The Mathematics of Happiness:
Happiness has three main pillars. According to Sonja Lyubomirsky, psychologist author of The Science of Happiness, from the 100% of our happiness a:
- 50% is Biological: one is happy to a certain degree depending on the genetic inheritance, the biochemistry, the personality
- 10% is External: there are external factors that make us more or less happy: to have someone who loves us, not to have a misfortune … but these circumstances of life only contribute 10% to our happiness, and they are not very controllable by us
- 40% is Interior: the remaining 40% of your happiness depends on our daily activities, so it is worthwhile to be aware of what makes us happy and of our expectations of happiness
Although we could modify our biochemistry through drugs, and in fact we do it when someone feels pathologically unhappy, when they are depressed, this does not seem entirely healthy. Yes, it is to increase the levels of endorphins through, for example, exercise, there we can improve our biochemistry and feel better with this daily activity. Or, if we synchronize our biological clock very well with the daily light of the sun, we will be able to obtain an optimal hormonal circadian rhythm that will contribute to good body homeostasis and greater physical and mental well-being. Or more easily, when we eat sweets and raise our glucose we experience a sense of well-being that makes us addictive to sugar.
About external factors we have little influence.
Thus, the fundamental thing is to act on the interior pillar of our happiness. Richard Davidson, psychologist researcher of the neuronal bases of emotion, postulates that happiness can be trained because the neuronal structure can be modified due to brain neuroplasticity and we can expressively perform repetitive behaviors to create a habit that contributes to the improvement of our personal well-being, such as the basic ones: sleeping, eating, exercising; or other more transcendental such as: reading, listening to music, leisure activities… what are called the Therapeutic Lifestyle Choices (TLCs). The healthy lifestyles are based on this «body-mind» connection that feeds back itself.
The circle of Happiness and Health: happy people are healthier and healthier people are happier.
I’ll tell you 4 more things about Happiness:
- Nobel psychologist Daniel Kahneman, has proven that we have a baseline level of happiness and that we are not even aware of what makes us happy. After a positive event something increases our happiness to get used to and return to the initial level, and after a misfortune, decreases our level of happiness for a while until it returns to its baseline and we return to be as happy as initially if the situation does not progressively worse. In this sense happiness would be like a «spring».
- Happiness drags also has a philosophical component: while Epicurus postulated that one has to look for pleasurable sensations, Buddha said that what one has to try is not to be affected by external things, neither good nor bad, nor by the internal things that we feel or think in order to avoid suffering.
- It is very important to realize that the happiness we experience depends also on the correlation of forces between the objective conditions that happen and the subjective expectations that we had.
- The university professor Alfonso López Quintás, exposes in a revolutionary way that if we install creativity in our daily life, it will be revalued it exponentially. It is about interacting with the environment and seeing its possibilities to turn it into a reality with extraordinary richness, that is a creativity to which we are all called. It is about having the ability to create, from a daily situation, a unique experience, full of meaning. To realize and expressly «raise» the daily routine to a higher level, to which we are all called to ascend, to make the day to day an unforgettable date. If we succeed, we would be in perpetual vacations 365 days a year without the need to travel. Two examples: your house = your home, hold someone up = have patience with someone.
In a practical way, if you want to be happier this summer:
- Try to get to know yourself a bit better by accepting the personal ease or difficulty you have to feel happy
- Do not fight against adverse external conditions that happen and you can not modify (put type «fish in the fish tank» or «cow looking train» depending on whether you are sea or mountain)
- Identify the unpleasant internal emotions, feelings and thoughts that you experience, not trying to control them, but with the purpose of accepting them in order to let them pass
- Invest in your personal well-being by repeating behaviors until you create a healthy habit
- Make sure your expectations are not too high for your chances and do not disappoint, do not compare your vacation with anyone else’s, so the best recommendation I can give you is: if you want to be happier this holiday disconnect from social networks, mainly Instagram and WhatsApp, substitute them for a good book and enjoy the best vacation you can have, yours!
- Do not try to do everything that you have proposed, it could generate «leisure stress«, relax a little bit
- Remember, most importantly, do not forget to be creative and elevate your daily routine to a higher level, give each day the opportunity to become the most beautiful day of your life
- And finally, if you ruminate… let it pass looking at the train!
If you do not want your happiness goes on vacation without you, you better go on vacation with it.
Happy summer!
#holidays
#Happiness
#TipOfTheWeek
