Are you happy?
If so, do you know why? If not, would you like to become happier?
Happiness is not some elusive idea, nor is it a state of being that randomly settles on some people and not others. It is, as researchers through the years have found, to be the result of a few important behaviors and life choices.
Two well-known happiness researchers are psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, MD, Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development and Director of the Center for Psychodynamic Therapy and Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Arthur Brooks, PhD, the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. The two men have made the science of happiness a focus of their research and teaching for many years.
They agree on many aspects of what creates happiness and that increasing happiness can occur at any age. “It’s never too late to create progress in life,” Dr. Brooks says. “There is a huge amount of evidence of the brain’s plasticity at all ages, meaning we can gain new skills and make positive changes all the way to the very end of life.”
Dr. Waldinger adds that it’s important to prioritize your well-being, and that happiness is the result of helping others and helping yourself. “Self-care really matters at any age for your mood,” he explains. “For example, the most powerful antidepressant we have is exercise. Walking is very good, not just for your physical health, but for your mood as well. You can be physically active at any ability. People in wheelchairs can exercise.”
The Other Factors of Happiness
In addition to staying physically active, the Harvard Study of Adult Development has found six other key factors that contribute to happiness. They include:
- Not being a smoker, or at least stopping at a young age
- Not abusing alcohol
- Achieving a healthy body weight
- Adapting coping mechanisms
- Maintaining a healthy marriage or other long-term relationships
- Being educated, formally or informally, and continuing to learn.
“In other words, happiness doesn’t just happen to you,” Dr. Brooks says. “It comes from the right investments. And it is never too late to make these investments.”
It’s All About Relationships
The Harvard Study of Adult Development started in 1938, with researchers tracking the health of 268 Harvard sophomores throughout their lives. The researchers wanted to learn what would lead to happy and healthy lives, and conversely, what would contribute to poor health and unhappiness.
Among the most profound findings was that, regardless of career success, having happy, supportive relationships was the most consistent indicator of lifelong happiness. And while a loving and enduring marriage or partnership can be perhaps the most powerful relationship in our lives, relationships and friendships of all kinds can nurture our well-being and help us manage stress, Dr. Waldinger says.
“Relationships can have that stress-relieving effect,” he explains. “If you have a bad day and can talk about it with someone close to you, you can actually feel your body calm down. Imagine if you don’t have that in your life.” He adds that for older adults, especially those living alone or with limited transportation abilities, maintaining relationships is more challenging.
To overcome those challenges, Dr. Waldinger recommends taking advantage of online social connectedness. Many older adults, for example, join Facebook groups composed of their former school classmates. “It can be a window into rekindling relationships,” he says.
When possible, though, in-person interaction should still be a priority, whether it’s being on a softball team, in a gardening club, or getting out to favorite lunch spots and running errands to places where you see familiar faces. “You want people to be in situations where they will be rubbing elbows with others,” Dr. Waldinger adds. “Casual contact is important, too.”
But life has a way of testing our ability to remain happy and steer clear of sadness, depression, and anxiety. The COVID-19 pandemic certainly challenged us in some significant ways. Dr. Brooks says some interesting insights have emerged. For example, he notes that introverts tended to be happier in lockdown mode, as they were able to avoid some of the social obligations that trigger anxiety and stress. Conversely, extroverts weren’t as happy as usual as they had to forgo much of the interpersonal interaction they enjoy.
In a recent column he writes for The Atlantic, Dr. Brooks says that one way to boost happiness—regardless of the social distancing rules of the day—is for extroverts to borrow a little from introverts and vice versa. Introverts, for example, may find greater happiness if they are able to focus more on the future, the way extroverts tend to do. Similarly, extroverts can benefit from nurturing deep friendships, which introverts tend to have to a greater degree. In his column, Brooks wrote, “Watching and learning from people
very different from you is a great way to learn to be happier. Indeed, a love of human diversity of all types, from culture to character to politics, is required for a full education in well-being.”
Make Others Happy
When you think about how happy or unhappy you are in your life, you may be to able tick off a long list of reasons why you’re not happier: Retirement isn’t as relaxing or fulfilling as you hoped; you’re dealing with chronic pain or other health problems; you’ve lost a spouse or other loved one… the list can be a long and discouraging one.
“We should never be resigned to unhappiness, but rather look for ways to use our experiences to help ourselves and others,” Dr. Brooks says. “The single best way to start feeling happier at any age is to serve others—to volunteer perhaps, or just to find little ways to show appreciation, attention, and love with no expectation of anything in return.”
Indeed, numerous studies through the years have underscored the mood-boosting benefits of volunteering or helping others in less-formal, everyday situations. Having a sense of purpose in life is critical for happiness and to help maintain our cognitive health as well. That sense of being needed and useful can wane, in retirement especially.
“Retirement can be a time of real flourishing as long as we are retiring TO something as opposed to simply FROM something,” says Dr. Brooks, who adds that it’s important to think about what you can make of the years ahead. “The key is finding ways to create ongoing value with one’s wisdom and accumulated knowledge, whether this earns money or not. One of the best ways is teaching and mentoring others.”
Dr. Waldinger adds that helping others can produce psychological and physical benefits. “Feeling useful really boosts your mood, and boosting your mood can actually reduce physical pain,” he says. “It’s amazing how helping others can make such a difference in your own well-being.”
The post What Are the Factors That Generate Happiness? appeared first on University Health News.
