An entire industry has been built up around the pursuit of happiness. A stroll past any bookstore window demonstrates the explosive popularity of the feel-good, self-help movements of recent years. And whether these products are genuine paths to ultimate happiness or just pleasure-peddling scams, the trend seems likely to hold.

Now, even the Ivy League is getting in on the act, layering serious academic research onto the pop-psychology phenomenon to develop a “science of happiness.” Known as “positive psychology,” the field was pioneered at the University of Pennsylvania and came to Harvard a decade ago when an elective course on the topic was first taught.

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Woo hoo!  Tal Ben-Shahar made it into BusinessWeek!  You do know that Butter Bee Happy’s “write 5 happy thoughts a day” idea came from Ben-Shahar’s book Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment, right?  Well, if you didn’t, you do now.  We BBHers LOVE Ben-Shahar!

I think it’s very interesting that Ben-Shahar’s class became so popular at Harvard.  I wonder if it would have had as much or more success at another university that was less academically stressful?   I don’t know anyone currently enrolled at Harvard, but I have had friends who attended Yale, Princeton, and MIT, and they often mentioned how much stress their classes caused them.  I know they were learning a lot and being very productive, but they didn’t seem as happy as some of my other friends who attended more relaxed, less competitive universities.  Maybe students at Harvard needed a class on happiness more than students at other universities needed one.  What do you think?

-MJ

Daniel Gilbert, PhD, a Harvard psychologist, says that Americans do a tremendous amount of “miswanting.” We keep wanting things that will never make us happy. For example, practically everyone wants to be rich and thin. Yet, he points out, studies show that having enough money for the basic necessities of life–food, clothing, and shelter, which cost maybe $40,000 a year–is all we really need for happiness. The effect of the next $10 million is negligible.

This tells us that although we fervently believe that something we can touch, like piles of cash or cellulite-free thighs, is going to light up our hearts, the truth is that we usually don’t know what will make us happy. Worse, we don’t know that we don’t know, so we ardently pursue the wrong things.

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I think relationships provide an excellent example of miswanting.  Have you ever longed for or loved someone who actualy made you miserable?  I bet you have, or know someone who has.

Take as an example Philip*, whose girlfriend is hated by all his friends because she only uses Philip for his money, or Sonia*, whose boyfriend regularly cheats on her and verbally abuses her.  But Philip and Sonia say that they love their girlfriend and boyfriend, and want to remain with them, regardless of the misery these relationships cause.  I would call this miswanting - they desperately want and pursue someone who, ultimately, will not make them happy.

-MJ

*Names and situations are fictional.

Happiness hunters have done it again. They’ve used an army of pollsters and a mountain of data to uncover the world’s happiest countries. But this year, there are some unexpected winners—for unexpected reasons.

The World Values Survey, which has compiled data from 350,000 people in 97 countries since 1981, found Denmark to be home to the planet’s most contented citizens (again) with Zimbabwe as the most miserable (again). Classic Scandinavian front-runners like Sweden and Finland were nudged out of the top 10 by Puerto Rico and Colombia. El Salvador placed a surprising 11th, beating out Malta and Luxembourg. Further down the list came the U.S., ranked in 16th place.

Directed by University of Michigan political scientist Ronald Inglehart and administered from Stockholm, the survey found that freedom of choice, gender equality, and increased tolerance are responsible for a considerable rise in overall world happiness. The results shatter the more simplistic and traditionally accepted notion that wealth is the determining factor, says Inglehart.

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I think one of the most interesting things about this survey is the discovery that 3 main sources of happiness are:

1. Freedom of choice
2. Gender equality
3. Increased tolerance

I think I just like the idea that happiness can be defined so clearly and easily.  Also, while I don’t usually make decisions based on pure emotions, I must confess that one reason I approve of using these three criteria to measure happiness is due to the way they just feel so right to me.  I love freedom because having many choices and opportunities make me happy.  Being treated as an equal, even though I’m a woman, also makes me happy.  And fighting and anger and hatred make me sad,  but tolerance makes me happy.  See?  These three measure just work.

What do you think about them?  Would you add another notch to the measuring stick of happiness?

-MJ

Cornell University of the United States studied happiness among silver and bronze medalists in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Using TV relay broadcasts, the researchers measured the happiness of individual medalists on a scale of one to 10 when their final scores were announced. The average happiness index of a silver medalist was 4.8, while that of a bronze medalist was 7.1. This means third-place finishers were happier than runners-up. At the award ceremony, the happiness index of the bronze winner was 5.7 as opposed to 4.3 for the silver medalist. What explains this?

The answer lies in different standards. While a silver medalist aims for the gold, a bronze medalist has no such pressure. He or she tends to feel grateful and joy over getting a medal. Satisfaction based on achievement is relative, and can be called the relativity principle of happiness. Our ancestors seem familiar with this notion, with a saying that goes, “A person should know one’s place. Living not in accordance with one’s means only sows the seed of unhappiness.”

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I can totally empathize with being less satistfied at winning 2nd place than 3rd, 4th, or even 5th.  Almost succeeding at something sometimes feels, in my opinion, worse than obvious failure.

If I know I have a slim chance of succeeding at something, I can allow myself to relax and enjoy the experience, feeling pleasantly surprised at any resulting success.   I find myself far less able to appreciate a competition for its own sake when I can see perfection lying just beyond my grasp.  Then I can’t help but think, “If only I had done this, that, or the other, I could have come out on top at the end of all this.”  I try not to fall into this negative thought pattern, but it is difficult to avoid.

