28th
Can happiness be a science?
maybe it can if the definition of science is something that can be replicated and perfected - happiness is mostly a choice - though of course that the choice we are most frequently told about is buying happiness ?!
For 41-year-old Andrew Kennedy, the pursuit of happiness involved selling his condo, quitting his job and fulfilling a lifelong dream of travelling for a year. From a friend’s apartment in Jerusalem, he said via Skype, “I didn’t set out to travel because I was unhappy with my life and thought travelling would make me happy. I did it because I always wanted to. I think there’s some happiness to be derived from accomplishing something I always wanted to do.”
That question — what makes you happy? — is a hot one of late. In recent years, a burgeoning number of researchers from fields as widespread as economics, public policy and psychology have turned their attention to happiness. They’re looking at how to define happiness, how can we achieve it, who is happy and how we can use data to make society, in a word, happier.
In his new book The Happiness Equation: The Surprising Economics of Our Most Valuable Asset (Icon books, $25), British economist Nick Powdthavee breaks down the science of “happiness economics.” That’s the science of putting monetary values on things that can’t be bought or sold but are generally associated with happiness, things like marriage or children.
McKinnon says positive psychology posits that genuine happiness requires three elements: pleasure, engagement and meaning. For pleasure, we might go on a trip. For engagement, we can participate in activities that challenge us -a difficult sports game or a intellectually stimulating problem at work, says McKinnon. Meaningful tasks can be anything from meditation to volunteer work.
There’s one more thing we can do to contribute to our happiness, according to happiness experts, and that’s strengthening our bonds with other people. Every study on happiness has shown that our social networks influence our satisfaction levels. Surrounding ourselves with supportive friends and co-workers makes us feel more content, studies show. Even sharing a kind word to neighbours can have positive repercussions, says McKinnon.
In Canada, we’re relatively content, ranking sixth in the world in well-being — ahead of the Americans, but behind the Danish, the Finnish, the Norwegians and the Dutch.
