By MARTY LEVINE
“Can we really train ourselves to be happier?” LifeSolutions’ Jessie Love asked attendees at the May 2 Faculty and Staff Development Program, “The Science of Happiness.” “The science says yes.”
Love presented this latest FSDP offering to show recent findings about “what living a happy life looks like … and what you can do to increase happiness.”
Pitt employees in the class were certain they knew what signified happiness: “Being stress free,” “being present,” “feeling content and fulfilled,” “inner peace,” “feeling satisfied with your current life situation” and “all the body parts working.”
Love looked first at how happiness can be measured, noting that, for one thing, “more money does not lead to increased happiness.” Yes, below an income of $50,000 a year, “the less you earn the more unhappy you are,” but above $50,000 a year there is no discernible increase in happiness.
Still, she said, studies show that, “We have more reasons to be happy than ever before, but people are far less happy.” Thus, the “science of happiness” seeks to answer: “What’s right with people?” And is the mere absence of mental illness the same as flourishing in life and being happy? “What leads to ‘the good life’? What characteristics make people adaptable? What factors lead an individual to optimal functioning?”
“Positive psychology” is the idea that we can change how we deal with life, and thus our happiness level. Those who develop a more positive attitude to life do not fail to notice their own problems, Love emphasized, but instead focus on realistic assessments of what is causing those problems and on what's right in their lives, leading to “strength, meaning, growth and engagement.”
Why be happy? That would seem to be a no-brainer, but the brains who study this phenomenon, Love said, have found that “happy people ... are smarter, are more creative, are healthier, have stronger immune systems, live longer, have more stable marriages, are less likely to divorce, have more friends, are more generous, handle stress better, are more resilient, are less lonely.”
Happiness has benefits at work too, where happy people “are better at securing jobs, are better at keeping jobs … experience less turnover, experience less burnout, are evaluated with supervisors more positively, have superior performance and productivity, handle managerial positions better.”
Where does happiness come from? The science on this question, she said, shows that half of our capacity to be happy is genetics, while just 10 percent depends on our circumstances, and a full 40 percent is dependent upon aspects we can control.
“If you want to be happy today, it is totally possible,” she said. “If we really want to live longer, we really need to make our own happiness a priority.”
So why is it so hard to be happy? she asked.
That’s due to our brains’ negativity bias: “The way our brains are wired, they are like Velcro for the bad stuff … and they are like Teflon for the good stuff.”
However, she said, “here's the path to happiness,” setting out four main factors: “Gratitude for the past: express gratefulness for the past events in your day, month and year. Flow in the present: lose yourself in the moment and perform at your peak. Optimism about the future: use optimistic thinking and remain hopeful about the future. Friends along the way: nurture your relationships ...
“Happy individuals are grateful,” Love continued. “They possess the powerful quality of being thankful, which can change the life for the better. It can help to shape your worldview.
“Research shows gratitude,” she said, “boosts feelings of optimism, joy, pleasure, enthusiasm and other positive emotions, fosters healthier coping, helps you recover from traumatic events faster, reduces anxiety and depression, improves your relationships with others, increases the satisfaction with your present life, strengthens the immune system, lowers blood pressure, reduces symptoms of illness and fatigue, improves sleep.”
Expressing gratitude is probably the easiest of the four happiness keys, first by keeping a gratitude journal: “Choose a time of day, reflect on the three to five things for which you are currently grateful. Write them down.” Such journals have been shown via studies to boost happiness by 25 percent.
Second, try writing a gratitude letter and reading it to the person for whom you are gratiful. Love again pointed to a study that said people who undertake such practices are “much happier and much less depressed” a month later: “Think of someone influential in your life; write a letter to that person. Tell them what they did, how the act affected your life.”
To “flow in the present” may be a bit harder, but some people achieve this state naturally. It is “the feeling that when you’re just so immersed in something you lose the sense of time” — when your skill level meets the challenge you are undertaking. This can happen at work, of course, too. It leads to less self-consciousness and a state of “present mindfulness.”
Love’s main message: Everyone has bad moments, but it is how you react that matters. “Optimism is a way of seeing or thinking about the world. It's not a character trait that people have” innately and thus cannot acquire. “We can change our thinking by changing our brain” — by changing our explanatory style:
“When good things happen, optimistic people say that this success is due to my hard work and effort. This success is something I can sustain or accomplish again. And this success will spill over and create good things in other areas of my life. When bad things happen, optimistic people think: this failure or setback is related to a lot of factors, not just my own internal faults. This failure or setback is just one moment, and it won't last forever. This failure or setback is an isolated event related to only this particular situation.
“Nurturing the relationships in our lives … is the strongest predictor for happiness,” Love concluded — and for a longer life. Even shorter but “high-quality connections in the workplace improve moods, decrease stress and anxiety, boost performance, increase employee retention, and increase workplace learning,” she said.
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
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