Tuesday, September 04, 2012
Happiness : Revised version
I consider this post to be a distilation of the Happiness theories over a period of one year.
The psychologist Jonathan Haidt wrote a very interesting book called "The Happiness Hypothesis" and there he presented this happiness equation :
H = S + C + V
Happiness = Biological Set-point + Conditions in your life + Voluntary activities
As of now, i am a proponet of this school.
1. Setpoint : i like this part as genetics play a signifiant role in our demeanour. That the formula does not ignore this set-point, it makes perfect sense. It calls the disposition to be happy through a 'cortical lottery". I like the way that the formula is realist enough to call out that some of us have a 'set range' in which we have a play. Of course, we can be more or less happy but ignoring genetics completely is scientifically immature.
2. Conditions in your life : This is where i think the formula is important as it points us out to the 'wisdom of the sages'. The ancient - stoicism and buddhism have some very useful formule to be happy and i would like to make a point from another book "Phislosopy for life" by Jules Evans :
He made three points which is a distillation of the wisdom of the ancients :
3. Voluntary activities : This again says that in addition to look for happiness within, one should look at Happiness WITHOUT. A set of voluntary activities and situations should be persued with rigour to look for happiness outside yourself.
Some of the things that one can do voluntarily are :
The psychologist Jonathan Haidt wrote a very interesting book called "The Happiness Hypothesis" and there he presented this happiness equation :
H = S + C + V
Happiness = Biological Set-point + Conditions in your life + Voluntary activities
As of now, i am a proponet of this school.
1. Setpoint : i like this part as genetics play a signifiant role in our demeanour. That the formula does not ignore this set-point, it makes perfect sense. It calls the disposition to be happy through a 'cortical lottery". I like the way that the formula is realist enough to call out that some of us have a 'set range' in which we have a play. Of course, we can be more or less happy but ignoring genetics completely is scientifically immature.
2. Conditions in your life : This is where i think the formula is important as it points us out to the 'wisdom of the sages'. The ancient - stoicism and buddhism have some very useful formule to be happy and i would like to make a point from another book "Phislosopy for life" by Jules Evans :
He made three points which is a distillation of the wisdom of the ancients :
- The Steven Covey idea of Circle of Influence and Circle of concern. There are things in life that you do not have any control on. What you can control is your reaction to it. Also, it centers around the core tenet of CBT which is you are only affected by what your opinion is about a specific situation.
- The active practice of cultivating self-control
- The art of managing expectations. Again CBT comes to the picture and through a process of socratic questioning answer the question 'Why did I believe otherwise ?". Again in a way again it is asking us to cultivate a modereate level of expectation (some would argue detatchment)
3. Voluntary activities : This again says that in addition to look for happiness within, one should look at Happiness WITHOUT. A set of voluntary activities and situations should be persued with rigour to look for happiness outside yourself.
Some of the things that one can do voluntarily are :
- Flow : Choose a hobby or activity which gives you a sense of "Flow". This is a moderately challenging task that we love doing and which also gives us a sense of accomplishment. Common examples can be hobbies like reading a book, doing Soduku, Knitting etc.
- Enjoy the moment : Another thing to do is to enjoy the moment. Living for the future always has a kind of a ripple effect of reducing happiness.
- Improve your physical conditions : There are some things that the human mind just does not get used to like noise, commuting,
- Increase relatedness : Some activities are best done as a part of a group. In order to be happy, persue something that is a group activity with a set of friends.
- Transcedence : Be a part of something which is bigger than youself. Join an organisation that has a nober purpose (here is where religion scores highly in relatedness - both socially and believing in something higher than youreself)
