31 May 7 Happiness Secrets From Around the World
Different cultures think about happiness in different ways.
Different countries live happiness in different ways.
But no matter where you live or where you’re from you can learn from these different parts of the world and enjoy more happiness …
via Mens Health by Laura Williams
After I lost my otherwise healthy husband two months after his diagnosis of stage 4 kidney cancer, I needed pura vida—the idea that you should embrace, live, and enjoy each day, just as you are. In Costa Rica, in my grief, I felt a realness, a solidity, an understanding—maybe an acceptance—of the good and bad parts of life that I didn’t feel when I was in the States. Something in me started to shift.
I began looking at what other countries knew about happiness. Those global happiness indexes only got me so far: Cultural definitions of “happiness” aren’t necessarily the same in Finland as they are in Bhutan. So I went deeper and talked to sociologists and psychologists about what it is that creates happiness in different countries and how to bring what they know into your own life—wherever you live.
Finland: Aim for “just the right amount”
Finnish people tend to subscribe to the Nordic philosophy of lagom, or “just the right amount,” says Jukka K. Savolainen, Ph.D., a professor of sociology at Wayne State University. How that’s related to happiness makes sense: If your basic needs are met, there’s no great drive to strive for more, which makes contentment and happiness more attainable. That may be a reason this country topped the U.N.’s 2021 World Happiness Report. “It’s ‘unseemly’ to want more than what’s ‘just right,’ ” Savolainen says of the Finnish mindset. “It’s the opposite of being flashy. Less is more.”
If “keeping up with the Joneses” is embedded in your thinking, try tapping into gratitude. There’s a long history of research on the link between gratitude and feelings of well-being. When you appreciate what you have, you won’t be so inclined to feel the pressure to achieve more—or the disappointment when you fall short…
… keep reading the full & original article HERE