In the 1990s, a psychologist named Martin Seligman led the positive psychology movement, which placed the study of human happiness squarely at the center of psychology research and theory. It continued a trend that began in the 1960s with humanistic and existential psychology, which emphasized the importance of reaching one’s innate potential and creating meaning in one’s life, respectively.
Since then, thousands of studies and hundreds of books have been published with the goal of increasing well-being and helping people lead more satisfying lives.
So why aren’t we happier? Why have self-reported measures of happiness stayed stagnant for over 40 years?
Perversely, such efforts to improve happiness could be a futile attempt to swim against the tide, as we may actually be programmed to be dissatisfied most of the time.
You can’t have it all
Part of the problem is that happiness isn’t just one thing.
Jennifer Hecht is a philosopher who studies the history of happiness. In her book “The Happiness Myth,” Hecht proposes that we all experience different types of happiness, but these aren’t necessarily complementary. Some types of happiness may even conflict with one another. In other words, having too much of one type of happiness may undermine our ability to have enough of the others – so it’s impossible for us to simultaneously have all types of happiness in great quantities.
For example, a satisfying life built on a successful career and a good marriage is something that unfolds over a long period of time. It takes a lot of work, and it often requires avoiding hedonistic pleasures like partying going on spur-of-the-moment trips. It also means you can’t while away too much of your time spending one pleasant lazy day after another in the company of good friends.
On the other hand, keeping your nose to the grindstone demands that you cut back on many of life’s pleasures. Relaxing days and friendships may fall by the wayside.
As happiness in one area of life increases, it’ll often decline in another.
A rosy past, a future brimming with potential
This dilemma is further confounded by the way our brains process the experience of happiness.
By way of illustration, consider the following examples.
We’ve all started a sentence with the phrase “Won’t it be great when…” (I go to college, fall in love, have kids, etc.). Similarly, we often hear older people start sentences with this phrase “Wasn’t it great when…”
Think about how seldom you hear anyone say, “Isn’t this great, right now?”
Surely, our past and future aren’t always better than the present. Yet we continue to think that this is the case.
These are the bricks that wall off harsh reality from the part of our mind that thinks about past and future happiness. Entire religions have been constructed from them. Whether we’re talking about our ancestral Garden of Eden (when things were great!) or the promise of unfathomable future happiness in Heaven, Valhalla, Jannah or Vaikuntha, eternal happiness is always the carrot dangling from the end of the divine stick.
There’s evidence for why our brains operate this way; most of us possess something called the optimistic bias, which is the tendency to think that our future will be better than our present.
To demonstrate this phenomenon to my classes, at the beginning of a new term I’ll tell my students the average grade received by all students in my class over the past three years. I then ask them to anonymously report the grade that they expect to receive. The demonstration works like a charm: Without fail, the expected grades are far higher than one would reasonably expect, given the evidence at hand.
And yet, we believe.
Cognitive psychologists have also identified something called the Pollyanna Principle. It means that we process, rehearse and remember pleasant information from the past more than unpleasant information. (An exception to this occurs in depressed individuals who often fixate on past failures and disappointments.)
For most of us, however, the reason that the good old days seem so good is that we focus on the pleasant stuff and tend to forget the day-to-day unpleasantness.
Self-delusion as an evolutionary advantage?
These delusions about the past and the future could be an adaptive part of the human psyche, with innocent self-deceptions actually enabling us to keep striving. If our past is great and our future can be even better, then we can work our way out of the unpleasant – or at least, mundane – present.
All of this tells us something about the fleeting nature of happiness. Emotion researchers have long known about something called the hedonic treadmill. We work very hard to reach a goal, anticipating the happiness it will bring. Unfortunately, after a brief fix we quickly slide back to our baseline, ordinary way-of-being and start chasing the next thing we believe will almost certainly – and finally – make us happy.
My students absolutely hate hearing about this; they get bummed out when I imply that however happy they are right now – it’s probably about how happy they will be 20 years from now. (Next time, perhaps I will reassure them that in the future they’ll remember being very happy in college!)
Nevertheless, studies of lottery winners and other individuals at the top of their game – those who seem to have it all – regularly throw cold water on the dream that getting what we really want will change our lives and make us happier. These studies found that positive events like winning a million bucks and unfortunate events such as being paralyzed in an accident do not significantly affect an individual’s long-term level of happiness.
Assistant professors who dream of attaining tenure and lawyers who dream of making partner often find themselves wondering why they were in such a hurry. After finally publishing a book, it was depressing for me to realize how quickly my attitude went from “I’m a guy who wrote a book!” to “I’m a guy who’s only written one book.”
