Time to get happy, and not just because it feels good. Happy People Make for Healthy People
a strong sense of well-being and happiness may help boost biological systems, ultimately helping to lower the risk for developing a range of illnesses down the road. And they emphasized that this happiness-healthiness pathway appears to be a direct mind-body link that is independent of lifestyle choices, such as exercise, smoking and drinking.
The person best known for studying happiness is Martin Seligman who, as the new President of the American Psychological Association in 1998, brought a new vision and a new goal - studying what makes people happier. Mental health is more than the absence of disease. "It should be something akin to a vibrant and muscular fitness of the human mind and spirit," as described in Time magazine's cover story on The New Science of Happiness (Jan 9, 2005).
Seligman has found three components of happiness.
1. pleasure- we all know about what feels good.
2. engagement. - the depth of involvement with one's family, work, romance and hobbies .
3. meaning - using personal strengths to serve some larger end.
Of those three roads to a happy, satisfied life, pleasure is the least consequential, he insists: "This is newsworthy because so many Americans build their lives around pursuing pleasure. It turns out that engagement and meaning are much more important."
It strikes me that most people don't even get to the meaning part until they are about in midlife. A child can feel pleasure, but not engagement or meaning. Engagement becomes possible in adulthood while maturity brings meaning. There is a continuing path of development through adulthood. In the second half of life, the search for meaning and purpose become our principal drivers.
Our birth right as Americans is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The science of happiness is global and part of the Business of Life.
Posted by Jill Fallon at April 29, 2005 3:44 AM | Permalink