31 Mar Happiness is there…you just need to look in the right places
Where are you looking for happiness? It might not be where you think it is!
In a recent NY Times opinion piece David Brooks referred to what he called “The Sandra Bullock Trade”. The “trade” he was referring to was the situation this particular actor found herself in recently in which she won the ultimate award (an Oscar) but also suffered a significant loss (finding out her partner had cheated on her!).
The question he raised was…what would you take?
He goes on to link this conundrum to happiness and writes…
This is the age of research, so there_ã_s data to back this up. Over the past few decades, teams of researchers have been studying happiness. Their work, which seemed flimsy at first, has developed an impressive rigor, and one of the key findings is that, just as the old sages predicted, worldly success has shallow roots while interpersonal bonds permeate through and through.
For example, the relationship between happiness and income is complicated, and after a point, tenuous. It is true that poor nations become happier as they become middle-class nations. But once the basic necessities have been achieved, future income is lightly connected to well-being. Growing countries are slightly less happy than countries with slower growth rates, according to Carol Graham of the Brookings Institution and Eduardo Lora. The United States is much richer than it was 50 years ago, but this has produced no measurable increase in overall happiness. On the other hand, it has become a much more unequal country, but this inequality doesn_ã_t seem to have reduced national happiness.
Anyway, you can read the full article HERE but the point is, happiness may not always be where we think it is; it’s always there, we just need to look in the right places!
Where are you looking for happiness?