But this is how it should be, at least from an evolutionary perspective. Dissatisfaction with the present and dreams of the future are what keep us motivated, while warm fuzzy memories of the past reassure us that the feelings we seek can be had. In fact, perpetual bliss would completely undermine our will to accomplish anything at all; among our earliest ancestors, those who were perfectly content may have been left in the dust.
This shouldn’t be depressing; quite the contrary. Recognizing that happiness exists – and that it’s a delightful visitor that never overstays its welcome – may help us appreciate it more when it arrives.
Furthermore, understanding that it’s impossible to have happiness in all aspects of life can help you enjoy the happiness that has touched you.
Recognizing that no one “has it all” can cut down on the one thing psychologists know impedes happiness: envy.
Source: By Frank T. McAndrew - Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology, Knox College
How mindfulness, meditation and positive psychology can help us beat the summer blues.
People seem to believe that the second summertime rolls around, it’s all sunshine and butterflies, pool parties and late summer nights, hanging with friends or meeting that summer fling. But that’s not always true. Sometimes our expectations for the summer deflate like that flamingo floatie that’s been sitting in your pool since May.
It’s not hard to get stuck in a state of summertime sadness, as Lana Del Rey would put it. And that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with having the blues every now and then, but when it starts to interfere with who you are on a day-to-day basis or affect us in other areas of our lives, then enough is enough. Maybe you’ve recognized that you want to shake things up in your life so you can feel happier again, but how?
There are countless ways of going about this, but some of the most effective techniques you can introduce into your daily life are positive psychology, mindfulness, and meditation. You can probably see how mindfulness and meditation would go together, but what exactly does positive psychology have to do with this trio? The Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania defines it as the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. It’s founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play. In his TED Talk, Martin Seligman, professor at the Positive Psychology Center at UPenn, talks about the three different happy lives one can lead—the pleasant life, the life of engagement, and the meaningful life.
The pleasant life involves as much positive emotion as you can achieve and the skills to amplify it. The life of engagement involves your work, parenting, love and leisure. And the meaningful life is a craving for deeper connection and meaning, and knowing what your strengths are and using them to belong to something larger than you are. Basically, he’s saying that there is more to happiness than just feeling happy.
We’ve all heard the saying “money can’t buy happiness,” and the reason for why materialism fails to satisfy us is because of our human capacity for adaptation. We are able to adapt to a given level of stimulation and react to changes in that level. For example, we strive to reach a certain level of income, yet once we reach it, we are only satisfied for a short span of time before we feel we need to reach higher. This is because we adapt to the level we have achieved and need to continue achieving.
Another reason we are never satisfied with our own lives is due to social comparison. Social media is famous for this phenomenon because we scroll through countless pages of other people’s happy and successful lives, and think, “that should be me.” The problem is, we’re so involved with other people’s lives and happiness that we sometimes tend to forget about our own.
As for our own lives, our happiness is in our hands. Researchers have found that happiness is determined by:
50 percent variability due to genetics (thanks, mom and dad)
10 percent circumstantial factors (demographics, personal history, etc.)
40 percent happiness-related activities/practices
We can’t do much to change our genetics, and as much as we would like to think we can control the world around us, sometimes we are thrust into some unfavorable circumstances. Many studies have proven that the way we think determines the way we feel and act. Therefore, although we have heard countless times that a positive outlook can make the difference, sometimes it’s good to know that just by thinking a certain way, you can feel that way, too. Finally, engaging in activities such as acts of random kindness, thinking positively, practicing gratitude and setting new goals for yourself are key ways to increasing and sustaining happiness levels. As easy as that sounds, the actual practice can be difficult. That’s where mindfulness and meditation comes in.
Mindfulness and meditation can go hand in hand, enhancing and balancing each other. Mindfulness is the process of bringing your attention to both your internal and external experiences and sensations occurring in the present moment. It’s almost as if you zoom into your current being, both the outside world and your inner thoughts, and explore that moment in exquisite detail. You allow everything to be, and merely experience.
While there are many forms of meditation, the basic practice trains the mind to realize a benefit or simply acknowledge its content without becoming identified with that content. Both mindfulness and meditation benefit from another essential component of positive psychology—flow. Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. When we can invest our whole being unto a single moment or activity, we are strong and we are present.
Mindfulness meditation is a basic practice of taking a good seat, allowing you to be comfortable yet strong in posture, paying attention to your breath and your relation to the environment around you, and being mindful of your thoughts. When your mind wanders—and it will—gently coax it back to attend to your breath and environment. A great example of mindfulness meditation in practice is called the Body Scan. You aren’t thinking about deadlines or schedules, or what you need to cook later that night—you’re living in the moment and becoming more in touch with yourself, which is something we tend to struggle with and a vital part to being happier and living a fulfilling life.
All in all, the combination of these three techniques can help in more ways than just getting that temporary happy fix. They take time and practice, but truly do lead to helping live rewarding lives with a deeper sense of happiness.