-MJ

Behappy is giving away free samples of their new formula Love Potion No. 9 Parfum to bring more happiness and love. In this time of great economic hardship and stress; Love Potion No. 9 Parfum was created to help people feel more happiness and love without stress. New Love Potion No. 9 Parfum was created to provide a feeling of happiness and love using a soothing and 100% natural scent of spicy sandalwood or exotic floral. Love Potion No. 9 Parfum utilizes pure plant and delicate flower essential oils known for attraction properties. 21 different essential oils are combined from all over the world, slowly simmered and steeped in special antique containers using centuries old techniques to create layers of scent to subtly help you feel happier and draw that special someone to the wearer.

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I wonder if this would really work?  I’ve read that there is some truth to scents affecting one’s mental state, but I’ve always distrusted perfumes and colognes that claim to do anything more than make its wearer smell better.  Actually, I’ve begun switching to as many non-scented products as possible, and I feel like my sinuses and olfactory system have been thanking me for sparing them from constant stimulation.

- MJ

Proponents of marriage like to toss around the statistic that married people (and married men in particular) are happier and healthier than the wretched ranks of the unwed. But new research has found that the happiness/health gap is narrowing, not because the married crew is losing its happy glow (though that may indeed be occurring), but because the single component is getting happier.

The study, led by Hui Liu, assistant professor of sociology at Michigan State University, used data from the National Health Interview Survey from 1972 to 2003. The researchers found that while the self-reported health of the married is “still better than that of the never-married,” the “gap has closed considerably.” Single women shouldn’t rejoice just yet: The uptick was due overwhelmingly to improvements in the health of never-married men. Liu thinks that this result may be “partly because never-married men have greater access to social resources and support that historically were found in a spouse.” (Female robots, perhaps? Or Internet porn?) Still, single women also saw an increase, and the singles health boost also spread across racial lines to both blacks and whites.

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The results of this study don’t really surprise me.  I know a lot of very happy single people (and while I’m not single now, I would say that I was very happy being single, too).  They just focus on work, school, friendships, and hobbies, and don’t let themselves dwell on their singleness or let themselves feel lonely.   They learn to be happy with what they do have and not worry about what they don’t have.  What do you think?

-MJ

The belief that children and money will bring people happiness is one of life’s abiding illusions, a Sydney conference attended by 2000 seekers of happiness was told yesterday.

The scientific evidence shows people are very bad at predicting what will make them happy, said Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard University and the author of the book Stumbling On Happiness. He said people’s happiness goes into steep decline after they have children, and never recovers its old level until the children leave home. As a source of pleasure, playing with one’s offspring rates just above doing housework but below talking with friends, eating, or watching TV, research has shown.

Yet people invest so much time and money in their children, and focus on the fleeting moments of joy they bring, rather than on the long periods of boredom and irritation, that most continue to believe children will bring them happiness, Professor Gilbert said.

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The primary cause of unhappiness in Britain is not lack of material wealth but a loss of faith in God and religion, a group of MPs says today. In a new report on wellbeing, a crossparty group of Christian MPs echoes concerns raised by the Conservative leader, David Cameron, who has emphasised repeatedly the importance of action to improve society’s sense of “wellbeing”. They say that the Christian voice is not being respected properly because it comes across too often as “negative”.

Steve Webb, a Liberal Democrat MP, said: “Over the years, many of us who are MPs rooted in the Christian community have been concerned that our voice in the public square can come across as being too negative.

“We are easily identified by what we are against, but less clear what we are for.” He said that, despite material wealth, society lacked a sense of wellbeing. He argued that this had been caused by the erosion of religious values.

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If you think you can predict what you will like, think again. When people try to estimate how much they will enjoy a future experience, they are dependably wrong, according to research by Harvard psychologists — and the reason is something they call “attentional collapse.” When we imagine future experiences, we tend to compare them with alternative experiences — experiences we’ve had in the past, or other experiences we might have before or after. But the fact is that none of those alternatives come into play once we’re actually in the moment. That’s what Daniel Gilbert, author and Harvard psychology professor, means by “attentional collapse”: it’s the idea that when we are actually having an engaging, encompassing experience, it acts like a black hole of imagination, sucking in all of our attention and making our preconceptions irrelevant.

The thought of a weekend office picnic, for example, sounds tedious compared with a trip to the spa, but fun compared with working overtime on a Sunday. But these comparisons have little bearing on our actual experience of the picnic because once we arrive and start chatting with colleagues or playing softball, the experience draws our attention away from the alternatives. “The kinds of comparisons we’re making when we’re imagining the future aren’t the kinds we make when we get there,” Gilbert says.

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[…] It’s a country of people who believe in Gross National Happiness rather than Gross National Product. They understand that acquiring “stuff” does not make one happy. In general, they take pleasure in the simple things in life and appreciate their family and community.

Some of this is changing, however. The one “highway” is now being repaved and drivers are zooming around more quickly. More hotels are opening up to accommodate an expected influx of tourists.

Since it’s introduction to the country about 10 years ago, television has become popular (particularly Indian soap operas in Hindi) and cell phones are cropping up throughout the country.

Regardless of this “progress”, their laughter and good nature are infectious.

The one group of Bhutanese that we had the most interaction with were the children. Rarely shy to come say “hello”, we found them to be quite engaging and interested in us. One group of boys walked with us through a town singing songs at the tops of their little lungs.

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