Author Topic: How does someone achieve true happiness? (Read 7627 times)

The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them

"It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don't make it."
—Author and researcher Gregg Easterbrook

Psychologists have recently handed the keys to happiness to the public, but many people cling to gloomy ways out of habit, experts say.

Polls show 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.

So what gives?

Happiness is 50 percent genetic, says University of Minnesota researcher David Lykken. What you do with the other half of the challenge depends largely on determination, psychologists agree. As Abraham Lincoln once said, "Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be."

What works, and what doesn't

Happiness does not come via prescription drugs, although 10 percent of women 18 and older and 4 percent of men take antidepressants, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Anti-depressants benefit those with mental illness but are no happiness guarantee, researchers say.

Nor will money or prosperity buy happiness for many of us. Money that lifts people out of poverty increases happiness, but after that, the better paychecks stop paying off sense-of-well-being dividends, research shows.

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.

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.

The happiest people have strong friendships, says Ed Diener, a psychologist University of Illinois. Interestingly his research finds that most people are slightly to moderately happy, not unhappy.

On your own

Some Americans are reluctant to make these changes and remain unmotivated even though our freedom to pursue happiness is written into the preamble of the Declaration of Independence.

Don't count on the government, for now, Easterbrook says.

Our economy lacks the robustness to sustain policy changes that would bring about more happiness, like reorienting cities to minimize commute times.

The onus is on us.

"There are selfish reasons to behave in altruistic ways," says Gregg Easterbrook, author of "The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse" (Random House, 2004).

"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."

Diener has collected specific details on this. People who positively evaluate their well-being on average have stronger immune systems, are better citizens at work, earn more income, have better marriages, are more sociable, and cope better with difficulties.

Unhappy by default

Lethargy holds many people back from doing the things that lead to happiness.

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."

http://www.livescience.com/health/060227_happiness_keys.html

Thanks for sharing broski!

dyslexic · « **Reply #33 on:** March 01, 2011, 02:18:23 PM »

Take a look at prisoners, locked up for life in a small cell.

How do you think their states of mind are? Are they at peace? Do they suffer more mental health issues than most?

If they are not suffering from extreme psychosis, how have they sustained themselves?

I think our state of mind is only as strong as we allow it to be.

YngiweRhoads · « **Reply #34 on:** March 01, 2011, 02:23:20 PM »

Campeon Del Mundo · « **Reply #35 on:** March 01, 2011, 07:04:40 PM »

"There is no more of a boost to a man's or woman's psychological well being than to engage in marriage and/or have a romantic relationship with someone who they are attracted to."

remember these words for the rest of your life.

Nirvana · « **Reply #36 on:** March 01, 2011, 07:15:35 PM »

Tito24 · « **Reply #37 on:** March 02, 2011, 06:07:49 AM »

xtc on an awesome summer party

Wiggs · « **Reply #38 on:** March 02, 2011, 07:08:49 AM »

Quote from: Parker on February 28, 2011, 01:16:53 PM

To seek happiness...

I told you guys, you can never leave good pussy, and Getbig is Good Pussy (it's equivalent)!

I left good pussy and now whenever I think about it I get more depressed. Oh well...

GroinkTropin · « **Reply #39 on:** March 03, 2011, 12:10:06 AM »

A close and personal relationship with God that's how.

#1 Klaus fan · « **Reply #40 on:** March 03, 2011, 01:00:08 AM »

Quote from: BIG ACH on February 28, 2011, 11:25:52 AM

Can't you be happy and still not have achieved all your goals yet?

I mean I consider myself to be a pretty happy guy... I guess happy about what I've accomplished and about where I am right now, but I still have a lot of things I want to accomplish!

I think absolutely. Like the cliche saying goes, the journey is more important than the destination.

dyslexic · « **Reply #41 on:** March 03, 2011, 02:09:49 AM »

Quote from: Methyl Mike on March 03, 2011, 12:10:06 AM

A close and personal relationship with God that's how.

I agree.

Easier said than done. Oh to be a "chosen one..."

cephissus · « **Reply #42 on:** March 03, 2011, 02:21:36 AM »

Didn't read the thread, but happiness isn't a state you achieve as in, "they lived happily ever after." The process of overcoming challenges gives pleasure and happiness. Someone who has achieved everything they set out to... well, they're just sitting around waiting to die.

wavelength · « **Reply #43 on:** March 03, 2011, 03:09:39 AM »

The only true freedom is freedom from the heart's desires,
and the only true happiness this way lies.

Parker · « **Reply #44 on:** March 03, 2011, 05:03:06 AM »

Quote from: #1 Klaus fan on March 03, 2011, 01:00:08 AM

I think absolutely. Like the cliche saying goes, the journey is more important than the destination.

Life is a journey in which knowledge of self is the ultimate destination.