“Happiness is….different things to different people. That’s what happiness is.”---Ray Conniff
The researchers who publish the World Happiness Report have discovered, or so they say, that about three-quarters of human happiness is driven by six factors: strong economic growth, healthy life expectancy, quality social relationships, generosity, trust and freedom to live the life that’s right for you. These factors don’t materialize by chance, they are intimately related to a country’s government and its cultural values. In other words, the happiest places incubate happiness for their people. When WHR puts it all together, it spells D-E-N-M-A-R-K, with Costa Rica and Singapore coming up fast on the outside.
We have our doubts. There’s no baseball in Denmark, right? The average mean temperature in February is 34 and in July it only hops up to 64, so those beach outings will be short, especially when the wind shifts, which is often. The annual rainfall in Denmark averages 24 inches of precipitation with Copenhagen having an annual average of 170 rainy days. There are only 152 rainy days a year in Seattle and a mere 134 in semi-arid Boston. And during winter, you’ll be lucky to get seven hours of daylight. They do have taco trucks, but not many, and the most popular food in Denmark is rye bread. Rye bread! I mean, come on, guys. What’s the use of having a healthy life expectancy if all you have to look forward to is rye bread?
Costa Rica makes more sense. They have good weather, friendly natives, a lovely volcano that never erupts and, if one is to believe Jeff Goldstein, dependable coatimundis who show up on time for meetings. Besides, the world’s happiest person except for Perrin Penniman lives there.
According to the World Happiness Report, that would be Alejandro Zuniga, a healthy middle-aged father who socializes at least six hours a day and has more friends than he can count. Al sleeps at least seven hours most nights, walks to work and eats six servings of fruits and vegetables most days. He works no more than 40 hours a week at a job he loves with co-workers he enjoys. He spends a few hours every week volunteering; on the weekends, he worships God and indulges his passion for soccer. Yeah—we know---so does your grandmother. But for some reason the gonfalon goes to Zuniga, whose choices are made easier because he lives among like-minded people in the verdant, temperate Central Valley of Costa Rica. Personally, we were thinking the whole thing was fixed. Perrin will give you a big hug and a flower.
Then we got a call from Cartago, where Alejandro is a produce vendor in the central market, showing up day after day to peddle his avocados, schmooze, take up collections when other vendors fall ill or have family emergencies. Zuniga, down to about eight dollars, had just won the lottery with a payoff of 50 million colones (don’t go nuts, that’s $93,000 American dollars). The vendors of Cartago erupted in applause when the unknowing winner arrived for work next day. His friends all expected Alejandro to move on to a more affluent lifestyle, but he hung around, continuing to hawk his wares and quietly give away his fortune….a million to the friend who sold him the ticket, a million to a food-stall vendor who’d fed him in lean times, another million to a market beggar of long standing. The rest he gave to his mother and to the four mothers of his seven children. Within a year he was broke again.
“I couldn’t be happier,” he smiled. Okay Alejandro, you win.
Think Happy
Most people think that happiness comes from the positive things that happen to us. We get lucky at Lillian’s just before closing time. Somebody gives us a free ticket to a Springsteen concert. Attila the Hun is hired as new defensive coordinator for the Florida Gator football team. We get a pony for our birthday. But as usual, Science disagrees. Science says that happiness largely comes from our brains. That means changing the way we think can increase our happiness. Wow, what a concept!
An example: focusing on positive words activates regions of your brain associated with these words. If I think of the word “adventure,” my brain will likely activate memories of hiking trips or physical challenges, hustling a wrestler’s wife or eating a cheeseburger. I will be flooded with memories of adventure and the positive emotions associated with it. This not only feels good in the moment but it can also make it easier to generate these emotions and thoughts in the future. That’s because when any region of the brain is activated, it gets stronger. Ergo, memorizing or focusing on positive words can make positive concepts, memories and feelings easier to access in the future. If you’re a once-popular musician, try “groupies.”
That’s What Aristotle Said
The Great Philosopher told us happiness is the ultimate purpose of life, thus how we spend our days is ultimately guided by what we think would make us happier. That doesn’t mean we wake up in the morning with the explicit goal of pursuing happiness, because that doesn’t work. Consider an analogy with the sun. Imagine if you go outside and look right at it….you’ll hurt yourself. But if you break the sun’s rays down with a prism, you get the colors of the rainbow.
