The Science of Happiness

[Guybrush]

Hey Guest!

Yesteryear, I started exercising regularly around this time which has been great for me, but didn't quite prevent me from getting a seasonal depression that was worse than usual. As summer is fading and we're facing darker times, I thought I'd muster up the same discipline I found last year for a different project; training my happiness.

What I mean is that there's a growing body of research on happiness and so empirically, there is knowledge available about things we can do that is likely to increase your happiness. I want to do some of these things and maybe I can inspire some of you to do the same 🙂

I am no expert so will be learning, but some of my approach will be according to these considerations:

• There are wants and there are needs. A want may be to relax and watch Netflix while a need might be to have a tidier house. My brain is stupidly more interested in pursuing wants than needs, even though needs are probably where I need to put the work in to increase my happiness.
  

• I can be happy with my life or within my life. There can be distance between the two. Let's say I am in the midst of an awful workout, I might not feel happy within my life at that moment, but I will feel happy with my life (and better fitness) afterwards.

I'm not sure what the relationship between with/within happiness is, but I do feel like knowing you're someone who is healthy, who is kind, who is loved sustains your happiness in general, even though you're not actively thinking of them. I also think the path to feelings of a more meaningful existence might be down this path.

My current approach is this:

In order to become happier, I will use discipline to pursue my needs if needed. In the balance of happiness with vs. within my life, I want to achieve both, but will focus on with.

What are the things I will try to become a happier person? These are things I believe are empirically proven sources of happiness for most people:

Gratitude - there are different ways to approach this. A simple one I thought I'd try is reflect on 3 things every day that makes you happy. You can write them down. I might start a gratitude journal on this forum for this purpose.

Kindness - acts of selflessness make us happier. You can increase your happiness by making others happy. I will look for those opportunities to be helpful or to make others around me happier.

Being social - I consider myself an introvert, but a social life is a need for all of us. I'll try to connect more with friends.

Being active - Exercising, moving, cold baths, doing stuff seems to make people happier.

Meditation - I was most sceptical of this, but it seems to be good for increasing happiness. I'll try 10 minutes a day.

Time affluence - having time to spare adds to our baseline happiness. This one is hard for me unless I'm in the middle of a vacation.

Having things to look forward to - planning vacations or events; something to look forward to.

Not comparing onerself to others - I think this would be stuff like feeling envy when you see the amazing pics from your friend's wedding on Facebook or following the luxury life of some millionaire on Snapchat. I already eliminated most of my socials and don't tend to compare, so got this one figured out already.

There's probably more to this list - maybe sex? But I'll try and stick to what seem to be scientifically established 🙂

What do you think? Is it a worthy pursuit? Do you have tips? How are you with your own happiness?

[Guybrush]

Also, I will take vitamin D from September to and through april to try and keep from getting vit D deficient.. in the hope that also affects mood.

Not sure if that's empirical, but my vitamin D efficiency was proven and so I could put it on osteoporosis prevention in any case 🙂

[Guybrush]

Before I dive into it, I am reflecting on my expectations and what is achievable.

There's something called hedonic adaptation which means we have a baseline happiness. When we experience something good or bad, we feel worse or happier for a while and then we adapt and restore the baseline.

The basic effect is that happiness from good things, like winning money, is fleeting, but so is the reduced happiness we experience from bad things.

It also means that happiness isn't something you can feel all the time. Rather, it's a state of feeling that we can visit. It is possible to train yourself to achieve happiness more often, but it's not realistic to think you can always be happy. Neither should you as allowing and acknowledging negative emotions is important.

My hope is to become a little happier on average. Of course it's not actually possible to properly quantize, but to illustrate - if I can up my happiness by 10%, that would be great.

[Guybrush]

Occasionally, I used to answer questions on Quora. My most popular answer is on human evolution, but I also answered a question on happiness vs. income some years ago. I'd read about a study that showed that Americans' happiness increased until they earned about 75k which was roughly when they had the means to cover all needs and also have a little extra for luxuries and vacations. After that, happiness gains from having more money tapers off or can even turn negative if the money would perhaps carry with it too much responsibility or alienate family and friends.

To me, as someone who thinks we should pursue happiness and quality of life, it is better to create a society where wealth is distributed so that more people reach this level of income and the happiness that comes with it and that money shouldn't needlessly accumulate and get locked away in places where it does little good.

As for our own wealth and belongings, I try to make it work for us and to not take on too much. It occasionally sounds nice owning a boat or a cabin, but I also know that the responsibility and the extra maintenance etc. would be a weight on my shoulders, so one way I try to stay a little happier is by not taking on too much extra work and responsibility. Less stuff can be good.

If I did buy a boat, it'd be a cheap old thing so that I wouldn't mind too much if got some extra bruises.