Another brilliant article from my friend Hazel Gale, Cognitive hypnotherapist, mental coach and world champion athlete
Mark was depressed. He had been that way for most of his adult life. By December of 2014, he’d grown so desperate that he thought frequently of ending things. By the time Christmas had been and gone, he was committed to the idea; the first thing he had truly committed to in years. Increasingly, he distanced himself from his friends and family. It was a vicious, self-feeding cycle of disconnection. The more lonely he felt, the further he retreated into himself.
Then one morning, on a busy suburban street, Mark’s attention was drawn to an old pedestrian who needed help at the traffic lights. Almost robotically, he linked arms with the stranger, and as they slowly crossed the street, he noticed how heavily the old man had to lean on him. In that brief moment of interaction, Mark felt something he hadn’t felt in years; he felt valuable. As the old man clutched his arm, the weight of his frail body spoke to a part of Mark which had long been dormant. It was the part that takes joy in other people’s happiness; a simple thing that we’re all capable of doing, yet can be so easily lost amidst the ego-focussed demands of Western society. And so on that bleak, winter’s day, the dark and heavy feeling in his chest began to lighten. By the time the traffic lights turned green again, Mark had taken on a new perspective. He was able to begin seeing the world as a place in which he wanted to be; a place where he was welcome and needed and important. On reflection, he considered how unusual it was for a stranger to ask for help in such a direct way. It was almost, he thought, as if that old man had known exactly what he was doing. [This is a true story. To protect his privacy, this individual’s name and some details have been changed]
Random acts of kindness (RAK’s) can help heal emotional (and arguably physical [1]) dis-ease. I sometimes challenge clients who feel depressed, invisible, disempowered or disconnected to perform one act of kindness every day. It doesn’t have to be anything dramatic. Just buying someone a coffee, or holding the door open could be deemed an RAK. It’s such a simple task, but it can have surprisingly powerful effects on a person’s emotional state. In his book, Why Good Things Happen To Good People, Case Professor Stephen Post explores the benefits of being giving. He cites a 50-year study which indicates that people who are generous with their time, money, work (or whatever) during their high school years enjoy better health thereafter. Other studies have shown a connection between acts of kindness and improvements in conditions of chronic illness including HIV, heart disease and multiple sclerosis.
In a 1999 study led by Doug Oman of the University of California, Berkeley, elderly people who volunteered for two or more organisations were found to be 44 percent less likely to die over a five-year period than were non-volunteers. This was true, even after controlling for their age, exercise habits, general health, and negative health habits like smoking [2].
The Mechanics Of Kindness
There are a number of factors contributing to the healing power of generosity. Firstly, the act of giving forces someone to look beyond the borders of the Self. As we saw in Mark’s story above, depression tends to cause people to cut themselves off from the world. This is actually a defence mechanism; the mind thinks it can help relieve the discomfort of a negative emotional state by hiding away and thinking about it. Everyone will do this differently. Some ruminate over the past; endlessly replaying painful or distressing memories in their mind as if that will help them to change what happened. Others do this in the future tense and repeat potentially catastrophic outcomes in their mind as if by doing so they will make the disaster less likely to happen. Of course, regardless of the positive intentions behind these thought processes, the actual effect is to galvanise the negative feelings they were intended to remedy.
Oxytocin: Hormonal Happiness
At the biochemical level, practicing acts of kindness can stimulate the release of a chemical called oxytocin into the brain. Oxytocin is a hormone which acts primarily as a neuromodulator and is responsible for the strong emotional connection between family members and friends. It’s released when we hug one another, when couples have sex and during childbirth. Oxytocin is known as a “cardioprotective” hormone because it stimulates the release of nitric oxide, which dilates the blood vessels and concurrently reduces blood pressure.
Mirror Neurons: Borrowed Happiness
In his book, The Happiness Advantage, positive psychology expert Shawn Achor explores the relationship between happiness, success and mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are a rather special component of primate neurology which have been credited for the rapid acceleration of the evolution of the human brain. They are neurons which fire both when we act and when we observe an action performed by another. As these neurons “mirror” the actions of others, they cause us to mentally mimic those behaviours as if we were doing them ourselves. This, of course, is true of not only physical movements but also of emotional states like cheerfulness, excitement and nervousness. And so, when we perform an act of kindness for someone else, their resultant happiness and gratitude are not just things we can feel proud of, but also things we can feel for ourselves. From personal experience, I can assure you that the positive hangover from a genuinely good deed can have lasting effects. I once caught an elderly lady as she tripped down the escalators at Liverpool Street Underground Station.