Similarly, pursuing happiness directly is futile, you have to break it down into its metaphorical colors. by spending your time doing things that are meaningful, like meditation, exercise, learning a new discipline, reading books written by people with unique perspectives. Meaning is an element of happiness.
Be jealous of your time. The older you get, the quicker it disappears. Life gives you just so much of it and you don’t want to be rambling down dead-end streets, following false prophets or wasting it on foolishness like chasing after excessive possessions you immediately put on your mantelpiece and forget. Time is an element of happiness.
Stay out of prisons. Not the steel and stone places constructed to constrain varlets---the walls you build for yourself inside infertile relationships, soul-sapping jobs, wretched towns, miserable lifestyles. Break on through to the other side. Despite Kris Kristofferson, Freedom is not just another word for nothing left to lose. Freedom is an element of happiness.
Creativity is null and void in very few humans, but is often not recognized as such even by those endowed with it. A woman aesthete once took me to her home from an art gallery and misspoke, “I am not at all creative---neither a painter, a sculptor, a dancer or a musician.” Then she walked me through her self-made Garden of Babylon and prepared a meal worthy of La Grenouillere. You have a talent, perhaps slumbering---don’t be afraid to encourage it. Creativity is an element of happiness.
When we were kids, we’d hear the occasional adult tell another at Christmastime, “I’d rather buy someone a gift than receive one.” Okay, sucker, here I am. First, we didn’t believe it; second, if it was true there was something seriously wrong with this person. Then one day, our fathers took us out to buy something for our mothers with that pocketful of quarters we’d saved. It could have been a box of rocks and she’d swoon. It felt good. It was still better to get a gift than give one but we got the drift. Time passed, we grew older and saw people who needed a little help. Every time we provided that help we felt a little better. You see a man with one thin shirt headed toward winter and your closet feels like an embarrassment of riches. You give the man a coat, but he’s a proud fellow so you tell him your closet is overflowing, he’s helping you out. You see him two months later bouncing down the street in the dead of Winter protected by your gift. Tell us that doesn’t feel better than one more jacket in the closet. Giving is an element of happiness.
All of you have super-powers. Use them wisely.
Facts About Happiness
1. Happiness can boost your immune system. It’s hard to get a cold when you’re happy. Unless you have schoolchildren.
2. Floral scents can make you happy. People exposed to them are three times as likely to be happy, so all those smiling people at the florist are not necessarily as stoned as you thought.
3. Relationships are more important than money. The Journal of Socio-Economics found relationship satisfaction---even platonic---played a larger role in happiness than $100,000. They didn’t say anything about $500,000.
4. Bright colors will make you happier. Yellow is best of all. The BMC Medical Research Methodology folks say so and they’re always right. Show this to your mother so she won’t throw out all your tie-dye shirts.
5. Being outside makes you happier, unless you have no choice. The ideal spot is an outdoor area near the water when the weather is warm. Like, say, Hawaii. That should do it.
6. Laughter really is the best medicine. A 2005 study in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology observed a number of patients suffering from chronic pain and arthritis and concluded that laughter and happiness decreased their pain significantly. If you’re on a budget, you could just hire Will Thacker for an hour a day.
7. Petting a dog will make you happier. Reliable studies from several sources tell us the activity causes our brains to release oxytocin, which instantly gives us feelings of happiness and contentment while also lowering blood pressure and reducing stress levels. Watch out for those pit bulls behind big fences, though.
8. Happiness improves as we age. Hey, finally some good news about geezerhood! A study by the University of Alberta tracked levels of happiness over a 25-year period and determined the older you get the happier you are. They probably stopped at 90, though, right?
9. Coffee increases happiness, so don’t listen to those naysayers. Not only that but a study by Spanish researchers found that subjects who drank two cups a day were 22% less likely to die over the next decade than those who drank no coffee at all.
10. Or you could move to the Dakotas. According to a WalletHub survey, people in North and South Dakota are pretty happy. Bismarck, N.D. is the second-highest city on the U.S. happiness index, Fargo is sixth and Sioux Falls, S.D. is number seven. We need to do a little checking before we make the big move, though. Who the hell is Wallethub, anyway, and did they do this study in July or February?
That’s all, folks….
