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What Can I Do to Increase My Happiness?

“Hey! I have a good idea,” says Emma, jumping in for the first time. “We—,” she glances behind her, “I mean, Ted—should stop making interpersonal comparisons.” The whole class laughs. “That way, he won’t want more stuff he doesn’t need and be less happy just because other people have more stuff.” Good reasoning, Emma—if at Ted’s expense! Too many people end up buying a house larger than they need and a deluxe car (or cars) to display their wealth. The result is to burden themselves, with colossal debt and the stress of meeting large debt repayments month after month. It’s awfully hard to enjoy your BMW if you can barely afford the gas to drive it. Because income trends upward during the working ages, you might think that people would become increasingly satisfied with their financial situation. Yet, in fact, there is very little change in financial satisfaction throughout the prime working years, due to the burden of debt repayment brought about by perpetually multiplying the list of things we want. It’s not until folks are into their retirement years, with incomes leveling off or even declining, that financial satisfaction improves noticeably. Children have completed school and are mainly self-supporting. Material aspirations decline as needs diminish in the so-called golden years, and the burden of debt is substantially reduced as mortgages and other debts are finally repaid. The lesson? “We can all increase happiness by focusing on what we really need and not worry about keeping up with our neighbors!” Ted exclaims. Yes, Ted, good on you and Emma: We can increase happiness by addressing our true needs and avoiding unnecessary debt. A pretty easy lesson? Sure, yet a word of warning: Eliminating social comparison is easier said than done. I live, for example, in quite a nice house. Some time ago, my daughter Molly’s soccer coach invited us to his residence for a get-together of players and parents. His house turned out to be quite grand, and I must admit that when I got back to my own dwelling, my pleasure in it was somewhat diminished. As Karl Marx says, “A house may be large or small; as long as the neighboring houses are likewise small it satisfies all social requirement for a residence. But let there arise next to the little house a palace, and the little house shrinks to a hut.” I should know better than to indulge in social comparison, but it’s hard to break the habit. Nevertheless, it’s definitely worth the effort. (Note to self: Remember this!) There’s a second, and perhaps easier, route to increasing happiness: improving our use of time. Each of us has only a given amount of time, and the more we devote to one activity, say, making money, the less time there is for others, like improving health and family life. Because wants regarding health and family life are relatively fixed compared with wants for living conditions, devoting time to an improvement in one’s health or family life will have a more lasting effect on happiness than increasing one’s income. Unfortunately, people spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to make more money, at the same time shortchanging things like family life and health. Look at the responses to this survey question: “Imagine you are 38 years old and offered a new position in a field you like. The job is more prestigious and will pay 15 percent more than your present job. It will also require more work hours and take you far away from your family more often. What is the likelihood you would take the job?” There are four response options. About a third of respondents say it is “very likely” that they would take the job; another third say “somewhat likely,” and the remaining third say “somewhat unlikely.” Not one person chooses the fourth option, “very unlikely.” Thus, in a survey in which respondents had previously said “having a happy marriage” was their top life goal, family life is sacrificed to make more money. What’s more, in all likelihood, health would suffer because of longer work hours and more time on the road. The preference for the new job option highlights how people typically misallocate time by downplaying family life and health relative to making money. It’s probable that some respondents who choose the money option rationalize their decision on the grounds that, despite their absence from home, more money will make for a happier family life—that money will substitute for personal presence. OK, but what sorts of things make people happy? In fact, many of the things that people enjoy, that make them most happy, require little or no money, though they do require time. Over the past few decades, numerous studies reveal how people use their time. People’s responses, based on personal diaries, cover the usual range of daily activities. Fortunately, one nationally representative inquiry hit on the idea of also asking respondents how