Custom Search
|
|
The Secret To Happiness
—Aristotle Wow! The meaning and the purpose of life? Was Aristotle exaggerating the importance of happiness? Maybe. But there’s no denying happiness is very, very important. After all, the framers of the Declaration of Independence only listed three unalienable rights: life, liberty, and well . . . the pursuit of happiness. Everyone wants to be happy. But what exactly is happiness? And where do we find it? Over the past several decades researchers have studied thousands and thousands of subjects from around the world, and have begun to find some answers to these questions. Basically, what these researchers have found is that we’re the happiest—not when we’re sitting mindlessly in front of the television for hours on end (even when it’s an awesome 60-inch plasma)—but when we’re making mental or physical efforts. Efforts that engage us in challenging activities that require skill. Activities that aren’t too easy, which would get boring, or too hard, which would make us frustrated and cranky. Activities for which we have clear goals and receive clear feedback, so we know how well we’re doing, and those that allow our skills to continue to improve, enabling us to grow as human beings. So how do we know when we’ve found our passion? Found activities that can promote our happiness? Activities that allow us to stretch ourselves to our limits: to learn, grow, overcome challenges, achieve, and build our self-esteem? For one, while we’re engaged in such activities, we become totally absorbed and totally unselfconscious. For once we don’t care about such trifles as how we look or what others think of us. Another hallmark is that we become so focused on what we’re doing we lose our sense of time. For example, when I’m writing, which I love to do, five hours seems to fly by like five minutes. But when I’m at the dentist and he’s drilling on my teeth, five minutes seems like an eternity. The list of activities that can invoke such a state differs for every one of us and includes writing, creating art, performing surgery, playing sports, engaging in stimulating conversation, playing chess, dancing, and so on. This state is the opposite of boredom, and orders our minds so we have no room for the constant worries that beset all humans if they aren’t fully engaged—with the added bonus of enriching us as human beings. There’s nothing wrong with leisure or pleasure—these are important also—but in study after study, when people think about what really makes their lives rewarding, they report it’s all about facing challenges, overcoming them, and growing as a person. Take television again. It can, indeed, be a pleasurable part of our lives, but it’s passive—it doesn’t require us to do anything. Its main benefit is that it captures our attention enough that we don’t dwell on our worries and we aren’t entirely bored. But think about it—don’t activities that require effort end up making you happier than couch potato activities? I’ve played tennis all my life, and there are nights I feel sure I can’t possibly pry my carcass from the couch to play a scheduled match, but there has never been a time I wasn’t glad I did. I come back feeling energized and satisfied, far beyond what the couch and television could have offered. I introduce kids to these ideas when I speak at schools. I explain that happiness requires effort—but it is well worth it in the end. And the kids get it. They can all remember when they were fully engaged and time seemed to fly, or when they turned off the television to do something active and were glad they did. If all of us could be schooled in these findings, made to understand that effort, rather than passivity, is the true secret to happiness, perhaps there would be fewer people in pursuit of happiness—and more people who actually catch it. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Douglas E. Richards is the author the The Prometheus Project series: fast-paced science fiction thrillers that have been showered with praise by kids, adults, and educators alike—and which have also been hailed as books that have great appeal to boys and reluctant readers, the most difficult demographic to reach. Douglas has also written for National Geographic KIDS and American Fencing magazines, EarthSky, The Naked Scientists (a BBC radio program), and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, among many others. |
|