5. Spend Time in Nature
Nature Withdrawal The absence of biophilia may be found in a theory called nature-deficit disorder, first proposed in a book by Richard Louv, who says that a lack of physical contact with nature harms children. Louv argues that sensationalist stories and technology have pushed children away from nature.
His book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder," also maintains that children who are exposed to nature, particularly from a young age, do better than their peers. They're less stressed and learn to think creatively. Playing in nature allows them to be active and may represent an important tool in fighting childhood obesity. |
Many people would claim to have an instinctive attraction to nature and a desire to preserve it. We want to protect the rain forests, clean up pollution, and if possible, live by the sea or a nice park. And despite much of the world's population living in urban areas, we interact with nature in many ways, whether in a mediated way through having domesticated animals as pets, or by going camping or fishing.
The concept of biophilia, a term coined by biologist E.O. Wilson, states that evolution has bred us to appreciate and do well in nature. The scientific literature backs him up, as studies have found that people who are exposed to nature become ill less frequently. (Similarly, hospital patients recover more quickly if placed by a window with a pleasant view [source: Bloom].) Pets and spending time in nature are both tremendous stress relievers. Having a cat or dog can also help people to alleviate loneliness or feel in touch with nature, even when confined in a city.
4. Buy Happiness -- If That's Possible
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Money may not buy you love, but it might improve your happiness. If it doesn't, feel free to send some to us, and we'll let you know how it goes.
The Easterlin Paradox states that richer people are usually happier than the poor. But as a whole, richer societies don't show much more happiness than poor ones, and a country's improved economic standing does not improve happiness.
The Easterlin Paradox grew out of studies by economist Richard Easterlin in the early 1970s. Easterlin found that a certain level of increased income boosted happiness among the poor -- but only to a certain degree. After that, the amount of money people made compared to their peers, or relative income, became more important in determining happiness than their individual income. In other words, people wanted what others had.
But at least one more recent study, which draws on numerous public opinion polls conducted all over the world, shows that people in richer countries do appear happier than those in poor ones. And isolated within a country, income level does seem to correlate with happiness. For example, a far larger portion of Americans earning $250,000 or more per year were happier than those making less than $30,000.
In challenging this discovery, some critics point to changes in how these questions are asked and also bring up that while people in some developing countries have become happier as income has improved, in other countries, happiness has not increased along with income [source: Leonhardt].
On the whole, wealth does seem to boost your chances for happiness, as does living in a wealthy country that can provide the services and security that often accompany affluence. But as this article shows, many other factors besides money, many of them subjective, determine personal happiness.
3. Meditate
Words of a Saint "There can be no joy in living without joy in work." --St. Thomas Aquinas |
Some studies show that meditation improves happiness [source: Max]. Consequently, activities like meditation, yoga and practicing mindfulness may boost your level of happiness and satisfaction. Meditation may allow you to put your problems in perspective, or the clarity achieved by the process, combined with a sense of mindfulness, may allow you to better appreciate things in the world around you that you've taken for granted.
People who have meditated regularly as part of scientific studies have also reported lower incidences of illness and feeling more connected to the people around them [source: Max]. Brain scans of meditators also show that areas of the brain associated with stress show less activity after meditation [source: Alleri].
In ancient times, true happiness was seen as something exceedingly rare and transcendent -- equivalent to being in touch with heavenly spirits [source: Holt]. Meditation is often associated with transcendence, with a progression beyond often trivial earthly concerns and moving into a more rarified space of higher understanding and contentment.
2. Study Positive Psychology
Positive psychology is a rapidly growing field that examines what makes people happy. As a discipline, psychology has traditionally focused on negative emotions and what can go wrong in the brain. Positive psychology looks at positive emotions and methods of fulfillment, like hope, gratitude, pleasure, spirituality and charity [source: Max].
Besides shifting the focus to these other, oft-neglected emotions, positive psychology examines concerns like the difference between feeling good about yourself for a moment or a day and creating enduring happiness. This balance between ephemeral satisfaction and prolonged happiness can be difficult to strike, and courses in positive psychology may ask students to look deeply into their own lives and examine how they work to achieve happiness.
Dozens of universities now offer classes on positive psychology, many of them very popular, such as one at George Mason University called The Science of Well-Being. Harvard's basic positive psychology class is the most popular class at the university [source: Smith]. In these classes, students look at what produces happier emotions and feelings of satisfaction. They often conduct personal experiments in which they volunteer -- a selfless act that's supposed to lead to longer-lasting happiness -- or give in to impulses that produce more short-term feelings of happiness. But positive psychology has been criticized by some educators and academics as being too lacking in hard science, too prescriptive and seemingly almost like a religion. Some also claim that professors in the field don't spend enough time considering individual differences among people and different modes of achieving happiness [source: Max].
1. Don't Be Happy
Are Creativity and Sadness Linked? Wake Forest University professor Eric G. Wilson, worries that while serious depression is a problem worthy of treatment, "mild to moderate sadness," or melancholia, is too often responded to with medication [source: NPR]. Wilson thinks that embracing some sadness can boost creative thinking and allow for more complex relationships with the rest of the world.
Striving solely for happiness is, in Wilson's view, to ignore a fundamental aspect of the human condition. He also points to the great history of artists, dreamers, thinkers and innovators who derived inspiration from being melancholy. Melancholia then, Wilson writes, represents a more realistic middle ground between sheer bliss and depression, a place where new insights can be derived and creative thinking performed [source: NPR]. |
There are actually some compelling ideas against happiness. Naysayers aren't against happiness; rather, they point out some of the effects of happiness that may negatively affect people besides the person who claims to be happy.
What are the downsides of happiness? For one thing, happier people are more prone to prejudicial behavior [source: Holt]. One possible explanation is that a contented, lackadaisical or happy attitude allows people to easily turn to stereotypes or other caricatures when making judgments. Happy people also can have excessively high self-regard -- to the point where they think that their thoughts or actions can control events clearly beyond their control. Similarly, concerns have been voiced that happy people may be easier to manipulate, particularly by unscrupulous political leaders. But happier people show higher levels of political involvement. Happy people generally live longer, but one study found that "cheerful and optimistic" U.S. children actually did not live as long as others, so draw your own conclusions [source: Holt].
There are other reasons not to reach for happiness at all costs. A blind pursuit of happiness may neglect some complicated effects associated with socioeconomic improvement. People who improve their station in life often report being less happy because with money and personal freedom come a variety of unintended choices and desires. More opportunities are open to the wealthier person, but so potentially are feelings of inferiority and a desire for more, more, more.
Source : Reader's Digest
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