enjoyable each activity was. The answers are on a 10-point scale from 1 (=dislike) to 10 (=like). Here are the most enjoyable activities (a rating greater than 7.5) ordered from high to low in terms of average score: 9.3 Sex 9.2 Play sports 9.1 Fishing 9.0 Art, music 8.9 Bars, lounges 8.8 Play with kids, hug and kiss 8.6 Talk to kids, read to kids 8.5 Church, sleep, attend movies 8.3 Read book, walk 8.2 Relax, magazines, visit, work break, meals away 8.0 Talk with family, listen to stereo 7.9 Lunch break 7.8 Home meal, TV, read paper 7.7 Knit, sew What stands out is that most of these activities don’t cost a lot, and some require no money at all. However, they do require time. Taking a job that would “require more work hours and take you far away from your family more often” would leave much less time for many of these sources of happiness. This survey of enjoyable activities is over 30 years old, so some items such as “knit” and “sew” seem out of date, at least for a large portion of the population. Perhaps now “surfing the Internet” and “tweeting” might substitute for knitting and sewing. Nonetheless, the essential findings of this early study are largely confirmed by a somewhat similar collaborative study, published in 2004 by psychologist Daniel Kahneman (again! the reference-level pioneer) and others. Those surveyed were Texas women who worked the previous day and were easy to reach, a convenience rather than random sample. The three items leading the list of most enjoyable activities are “intimate relations,” “socializing,” and “relaxing.” All three fit well with the items above. They take time, certainly, but they require little or no money. “So why do people do this—use up their time trying to make money?” asks Lily, looking perplexed. Exactly so, Lily—why do we? Very often, people misallocate their time, choosing the pursuit of money at the expense of other life goals. Why? “Because they think a lot of money will make them happy,” blurts out Ted. Yes, that’s the answer: because of the common belief that more money makes you happier. People don’t realize that their material wants increase in step with what they have. The expected increase in happiness resulting from more money turns out to be illusory, while the loss of happiness due to the sacrifice of family life and health is real. So, what will make you happier? Despite what I felt after leaving the soccer coach’s house, I know the answer is “more time devoted to things like family life and health, less time to the pursuit of money.” Focus on soccer, not the coach’s house. Adapted from An Economist’s Lessons on Happiness: Farewell Dismal Science by Richard A. Easterlin. Copyright ©2021. Published by Springer International Publishing under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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This kid is a genius!

Can Genius and Happiness Coexist?

If you’ve seen the movie The Imitation Game about legendary mathematician Alan Turing, or A Beautiful Mind, about Nobel-prize-winning economist John Nash, then youare already familiar with a certain narrative about genius. Geniuses, the story goes, are lonely, tortured, and anti-social. What’s more, they are often unstable, frequently mad and invariably misunderstood.Other examples fit this script: Tormented souls such as Vincent Van Gogh, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway and Sylvia Plath come to mind.The concept is deeply rootedIt turns out, however, that this view—while not without some foundation—taps into some old and deep historical prejudices. Going all the way back to the ancient Greeks, Plato believed the divine inspiration that gripped poets and prophets was a kind of madness caused by a the god or muse who possessed them.Aristotle held a different belief: Eminent achievement (genius, in our terms) was caused by a certain physiological condition, a high level of “black bile” in the body. And while that gave them their special abilities, it came at a cost. The Greek word for black bile, melan ochre, is the root of our term melancholy. Geniuses, it seemed, were prone to nervousness, depression and mental pain.Possessed—by demons or angelsModified by Christians, who saw demons in the “possessed” like Faust, or the work of God in the powers of great men like “Michael-of-the-angels” (Michelangelo), these ancient associations stuck around for a very long time.Yet if some geniuses undoubtedly suffer mental illness, it doesn’t follow that their “genius” is the cause, or a necessary correlate: that genius and madness are one.High IQ and emotional stability?Consider that when the Stanford psychologist Lewis Terman set out in the early 20th century to study the lives and habits of exceptionally intelligent children (those with tested IQs of at least 140, the minimum threshold), he found that they grew to be taller, healthier, and more socially adept than average, dispelling the myth that “little geniuses” necessarily