looking to see how our brains are impacted through prayer, music, exercise and creativity.
The numerous results from studies that we have already give us an overwhelming amount of data and tools that we can apply and experiment with for ourselves.
From everything we know so far, it turns out that happiness is largely biologically driven, however everything is pointing to the fact that it is also a skill.
A skill that demands a great deal of practice and dedication, but a skill that can be learned, improved upon and implemented to whatever situations we might find ourselves in.