4. Spend time with friends and family – don’t
regret it on your deathbed
Staying in touch with friends and family is
one of the top
five regrets of the dying. If you
want more evidence that it’s beneficial for you, I’ve found some research that
proves it can make you happier right now.
Social time is highly valuable when it
comes to improving our happiness, even for introverts. Several studies have
found that time spent with friends and family makes a big difference to how
happy we feel, generally.
We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and
almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of
getting more family and friends.
George Vaillant is the director of a
72-year study of the lives of 268 men.
In an interview in the March 2008
newsletter to the Grant Study subjects, Vaillant was asked, “What have you
learned from the Grant Study men?” Vaillant’s response: “That the only thing
that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”
He shared insights of the study with Joshua
Wolf Shenk at The
Atlantic on how the men’s social connections made a
difference to their overall happiness:
The men’s relationships at age 47, he
found, predicted late-life adjustment better than any other variable, except
defenses. Good sibling relationships seem especially powerful: 93 percent of
the men who were thriving at age 65 had been close to a brother or sister when
younger.
In fact, a study published in the Journal
of Socio-Economics states than your relationships
are worth more than $100,000:
Using the British Household Panel Survey, I find that an increase in the
level of social involvements is worth up to an extra £85,000 a year in terms of
life satisfaction. Actual changes in income, on the other hand, buy very little
happiness.
I think that last line is especially
fascinating: Actual changes in income, on the other hand, buy very little
happiness. So we could increase our annual income by hundreds of thousands
of dollars and still not be as happy as if we increased the strength of our
social relationships.
The Terman study, which is covered in The
Longevity Project, found that relationships and
how we help others were important factors in living long, happy lives:
We figured that if a Terman participant
sincerely felt that he or she had friends and relatives to count on when having
a hard time then that person would be healthier. Those who felt very loved and
cared for, we predicted, would live the longest.
Surprise: our prediction was wrong… Beyond social network size, the
clearest benefit of social relationships came from helping others. Those who
helped their friends and neighbors, advising and caring for others, tended to
live to old age.
5. Go outside – happiness is maximized at 13.9°C
In The
Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor recommends spending
time in the fresh air to improve your happiness:
Making time to go outside on a nice day
also delivers a huge advantage; one study found that spending 20 minutes
outside in good weather not only boosted positive mood, but broadened thinking
and improved working memory…
This is pretty good news for those of us
who are worried about fitting new habits into our already-busy schedules.
Twenty minutes is a short enough time to spend outside that you could fit it
into your commute or even your lunch break.
Being outdoors, near the sea, on a warm, sunny weekend afternoon is the
perfect spot for most. In fact, participants were found to be substantially
happier outdoors in all natural environments than they were in urban
environments.
The American
Meteorological Society published
research in 2011 that found current temperature has a bigger effect on our
happiness than variables like wind speed and humidity, or even the average
temperature over the course of a day. It also found that happiness is
maximized at 13.9°C, so keep an eye on the weather forecast before heading
outside for your 20 minutes of fresh air.
No comments:
Post a Comment