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Section: Life & Leisure

GRANDPARENT’S VIEW
Don’t Worry: Be Happy
By Susan Hannen

I’ve noticed that the topic of happiness is getting a lot of press lately. The other night on a network news show the commentator said, “Stay tuned for the answer to the question: what makes a woman happy?” I was really curious so I stayed tuned. Today I opened a magazine at the supermarket and came upon the article “The New Science of Happiness”, where it was reported that a paradigm shift is occurring in psychological research from the study of mental illness to mental wellness.

According to an article in Smithsonian magazine 46,000 papers have been published in psychology journals over a thirty year period on the subject of depression; only 400 on joy. Scientists and researchers seem to be moving away from Freud’s dismal projections on humans’ capacity for happiness and toward the light of “the high priest of happiness” the Dalai Lama. This is good news at a time when we’re in dire need of some.

During the holidays we played a lot of board games with family and friends. Some were old favorites and some were new-fangled and required a DVD player. We played our traditional hours-long poker game. We had snowball fights and went ice-skating. We laughed until our stomachs hurt and nobody had a more serious problem than running out of poker chips or potato chips. We were happy. It’s not that we all have perfect, worry-free lives, far from it; but we were engaged wholly, completely, and fully in the games.

So it came as no surprise to me when the happiness researchers found that people who became “completely engaged in a creative or playful activity” experienced a happy state of mind. All you have to do is watch a bunch of kids at play. Not many of them are rubbing their foreheads or pinching the bridges of their noses and asking for Excedrin.

Other happiness findings were: people who do nice things for others, have some kind of religious faith, have good friends and close family ties and, most unexpected of all, those who keep a gratitude journal or who regularly count their blessings, show the highest levels of happiness and the least amount of depression. With the exception of the gratitude piece all the rest seemed pretty self-evident.

What surprised me about these happiness studies were the things that don’t necessarily figure into the happiness factor. Once basic needs are met, income levels seem to have little to do with a sense of life satisfaction; neither education nor IQ appear to affect our ability to flourish or experience joy, and older people seem to be a happier lot than younger people.

The Dalai Lama, author of The Art of Happiness said, “the key to happiness lies in the ability to control monkey mind, the undisciplined consciousness that scrambles from thought to thought, impelled by negative emotions and impulsive desires.” He teaches that our whole purpose in life is to seek happiness, which comes through giving, loving and being grateful. Interestingly, the most fundamental finding from the science of happiness is that virtues like kindness, gratitude, and ability to love are directly linked to one’s capacity for joy, happiness, and fulfillment. Thank God, because after all the poker pots I lost I’m really tapped for anything that money could buy.


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