grew up to be invalids or misfits.Genius of pairsMore recently, writers and researchers who study creativity and intelligence have emphasized the social interactions that underlie so much creative endeavor. They talk of group dynamics, the wisdom of crowds, and the genius of pairs, emphasizing how people like John Lennon and Paul McCartney or Pierre and Marie Curie did together what they couldn’t do as one.The lone genius, like the mad genius, is largely a fable. As the author Steven Johnson puts it—“networked” genius—is the norm. A figure like Edison didn’t discover the light-bulb on his own anymore than Steve Jobs invented the computer. Rather, they “figure[d] out how to make teams creative.” Their genius was social.Correlation or causation?That said, there does seem to be some evidence that certain forms of intelligence—high mathematical ability, for example, or poetic brilliance—may correlate with a higher likeliness of falling on the spectrum ofautism or schizophrenia. Then again, as statisticians always insist, correlation and cause are two different things.Matisse’s flowersBut you don’t have to crunch the numbers to qualify the myth. There are plenty of instances of social, life-affirming geniuses, who concluded, in the end, like Louis Armstrong, that ours is a wonderful world. Even the celebrated philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, a notorious curmudgeon, explained on his deathbed, “Tell them I’ve had a wonderful life.” Was Charles Darwin a tortured soul? Or Henri Matisse with his colorful canvases of joy? “There are always flowers for those who want to see them,” Matisse observed. Indeed.Genius of geniusesBut in the end, it is Albert Einstein, the genius of geniuses, who best illustrates the point. He was playful and a little eccentric, though very far from lonely, despondent, or mad. He had vast networks of friends, and took tremendous joy not only in his work, but in his passions such as music (playing Mozart on his violin) or sailing. Einstein once remarked, "A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?” It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that even a genius can see the truth in that.Darrin McMahon is a Professor of History at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. His latest book is Divine Fury: A History of Genius.
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Celebrations of Happiness Past

“Happy Birthday” trips easily off the tongue, along with “Happy Holidays” and “Happy Halloween.” But the advent of the United Nation’s International Day of Happiness on March 20th poses a problem. Just what are we supposed to say?Have a happy… Happiness Day? The phrase might seem a little redundant, as if we are celebrating celebration. Surely we do enough of that already. From happy hour to New Year’s Eve, citizens of the 21st century seem to be pursuing happiness 24/7. So at first glance it might seem strange—and strangely modern—to set aside a day to reflect on happiness. In order to put things in perspective, it might help to consider how happiness has been celebrated in the past. It turns out that the idea of devoting a day to reflect on what makes us as a society happyis not a newfangled invention. Rituals in the ancient world The ancient Greeks and Romans, for example, paid homage to their “good demon”—a guardian spirit or angel that was thought to accompanypeople throughout their lives. The ancient Greek word for good demon is eu daimon, and eudaimon was the main Greek word for happy.It made sense that you looked after your happiness not only by giving thanks and paying homage to your 'demon' on special days—pouring out libations of wine, burning incense, making sacrifices, or saying a prayer—but also by living virtuously, and so treating your spirit well. Good conduct was considered the way to cultivate a happy life. But if both Greeks and Romans commemorated happiness in relation to virtue, they were also quick to celebrate the pleasures of the flesh. Every year, the Romans honored their goddess Felicitas (felicity) in two annual festivals, one held in the summer, the other in the fall, with a good deal of feasting, dancing, drinkingand rejoicing.This bounteous goddess personified happiness in the form of divinely inspired blessedness, fecundity and fortune, and was often featured on the back of coins, with her trademark cornucopia, bursting with ripe fruits of the earth, a symbol of worldly prosperity. It is interesting, and perhaps revealing of the way festival-goers celebrated in her honor, that the Romans also used the phallus to symbolize felicity. Hic Habitat Felicitas (here dwells happiness), reads the inscription of a prodigious specimen preserved on the wall of a bakery in Pompeii.It bids bread—the stuff of life—to rise and fill us with energy and fecundity, so that we can make more life in turn.Be fruitful and multiply!