Why Be Happy?

Why be Happy?

Hi Everyone

Today I want to talk about why we should be happy apart from the fact it feels good

Happiness benefits individuals, families and communities. There are tangible benefits in multiple life domains. Happy people enjoy larger social rewards, are more likely to be married, have lower odds of divorce, more friends, stronger social supports and richer social interactions. Happy people also have superior work outcomes – greater creativity, increased productivity, higher quality of work and greater income.
They also have more activity, energy and flow.

Happiness may be integral to mental and physical health. There is greater self control, self regulatory and coping abilities, bolstered immune systems, and even longer lives.
Happy people are also relatively more prosocial, cooperative, charitable and other centered.

Research has shown that interventions can be used to increase happiness, practicing certain virtues such as gratitude and forgiveness and thoughtful self reflection can increase our well being.

Motivational and attitudinal factors are under some control. Eg pursuit of life goals that are intrinsic in content, concordant with our interests, motives and values and are internally consistent.

Attitudinally we can take control of how optimistic we can be, whether we choose to avoid social comparisons and contingent self evaluations or not.
Whether we feel a sense of optimism or efficacy about our life. There is evidence to suggest that older people can learn to structure their lives and persue goals to maximize positive emotions. These changes are mediated by volitional changes which include selecting more enjoyable and self appropriate goals.

So there are many reason to be happy. Research evidence suggests that our usual belief (that we will be happy when we get the income, the marriage etc) is round the wrong way. If we are happy then we are more likely to achieve these things.

In the next article I will define Subjective Wellbeing – happiness and some of its correlates.

See you next time
Nevin