World Happiness Day 2020
The irony of this post is not beyond me, given the current global circumstances, and that most of us are probably feeling more anxious than ever before. However, I feel it’s important to still acknowledge the pre covid world, and that includes acknowledging World Happiness Day, despite the circumstances.
So what does it take to be happy? Not just the feeling that you get when you put your feet up and relax with a glass of wine. But that deep sense that life is going well and worth living despite some of the inevitable bumps and challenges. Do we look for it in the pursuit of virtue or the pursuit of pleasure? Of course this is not a new question, it’s been bandied around for thousands of years from Socrates to Adam Smith, to the modern-day field of positive psychology.
But it’s not just philosophers and psychologist that are interested in what happiness really means. Scientists can also offer insights into measuring and reporting on happiness, and for their view we can look at the annual World Happiness Report. This United Nations sponsored survey measures and reports on the state of global happiness by ranking the happiness levels of citizens in different countries. Since 2012 the results have been shared in the annual World Happiness Report that ranks 153 countries by their happiness levels.
So how do you measure citizen’s happiness?
It turns out they the best way to do this is simply to ask 1,000 people from every participating country a series of questions, where your best possible life is a 10, and your worst possible life is a zero, and then rate your current life. This is known as the Cantril Ladder Survey. In 2020 the findings showed that Finland has the happiest citizens for the third year in a row, followed by Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway in the top five. New Zealand ranked eighth, Australia Twelfth, the United Kingdom thirteenth and the United States Eighteenth.
The old adage of “what gets measured gets done” is no less relevant for concepts such as happiness, and this report is really helpful in quantifying both life satisfaction and happiness. So whilst it’s the strangest World Happiness Day in a while (it will be interesting to see what happens to the data in the report next year!), I encourage you to take some time away from the escalating Covid 19 situation and think about Happiness instead.
Scientists are able to then further crunch the numbers around the data and build a picture of the things that make you happy or not happy. Their research has found that there a number of factors influencing happiness of citizens, with the big three indicators being relationships, wealth and health.
Another question the World Happiness Report researchers ask is "If you were in trouble, do you have relatives or friend you can count on to help you whether you need them or not.” And they’ve found that relationships are the most important single predictor of your happiness and health. This complements a study from Harvard University that’s been going for the last eighty years. Through their interviews with a group of undergraduate males across a range of occupations - bankers, lawyers, dentists, and even President JF Kennedy – and another group of males from a low socio-economic neighbourhood close by to the university they also found that the quality of your relationships matters most for your happiness and health.
How do you enrich your relationships?
Once again science can shed some light on this. Studies by Gottman and Levenson through observing thousands of couples over four decades enable them to predict with over 90% accuracy which relationships end in divorce and which are likely to flourish. The good news is that they also found a number of factors for making a relationship work. These include:
· Mutual fondness and admiration - celebrating each other's lives by reveling in the other person's successes and the things that they do.
· Turning towards each other – by making genuine responses to others interactions instead of being distracted or turning away.
· Building love maps –by simply understanding what’s going on in the life of the other person. It might be remembering birthdays, special events or the names of their special friends.
· Be kind to each other – this can include being a willing and cheerful helper when asked to give a hand.
Despite rhetoric that money can’t buy you happiness it seems it can play a big part in your happiness level, backed up by research from the Australian Research Council and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in the U.K. So just how much money do you need to be happy? As you would expect this can vary depending on where you live, but for a single person in a developed country the minimum amount you need to live a reasonable life is about $30,000 dollars a year. But this doesn’t necessary mean that the more money you have the happier you’ll be. There’s a satiation point of about $90 0000, and more than this either doesn’t make a difference or in some cases can even make you less happy.
Not surprisingly a healthy life expectancy is also important for your happiness. Believe it or not one of the simplest and best predictors of your life expectancy is how long you can stand on one leg with your eyes closed. So what can you do to improve your health and happiness at the same time?
While exercise is important for your physical health it doesn’t always make you happy. It only makes you happy if you want to do it! So forget the gym membership if you turn up and leave miserable each visit. Michael suggests that instead you might need green spaces.
“The real secret of happiness linked with exercise is go outdoors. It seems to be something about the outdoors, particularly the early morning light, which resets your clock,” explained Michael.
But it’s not enough to just amble, you also need to run or walk briskly enough to get your heart rate up for some of the time. Even just three or four minutes of this high intensity training at least three times a week can improve your fitness. And exercises to build up your strength and balance, and regular mindfulness practice are also very important particularly as you get older.
Unfortunately, sometimes a disease or illness can come out of left field that can shake your confidence about your health. This happened to Michael Mosely when he was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes at age 55. Rather than just resign himself to the negative prognosis he used he explored the research and data about living healthy lives. This led to the discovery of the benefits of fasting and the reversal of his diabetes as shown in his documentary Eat, Fast and Live Longer.
It seems back in the 1930s scientific research with mice found that restricting your calories by about two-thirds can prolong life. Coincidentally this research was happening during the great depression in the U.S.A. when the life expectancy of Americans jumped by ten years. So many people were eating less and at the same time living longer.
Does this mean you need to starve yourself?
The good new is no you don’t, you can get similar benefits by intermittent fasting by cutting down your calories to about a third just a couple of days a week. Research by Mark Matttson has that are intermittent fasting in not only good for your body it’s also good for your brain. It seems intermittent fasting can increase the levels of the neurochemical BDNF that enhances cell growth, mental clarity and decision making.
Intermittent fasting can also help you maintain a healthy weight range, and given that science is finding more and more evidence of a strong link between obesity and depression it makes sense to take care of what you eat to take care of your mood. Emerging studies are also indicating that the microbes that live in your gut can impact your body and your mood, and that when you eat lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and healthy fats as per the Mediterranean diet you can increase the good bugs your gut needs.
What can you take from the science to create more happiness habits into your week?
Prioritise your relationships – when you’re interacting with others make a point of putting aside what you are doing and putting away your phone, and instead turn towards them with a genuine curiosity and interest in what they have to say and what matters to them.
Make exercise enjoyable – find a form of exercise that you enjoy and increases your fitness, and if possible make it an outdoor activity. For example, if you can take a brisk walk in the early morning walk with your dog and/or friends.
Consider what you eat – can your eating habits be improved by regular fasting and a healthier range of foods? Choose two days a week where you an reduce your calorie intake by at least a third and see what difference this makes.
Originally posted in LinkedIn March 2020