Science has been infringing more and more into the realm of human consciousness, in an attempt to explain why humans think, feel, and act a certain way. Some brilliant new research has been probing into the psychology of happiness, and is showing that we often do not know as much as we thought we did about our own happiness.
Flow
One of the most convincing studies on happiness has been done by the Czech psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Dr. Csikszentmihalyi interviewed hundreds of successful people ranging from athletes, painters, writers, business people, scientists and religious leaders, and found that they all shared a similar experience when describing the time they were most happy and productive. He calls that experience ‘Flow’; most athletes would call it ‘being in the zone’. It is the period when time seems to disappear and your actions just flow with little or no effort. With it comes the feeling of being at one with your surroundings, almost a state of bliss.
How does one achieve Flow? Professor Csikszentmihalyi says that people tend to fluctuate throughout the average day between eight different states: apathy, boredom, worry, relaxation, anxiety, control, arousal, and flow. Which state you are in depends on the challenges you are facing currently and the skills you possess to deal with those challenges. Depressingly most people’s daily experience is in apathy (the highest contributor being watching television). The state of Flow is characterized by a balance between facing challenges which are higher than average, and also using or developing skills which are higher than average (in other words, challenging yourself!) Of course, too much challenge brings about anxiety, and too little will lead to boredom.
Synthesizing Happiness
If you need any more convincing that always getting what you want is not the way to find happiness you can look at the research done by Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert. He says that there are two types of happiness, the kind we have when we get what we want, and the kind when we don’t get what we want. The first kind is fairly obvious, but it is surprising that people could be happy about failure. Dr. Gilbert’s findings are that people are often very wrong when predicting what will bring them happiness in the future, and that people have a powerful "emotional immune-system" for creating their own happiness when they don’t get what they want. His findings also indicate that this kind of synthesized happiness is just as real as the normal kind.
To find out more on Dr. Gilbert’s research you can read his award winning book: “Stumbling on Happiness”.
The Happy Life
How can a person increase happiness in their life? Psychologist Martin Seligman divides the happy life into three different types: The Pleasant life, the Good life, and the Meaningful life. The Pleasant life is characterized by seeking pleasurable experiences, finding pleasure in all things and having a large network of relationships. The Good life is one in which a person has isolated their interests and strengths, and has adapted their life to optimize these activities. People who live this way may be extremely introverted and withdrawn, but still remain very happy. The Meaningful life is a life spent looking after others, helping those less fortunate. Dr. Seligman has found that it is often a combination of these three lifestyles that leads people to be most happy and secure in their lives.
To see more from Martin Seligman, and to take one of his happiness surveys, visit his website: Authentic Happiness.
 |
