10 Mar Happiness is a serious health issue
Happiness researchers have been able to identify evidence suggesting that happy people live longer than their unhappy counterparts. Psychologist/ researcher on subjective well-being, Dr. Ed Diener of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, points to one study:
“The difference was 10.7 years [average lifespan] between the happiest group and the unhappiest group, so that’s a huge effect. Cigarette smoking can knock a few years off your life, three years, if you really smoke a lot, six years. So ten years for happiness is a huge effect.”
“As a health concern, your happiness appears to be more important than whether or not you smoke,” say Dr. Julie Kaufman, veterinary clinic owner, and psychotherapist, Karen Mahan, both Equine Assisted Growth and Learning EAGALA certified. Kaufman and Mahan are taking women’s happiness seriously. They”ve developed an experiential learning horse-assisted Women’s Symposium on Happiness and Success to help women learn to define personal happiness and experience how happiness and success “feel” through a series of horse-assisted exercises and group activities.