The station was quiet that day, and had she tumbled past me, she would almost certainly have been badly injured (or worse). Interestingly, although my reaction had to be nigh on instantaneous, there was a moment when I was acutely aware of my mind weighing up my two options: to catch her and risk losing my balance as well, or to lean back and save myself. I’m very happy (and proud) to say that my unconscious opted for the former. At the bottom of the escalator, I helped her onto her train and saw her on her way. For the rest of that day, I was untouchable. There was a spring in my step. I smiled stupidly at strangers for no particular reason. I still get a warm glow just thinking about it years later. During the 2010 Zheng-Kai marathon, Jacqueline Nyetipei Kiplimo from Kenya sacrificed first place as well as the $10,000 prize to help a disabled athlete who was struggling to drink water.
If Achor and Positive Psychology are correct, then happiness leads to success (not the other way around as is more commonly believed). So, if you want to see a boost in your emotional well-being, your physical health, as well perhaps, as an increase in your productivity and levels of achievement, then commit to a diet of (at least) one RAK a day and see what improvements you can make. At the very least, you can feel good about what you’ve done that day, and you never know, it could even save your life. Thought Engineering Hazel runs online courses that teach theories like these along with the Cognitive Hypnotherapy processes to help you achieve a positive mindset and let go of anxiety, procrastination and other self-sabotaging behaviours. Personal support is available to course members as they work through the written material and tasks, and the course is held together with weekly audio recordings of Cognitive Hypnotherapy suggestion patterns to help members reprogram their own thinking.
But different types of happiness have different effects, UCLA study shows
A good state of mind — that is, your happiness — affects your genes, scientists say. In the first study of its kind, researchers from UCLA's Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology and the University of North Carolina examined how positive psychology impacts human gene expression.
What they found is that different types of happiness have surprisingly different effects on the human genome.
People who have high levels of what is known as eudaimonic well-being — the kind of happiness that comes from having a deep sense of purpose and meaning in life (think Mother Teresa) — showed very favorable gene-expression profiles in their immune cells. They had low levels of inflammatory gene expression and strong expression of antiviral and antibody genes.
However, people who had relatively high levels of hedonic well-being — the type of happiness that comes from consummatory self-gratification (think most celebrities) — actually showed just the opposite. They had an adverse expression profile involving high inflammation and low antiviral and antibody gene expression.
The report appears in the current online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
For the last 10 years, Steven Cole, a UCLA professor of medicine and a member of the UCLA Cousins Center, and his colleagues, including first author Barbara L. Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina, have been examining how the human genome responds to stress, misery, fear and all kinds of negative psychology.
In this study, though, the researchers asked how the human genome might respond to positive psychology. Is it just the opposite of stress and misery, or does positive well-being activate a different kind of gene expression program?
The researchers examined the biological implications of both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being through the lens of the human genome, a system of some 21,000 genes that has evolved fundamentally to help humans survive and be well.
Previous studies had found that circulating immune cells show a systematic shift in baseline gene-expression profiles during extended periods of stress, threat or uncertainty. Known as conserved transcriptional response to adversity, or CTRA, this shift is characterized by an increased expression of genes involved in inflammation and a decreased expression of genes involved in antiviral responses.
This response, Cole noted, likely evolved to help the immune system counter the changing patterns of microbial threat that were ancestrally associated with changing socio-environmental conditions; these threats included bacterial infection from wounds caused by social conflict and an increased risk of viral infection associated with social contact.
"But in contemporary society and our very different environment, chronic activation by social or symbolic threats can promote inflammation and cause cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and other diseases and can impair resistance to viral infections," said Cole, the senior author of the research.
In the present study, the researchers drew blood samples from 80 healthy adults who were assessed for hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, as well as potentially confounding negative psychological and behavioral factors. The team used the CTRA gene-expression profile to map the potentially distinct biological effects of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.
And while those with eudaimonic well-being showed favorable gene-expression profiles in their immune cells and those with hedonic well-being showed an adverse gene-expression profile, "people with high levels of hedonic well-being didn't feel any worse than those with high levels of eudaimonic well-being," Cole said. "Both seemed to have the same high levels of positive emotion. However, their genomes were responding very differently even though their emotional states were similarly positive.
"What this study tells us is that doing good and feeling good have very different effects on the human genome, even though they generate similar levels of positive emotion," he said. "Apparently, the human genome is much more sensitive to different ways of achieving happiness than are conscious minds."
Other authors on the study included Jesusa M.G. Arevalo and Jeffrey Ma, both of UCLA, and Karen M. Grewen, Kimberly A. Coffey, Sara B. Algoe and Ann M. Firestine of the University of North Carolina.
The research was supported by National Institutes of Health grants R01NR012899, R01CA116778 and P30AG107265.
Wow, goes to show that all I have been reading about serving others, having a sense of purpose in life actually is very true indeed - another reason to 'pay it forward' ?
