Happiness

 Ronni Bennett who writes the wonderful blog  Time Goes By (click on link) posted her second publication on the subject of happiness.  I urge you to read it [after you have read mine, of course.  ;-) ].  Ronni included a video of a lecture on the subject by Psychologist Daniel Kahneman.

I recently flew on Southwest Air and their entire on-board magazine Spirit was on the subject of happiness.  Because of Ronni's  previous post on the subject I brought the magazine home.

I just re-read the article and Psychologist Kahneman was quoted in the article.  His statements included the illustration of the man who listened to a symphony and had it ruined by a screeching sound at the end.  The man said his entire experience of listening to this beautiful music was ruined by the ending.  Dr. Kahneman pointed out that he had enjoyed 25 minutes of listening to rhapsodic music before the end.  The question was, how much of our happiness is locked up in perception?  (To get the entire story go to the video on Ronni's post).

Sentences on happiness from the article jumped out at me. 

Happiness is sometimes called well being, life satisfaction, or (by those who study the subject) Positive Psychology.  We give it the nickname Happiness.

What it isn't is money.  A study found that people living below the poverty line rated their life satisfaction on a par with those above it.

(This seems contradictory to what Daniel Kahneman was saying.)

It isn't youth.  As we get older we tend to accentuate positive memories leading to higher overall contentment.

It isn't the opposite of sadness.  Dr. Sonja Lyubomirski, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside states she would use two different measures, one for happiness and one for depression.

Happiness isn't an emotion at all says Dr. Sonja - it's more an overall  characteristic or disposition.

Psychologist Tal Ben-Shahar says that it's a combination of meaning and pleasure .  We need what we're experiencing to be meaningful.

Dr. Sonja and her peers claim that we can change our levels of happiness. Much of our happiness lies in our perception.

She claims that happiness is a combination of meaning and pleasure. She states the we need what we're experiencing to be meaningful.

She, and many of her peers claim that we can change our levels of happiness.  She is convinced that we can become happier, but you have to work at it every day of your life.

Try to be grateful, try to be optimistic, to invest in relationships, or do whatever it takes to make you happy.   What all of us can do to perpetuate our happiness is to spread it to others through acts of joy and kindness.  It is contagious if we choose it to be.

There is an on-line test written by Dr. Martin Seligman can take to find out your happiness level is.   Register for Seligman test (click on link)

 My personal feeling is that there are levels of happiness.  If I get up after a good night's sleep with nothing hurting I have the contented feeling of all's right with my world.  If I am anticipating seeing a  member of my family or going to a pleasurable event my feeling of happiness rises.  When I see my daughter's smiling face as I enter the airport gate my happiness knows no bounds.  Psychologists claim it is not an emotion, but I am not so sure.  It feels like an emotion to me.

If you have been around a toddler recently you probably know the song "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands."  And I am sure you joined in singing it.  Didn't you immediately feel happier?  I think Dr. Sonja is on to something.

Okay - a one an'a two.  Lets all sing If you're happy and you know it clap your hands.