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.

I want to sit in the happy chair!  Heck, I even want to BEFRIEND the happy chair.

-MJ

If employers want to increase job satisfaction, a little shrubbery apparently goes a long way. Workers are happier when offices have plants and windows, a new study found.

American office workers spend an average of 52 hours a week at their desks, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

Some might argue that not all that time is spent working, but still, all those hours in windowless offices with artificial light can take their toll.

A few green additions could have a large effect on worker happiness, according to the study led by Tina Cade, an associate professor of horticulture at Texas State University, and Andrea Dravigne of the San Marcos Nature Center.

“We pretty much found out that if you had windows and plants, or even if you just had plants in your office, you were more satisfied with your job,” Cade told LiveScience. “We thought it was important for offices because a lot of times people are looking for ways to keep employees happy and do all these expensive things like put in a daycare or a workout room. Maybe for less investment they could put in a few plants in strategic places.”

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What’s the key to happiness? Liberals might tell you a hot latte, vivid expressions of diversity, and a copy of the New York Times. That doesn’t sound too bad, but in data mined for his new book, Gross National Happiness, Arthur Brooks, a professor of business and government at Syracuse University, finds that conservatives are twice as likely as liberals to say they’re happy. That’s not necessarily because of their politics but because they are statistically more likely to be married, go to church, and be optimistic about their future—boosting personal happiness. For liberals, the rates are lower. The author suggests that while the liberal equity agenda may be honorable, it exacts a personal toll. Indeed, happiness is full of surprises: Political ideologues are positively joyful—by making others miserable. Brooks explains to U.S. News the quirks and politics of happiness.

Why are liberals so bummed out?
Liberals are more likely to feel like victims and feel that collective action is the best way to make things happen. That may be right, but it’s a frustrating way to live. The Democratic Party is a coalition of oppressed groups. These are legitimate grievances in a lot of cases, but that does not make for a happy party.

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“Happiness gets trashed. It’s considered too pink and fluffy for the workplace,” Alex Linley, founder of the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP) in Coventry, England, told attendees at the 2008 World Federation of Personnel Management Associations World Congress here April 15. Linley, a psychologist and management consultant, founded the nonprofit CAPP to help companies find the happy, positive sides of employees in order to attract, retain and develop them.

“Neurological research shows that when people are happy, they learn things better, are more receptive to [manager direction] and are more engaged,” Linley said.

A positive, or “strengths-based,” organization seeks to buoy what is right in people rather than correct what is wrong. It’s an ingredient that is missing in the workplace, Linley said, noting that only 17 percent of U.S. workers use their strengths at work, according to Gallup Poll research that was first compiled in Marcus Buckingham’s bestselling book, First, Break All the Rules (Simon & Schuster, 1999.)

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Are you happy with your life? Do you find joy in the things that you do? If not, how would you find joy and happiness? And once you find it, do you think you can keep it and be happy all the time?

An extremely powerful way is to take control of your thoughts; by actively choosing which thoughts to focus on.

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The UAE may offer a cosmopolitan lifestyle, great job opportunities and supply us with endless credit cards that enable us to buy fancy cars and designer gear - but even still, out of the Persian Gulf states, the Emirates came last in recent survey rating happiness. Maktoob Research, a regional online survey group found that the happiest people in the region live, not here, but in Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Having studied 7,434 residents of diverse nationalities across 11 countries, the study reveals that Oman has the highest percentage of happy people, followed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. Next comes the UAE, followed by Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Morocco and last on the list, troubled Lebanon.

[…] Some may be surprised to hear that a rigidly conservative and totalitarian society like Saudi Arabia topped the charts in terms of happiness. Ruba Ayat, is a 23-year-old from Lebanon, who has lived 18 years in Dubai, certainly was. “I am very shocked that Saudi Arabia was found to have the happiest people. I would have said people in the UAE were happiest, as we have the social life. I am incredibly happy here. It’s a home away form home,” says Ruba.

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A large body of social-science research over the past decade has been devoted to studying happiness. In general, researchers rely on self-reported measurements of happiness—which, according to considerable work by psychologists, statisticians, and neuroscientists, are actually quite accurate and comparable among individuals. (This has been shown by comparing people’s survey responses to psychological evaluations, surveys of family members, and even tests of brain activity.) And over the past three decades, the nationwide General Social Survey (GSS)—undertaken approximately every two years by researchers at the National Opinion Research Center—has been one of the only repeated surveys to ask people about their happiness and has therefore been used in many happiness studies.

In 2000, the GSS also asked adult Americans about their attitudes about freedom. About 70 percent of the respondents said that they were “completely free” or “very free,” and another 25 percent said that they were “moderately free.” Further, about 70 percent thought that Americans in general were completely or very free.

Perhaps such results are not surprising in the United States. But the GSS also revealed that people who said that they felt completely or very free were twice as likely to say that they were very happy about their lives as those who felt only a moderate degree of freedom, not much, or none at all. Even when holding income, sex, education, race, religion, politics, and family status constant, we find that people who felt free were about 18 percentage points more likely than others to say that they were very happy.

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[…] People who describe themselves as “very religious” are among the happiest of people. Those who say they are “very religious” come in ten points higher than America as a whole on the Happiness Index (45% compared to 35% are considered “very happy”). In contrast, just over one-quarter (28%) of people who describe themselves as “not religious” were measured at that level of happiness.

A similar difference is noted among people who say they “pray or study religion at home” on a daily basis compared to less often. Over four in ten people (43%) who engage in “daily” prayer or religious study are very happy. In comparison, just over one-quarter (28%) of people who “never” pray or study religion at home have a comparable happiness level.

[…] Ethics also appears to affect happiness levels. Just under four in ten people (37%) who are “never or rarely pressured to act unethically” are very happy according to the Index. Only about one-quarter (26%) who are pressured to act unethically “all the time” or “often” are very happy according to the Index.

[…] Older people tend to be happier according to the Happiness Index. Less than one in three (29%) in the 18 to 24 age bracket are very happy according to the survey, compared to almost one-half (47%) of people age 65 and older. The survey results also show a clear trend in increasing happiness between those two age groups.[…]

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