3 Major Advantages Of Happiness
As we navigate our way through the most substantial crisis of our generation, it’s easy to forget to be happy, or what it even means to be happy. As spring teases us with blue skies, cool breezes, and blooming flowers, may of us continue to remain inside and away from other people. No one wants to spend the nice days cooped up inside waiting for better days, so it’s easy to slip into a melancholy state as we scroll through news headlines and Facebook arguments about wearing masks.
It’s time we recalibrate into something happier… like happiness.
What is happiness?
Happiness is subjective to the person experiencing it, and scientists have determined that happiness is “the experience of positive emotions.” They needed scientists to figure that out? Next thing you know, we’ll hear that COVID-19 is “a virus that makes you feel bad.” Aristotle, a philosopher from around 600 years before scientists were invented, described happiness as “the joy we feel striving after our potential,” which is a way more thorough definition!
But I must digress…
The scientific definition of happiness is pretty elementary, but it’s way better than what scientists used to think about it. Scientists hypothesized that happiness was mostly hereditary, which, since then, they’ve discovered that we actually have more control over our own emotional well-being than they originally thought. That’s great news for you. And what’s even better news is that being happy comes with some major advantages:
1. It can positively impact your pay
A study was done in 1994 that measured the initial level of positive emotions in 272 employees. Researchers then followed their job performance over the next 18 months. They. Followed. Them. Everywhere: around the office, to the break room, to the bathroom- wait, sorry. That’s an excerpt from a novel I’m working on about managers who use microscopic surveillance drones to monitor their employees. It’s called “Micromanagers.” Back to the study: the employees who were happier in the beginning ended up receiving better evaluations and higher pay by the time the study concluded.
In another study, how happy individuals were as college freshmen predicted how high their income would be 19 years later, regardless of what their initial level of wealth was. Hey college freshmen that are definitely reading this blog post: be happy and you’re going to be rich in 19 years. Consider me your graduation speaker. You’re welcome.
2. It can improve your health
In a study of 180 nuns born before 1917, the nuns all died (I mean it’s 2020, so I’m just playing the odds here). These nuns were asked to write their thoughts in autobiographical journal entries, and more than 50 years later, researchers coded the journal entries for positive emotional content and also dirty secrets. The nuns that had more overly joyful content lived nearly ten years longer than the negative nuns, so don’t be a negative nun! Even if you want to hit kids with rulers and stop the new nun from giving your church’s choir a more gospel vibe, it’s not worth dying ten years too young.
Basically, happiness improves our overall physical health. Unhappy employees take more sick days — 1.25 sick days more per month, and 15 extra per year — compared to people who are happier.
3. It helps expand perspective
According to the broaden-and-build theory, a theory championed by University of North Carolina psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, positive emotions actually broaden the amount of possibilities that we process in our brains. This expands our perspective, makes us more thoughtful, inspires our creativity, makes us a little more open minded, and is especially useful when we have to deal with difficult people or situations (like the one we’re facing now). In a study done by Fredrickson, when individuals are “primed” to feel amusement or contentment, they consider a larger and wider range of thoughts and ideas than individuals who are primed to feel either anxiety or anger. That means that if you think of positive life experiences, you watch comedy, or you’re put in a better mood before you do something, you’re going to be more relaxed and creative while doing it. In a University of Toronto study, this theory was proven again because subjects who were primed for positivity before looking at a series of pictures actually saw more in the pictures. Researchers did an eye scan on subjects while they looked at the pictures and found that positive emotions actually expand our peripheral line of vision. People who were in a negative mindset, I’m not sure how they got there — probably forced to watch a steady stream of COVID coverage — remained focused on a smaller portion of the screen than their positive counterparts.
What Can You Do To Be Happier?
Because scientists have learned that we have more control over our well-being, we have the ability to undo the negative impacts of stress by finding positive things in our days. Think of a good memory like the best day you had recently or the best thing that has happened to you in the last year, and really immerse yourself in that moment. Now, think of one thing you’re grateful for in that moment and move forward with your day. If you’re going to be focused on all the bad things happening right now, it’s going to set you up to have a worse day. So find a couple of things you’ve done; your successes, wins, or even the little things like talking to a friend you haven’t heard from in awhile.
It’s important to be able to see a bigger picture, especially in a time like today, and you can prime yourself to do so by finding a few positives in a world that seems immersed in the gray of winter.
