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community, compassion, depression, flow, happiness, happy, higher power, love, medication, meditation, mental illness, network, zone
Last night I watched the documentary, Happy.
I wish that everyone was required to watch it. It is all about the science of happiness. There is a country (Bhutan) where the government is more concerned with Gross National Happiness than Gross National Product. I wish Americans felt our citizen’s happiness was more important than money.
People in Denmark top the world in happiness and most cities in Japan top the world for unhappiness.
The scientists doing the research said that 50 percent of happiness is genetic, so there isn’t much we can do about that, but a whopping 40 percent of our happiness can be altered by how we act, what we think, and what we do. That is a substantial amount that we have control over.
What do they suggest we do to increase our happiness?
- Be social. Everyone that scored high in happiness had a network of family and friends.
- Think of something bigger than you. You don’t have to be religious to think of, or participate in, activities that benefit the greater good. You can volunteer at a place that provides hospice care or a shelter for the homeless, or any activity that helps your community and other people.
- Exercise. People that are the happiest move their bodies.
- Do activities that you love. The researchers talked about “flow.” That place where people go when they are in the “zone” and are experiencing something like being at one with the activity they are doing. The more you can create “flow” in your life, the happier you will be. People can experience “flow” in their jobs. In the film, they interviewed a chef who loves cooking so much that he is experiencing “flow” while he works each day. In my life, I think I experience “flow” at times when I am writing. Other people experience it while gardening, playing music, dancing, etc.
- Try to change your routine. Even minor changes in your daily routine, like walking to work a different way, increase your happiness. Our brains respond well to variety.
There was one other way to significantly increase happiness that I found controversial because the researchers said meditating on compassion and loving kindness proved to be as effective as antidepressants over a certain length of time. I would never recommend someone going off their medication to exchange that for meditation, but it seems like if the findings were that significant, it is worth a try to read up on meditating about compassion and loving kindness and possibly start a practice of meditation.
The documentary didn’t address mental illness. They did mention depression a couple of times, but they didn’t qualify that with any science. I didn’t know if they were talking about clinical depression or bipolar depression. Were they talking about situational depression? I’m not sure the severity of the depression they were referencing.
But, if for most people, 40 percent of our happiness can be influenced by our thoughts, actions, etc. then I want to focus on some of the things they mentioned. I think I am fairly happy, but who couldn’t use more good feelings in their life? I plan to take steps to be happier this year – a goal that if reached, will spread to all those around me.
Like you, I plan on doing more to increase my happiness too. This is all very good information. Thanks for sharing it!
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I know you don’t have Netflix, so I hope I hit most of the major points of the documentary.
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I didn’t see it, but it seems like you hit some very good points!
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Thanks! 🙂
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You’re welcome!
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Even though exercise is not something I have ever loved doing, I know it makes me happier. It changes my level of confidence and it makes me make better/healthier choices.
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This is true for me, too.
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Finding the motivation to do it can be tricky, but the end result is wonderful. Not sure why I that isn’t motivation enough. 🙂
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I agree! 🙂
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I agree there’s usually or often much we all can do to improve our happiness. But on the other hand, with the tips this article provided, I tend to wonder which came first, the chicken or the egg. For example, yes it is good to be social, but are people happy because they’re sociable or are they sociable because they’re happy. To which I would conclude, if a truly unhappy person made the effort to socialise, would it automatically follow they felt happier or would in fact it make most or many of them feel worse. I know it makes me feel much worse to make the effort to be sociable when I’m feeling particularly low as I’ve often tried to, taking the advice off people that “Going out will take your mind off it”, “If you make the effort to go to the party after all, it will cheer you up”. Nope, if I’m upset, I have a good cry, I journal, I knit, I write, do something creative and that elevates my mood, after a few days usually but I have gone into a creative shell and been fairly introverted for months and it has felt therapeutic.
Previous point; if someone has say an illness which means they can’t actually get out of the house to socialise as much as they’d like, perhaps that’s a big reason for them being unhappy? Chicken or egg.
I have read a lot of studies about a lot of anti depressants mainly being placebos with dangerous side effects. And a big risk with taking them is that they can make symptoms much worse if a person has undiagnosed bi polar disorder instead of clinical depression, and that this happens often because people with bi polar disorder often go to their GPs at first only about their depressive symptoms and don’t mention their manic symptoms as they don’t see their mania as a problem. Then they take the anti depressants, which at least in the UK GPs often dole out like sweets due to the scarcity of talking therapies etc on the NHS, and very soo their highs are going through the roof, with all the attendant physical dangers, lifestyle dangers and psychological dangers. I’m not against medication per say, but I can totally believe for some people, probably with mild depression, non medication therapies such as running, meditation, and so on can be more of a help, and if someone has a mood swings problem is the less dangerous first step to take than the anti depressants the GP doles out. I have had friends with bi polar who were made worse by anti depressants and a friend with mild depression who said she was helped by running more than anything, having tried medication with appalling side effects on her appetite, (she couldn’t eat for nausea), and moods.
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You bring up some important issues. I don’t know the answers and in my post I do mention that mental illness was not really addressed – leaving those of us with a mental illness to wonder if these things will actually work for us. I don’t know. I loved the documentary though, and I plan to try a few of the things. Maybe, in a few months I will be able to report some increase in happiness 🙂 I know what you mean about people with bipolar disorder being given antidepressants and then having those cause them to have an episode or either mania or psychosis – it is a real problem. Thanks for sharing and for the questions for all of us to think about.
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I hope I didn’t sound too negative. I agree the points in the documentary might help many people. I have a friend with depression who says she never feels like being sociable but once she makes the effort to get out to something to be with people, she actually enjoys it – it’s just a huge effort for her to get the energy to do it and mentally talk herself into having the confidence to. I think that’s why she tried to persuade me to get out more when I was feeling upset and low a lot of the time about difficult stuff in my life, but it didn’t work for me. Yes I guess it may not be meant for people with mental illnesses. I wish if that was the case that they would have said so. I don’t know why authors and film/TV programme makers always ignore people with mental illnesses in their self help literature, as if they/we don’t exist or something. I do hope very much you have an increase in happiness .
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You didn’t sound negative. Interestingly enough, you did do one of the things they suggested when you felt depressed, though – you did something you love which is to create. I often isolate socially so I know what that is like, but I try to exercise and do some of the other things they suggested on a regular basis. I think their study may have changed or become too complicated if they included mental illness – I’m not sure. I know self help books are not always applicable to people with a mental illness because we can’t just think positively and go from depression to joy – it doesn’t work that way.
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Writing lets me experience flow as well! I get totally engrossed. Sometimes I can also get there when I do crocheting or walking (a two fer!).
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From my understanding, the more ways you can experience “flow” the better!
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my “flow” comes when i’m writing too, except maybe for those times i wanna write so bad but couldn’t because of writer’s block or something.
thank you for sharing this. it was a nice read.
have a great day!
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Thank you! I hope you have a nice day, too! 🙂
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I do all of these an I can say that I do feel happier inside than if I don’t or stop doing these four things.
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I do think they work for most people. I think for some people who are depressed, though being able to do these things can be difficult.
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I wonder if we actively be happy, wouldn’t we be capable to change our genetic predispositions. I believe it’s an interesting topic to think about.
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Thank is interesting! I don’t know!
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