(Or at least go through the motions.) From body to spirit Early Christians tended to frown at such pagan rejoicing. Toppling the idol of Felicitas, they proclaimed their own celebration of felicity—perpetual felicity to be exact. Perpetua and Felicitas were two Christian martyrs, young women who in the year 203 AD were fed to wild animals in the Roman coliseum at Carthage. In dying this horrible death, which they freely, even joyfully, accepted, the two women provided an inspiring example of faith and of the higher happiness—the “Perpetual Felicity”—that was understood as its reward. Canonized as saints, Perpetua and Felicitas are still celebrated every year in an official Catholic feast day. True, the organizers of the United Nations celebration probably did not have these various traditions in mind when they declared March 20 as International Day of Happiness. And yet the government officials in the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, who first suggested the idea, were certainly familiar with aspects of the venerable wisdom that these ancient festivals honored. The future of happiness Healthy living, cultivation of the spirit, a bit of prosperity, and proper attendance to the needs of the body and soul have long been thought of as essential to a happy life. Today, aspects of these insights that linking virtue and compassion to joy and wellbeing are being revived, confirmed, and expanded by the scientific study of happiness, which is finding modern truth in ancient wisdom, while adding some of its own. March 20th affords an opportunity to learn a little more about this exciting work, and how we might pursue happiness more fully and productively in the other 364 days of the year. So yes, Have a happy Happiness Day! And many others besides.
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Top 10 Happiest Major Market Cities

Top 10 Happiest Major Market Cities

It’s no secret that happiness is subjective. The things that make people happy in New York may not be the same for people in Los Angeles. Whether it’s family, finances or football, what makes Americans happy is literally all over the map. Recently, Harris Interactive, a market research firm, released a poll showing that 33 percent of all Americans say they are “very happy.”The Harris Poll Happiness Index asked a series of questions to roughly 2,100 Americans ages 18 and up living in the biggest cities in the country, to calculate the nation’s overall happiness. Relationships with family and friends, spiritual beliefs, financial situations and health concerns were some of the factors used to gauge the results. Of the top 10 major market cities polled, the Dallas/Fort Worth area ranked the happiest, with 38 percent describing themselves as “very happy.” San Francisco wound up at the bottom, with only 28 percent saying they were perfectly content. While San Francisco ranks at the bottom of the list, most in the City by the Bay feel that the future is bright. New Yorkers, who worry about financial issues, are frustrated with work and feel no one is listening to them when it comes to national decisions, worry the least about their health. Chicagoans feel the opposite with 67 percent agreeing that their concerns about national issues are being heard. They also are most likely to use hobbies and pastimes to lighten their moods. Residents of Dallas, Houston and Atlanta are likely to say that their spiritual beliefs are a positive guiding force in their lives, and they generally feel their voices are being heard when it comes to national decisions. Bostonians are least likely to worry about their financial situation, and people from Los Angeles are least likely to say that their work is frustrating. When it comes to personal relationships, Washington, D.C., leads the pack with most agreeing that being with friends and family brings them happiness. Philadelphia, affectionately known as the City of Brotherly Love, comes in second in both relationship categories; however, Philly outranks the nation’s capital on the overall happiness list because 86 percent of residents generally feel happy with their lives. That beats out all nine other cities. From the stone tablets in Moses’ hands all the way to David Letterman’s nightly staple, we have always had top 10 lists. Periodically we will report on the findings from various research polls to see where happiness is popping up in the world. We are social people who like to improve our wellbeing by feeling connected, and the data proves that happiness is contagious. See where your city ranks in the Harris Poll Happiness Index Dallas/Fort Worth – 38 percent “very happy” Houston – 36 percent “very happy” Philadelphia – 34 percent “very happy” Atlanta – 34 percent “very happy” Los Angeles – 33 percent “very happy” New York City metro area – 33 percent “very happy” Washington, D.C. – 33 percent “very happy” Chicago – 32 percent “very happy” Boston – 31 percent “very happy” San Francisco – 28 percent “very happy”
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