Health happiness

I’m sure you think you know what will make you happy. But researchers in the new science of happiness think that what they have learned may surprise you. For example, they have evidence that winning the lottery will probably reduce your pleasure in ordinary events that used to make you happy. And being in good health isn’t as much of a factor as the right genes when it comes to satisfaction.

Depressing isn’t it? Well, there is one bit of good news: Research from around the world suggests that most people are happy, not unhappy. "It’s one of the things we’re absolutely sure about," says Michigan psychologist Richard Lucas.

Maybe it’s the uncertain economic climate, or maybe it’s the unstable political situation around the world. But joy seems to be a hot topic right now. For instance, in March 2004, both Self and Oprah Winfrey’s O, have articles on how to be happier. Self-help books on the subject are multiplying out of control. And scientific journals nowadays are loaded with studies on happiness.

"It’s amazing how long happiness has been a problem but how only recently science has turned its attention to it," says Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard professor of psychology. "It’s only been in the last 10 years that what was a hobby of a few has become a central focus in psychology." And new studies on happiness are yielding surprising conclusions on what and what doesn’t lift one’s mood – and what effects happiness has on your health.

Researchers are increasingly learning that the way we view our lives, including our medical conditions, absolutely affects how well we manage them and how we feel. More than ever, the science of happiness is revealing the influence of mind over body. Of course, that doesn’t mean if you’re a born pessimist that you should turn this page. Scientists are discovering everyone – even the naturally glum – can boost their happiness. So, read on.

True Happiness

True happiness has little to do with momentary pleasures like eating ice cream or reading a good book. Nor is it clinched by winning the lottery, endless partying, or the absence of catastrophe. Happiness is, by most accounts, something larger. Martin E. P. Seligman, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of Authentic Happiness (Simon and Schuster, 2002), defines true happiness as the feeling that comes from deeper sources: from acting out our virtues and strengths in the way we love others, in the kindnesses we show to both strangers and neighbors, and in the courage we draw on to stand up for what we believe or even to face a loss.

Dan Baker, Ph.D., director of the Life Enhancement Program in Tucson, Arizona, calls happiness "a way of life; an overriding outlook composed of qualities such as optimism, courage, love and fulfillment. It’s not just tiptoeing through the tulips of la-la land, and it’s not something that changes every time your situation changes. It is nothing less than cherishing every day."

Researchers have shaped this definition not only by canvassing what seems to comprise happiness across time and cultures but also from the surprising results of studies that undermine clichés about happiness. When one now-famous 1978 University of Massachusetts study compared the happiness levels of lottery winners and accident victims, researchers found that after a year the paralyzed subjects were happier and more optimistic than the lottery winners, in part because they were better able to appreciate small pleasures and victories. And a University of Georgia Centenarian Study published in 1992 found that its 100-year-old-plus subjects had several traits in common, including a feisty can-do attitude and contentment with their lives. Says Baker, "They saw life as a series of events, and each event contained a possible lesson. They understood that the more painful events contained the more profound lessons."

Boon To Health

What the Centenarian Study suggests – that happy people lead longer, healthier lives – other studies are bearing out. Many, for example, have indicated the harm negative emotions do to our bodies. People who are chronically angry, for example, are more than twice likely to have a heart attack, according to a 2001 study by the Centers for Disease Control (COC) in Atlanta. And a University of Connecticut study found that people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who suffer from depression experience more pain than those who do not.

On the other hand, researchers at Stanford University found that positive emotions help create a balance between the sympathetic nervous system (which alerts the body in times of danger and stress, increasing adrenaline, raising heart rate and blood pressure and speeding breathing) and parasympathetic nervous system (which slows body functions down, say after a big meal or during sleep) – an important balance in controlling blood pressure and reducing the risk of heart disease. And for those with fibromyalgia, such stasis may be especially important: a study in Israel has suggested that their sympathetic nervous system tend to be in overdrive. In other words, people with fibromyalgia lack a healthy balance between these two systems.

The Big Picture

It is obvious that happiness affects our feelings, but it also appears to affect how we think. Barbara L. Frederickson, Ph.D., director of the Positive Emotions and Psycho-physiology Laboratory at the University of Michigan, believe that unlike negative emotions, which evolved to ensure our survival in threatening situations, positive ones help broaden our thinking, allowing us to be more creative, flexible and open. She tested her theory by measuring whether subjects saw "the big picture" or simply details when comparing three pictures. Those subjects who were most positive tended to choose the big picture, suggesting a broader way of thinking.

For instance, for people with arthritis, the ability to see the big picture could be the difference between a day focused on pain limitations and a day understanding that next week will be better. That small difference in outlook may be the boost someone needs to get out of the house, head to the gym, volunteer at a charitable organization, or resume work – just the things that can divert attention away from pain and depression. In short, broader thinking ultimately changes behavior. Christopher Peterson, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, believes that the way in which happiness changes behavior affects our health even more than the biological changes positive emotions evoke. "Optimistic people do such things – as exercise and eating sensibly – that promote health because they believe they can do something about their well-being," he says.

One of Peterson’s studies spanning 35 years suggests as much. In it, men who explain bad events in their life pessimistically - that is, "this is never going to change"; "this has ruined my life"; "it’s my fault," – had poorer health in mid-life than those who saw their life stories more optimistically. One explanation of the difference, says Peterson, is that the pessimistic simply became more passive about their health care. They had trouble believing that what they did mattered.

So, where can you pick up some of this health-inducing happiness? Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as wearing a smiley face, says Peterson. For one thing, researchers have repeatedly observed that most of us have what is called "a happiness set-point," a natural contentment level to which we return despite occasional bouts of misery or ecstacy. For the naturally happy, this is great news. But for those who tend toward gloom, it seems, well, a pessimistic reading. And according to happiness expert, like Seligman, we possess all the potential to reach the upper limits of what we are naturally given. Here’s how:

• Get active. If you stay in the house and focus on your pain, you wouldn’t be able to do anything. Sometimes you just have to get out of your comfort zone.

• Act happy, suggests David G. Myers, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Hope College in Michigan. Says Myers, "Going through the motions can trigger the emotions."

"It’s mind over matter," he adds.

• Practice appreciation. Says Baker, "Three times a day, focus on what you have and what is good about your life. Doing so will make it easier for you to shape a different perspective on your life."

• Banish blame. "As long as you blame yourself or others, as long as you see yourself as a victim, you give up all power to fix a problem and make yourself happy," says Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., Director of the Annapolis Research Center for Effective Fibromyalgia Therapy, in Maryland. "Whenever you catch yourself blaming, drop the thought and think another. It’s a matter of changing habits."

• Hang out with happy people, suggests Peterson. "Pessimism is contagious – and so is optimism."

The message is clear: Don’t worry. Be happy!