"What Makes Us Happy?"

One of the great benefits of this new phase of my life is that I have more time to read. It still is not as much time as I would like, as I have a stack of books ten feet high that I want to get to but can't seem to make much of a dent. One reason for that is that I am spending more time reading newspapers and periodicals. With some regularity I read things that make me step back and think or that profoundly resonate with me.



This afternoon I read such an article in the current issue of Atlantic magazine and wanted to share a few interesting and thought provoking ideas. It is titled, "What Makes Us Happy?" (If you are interested in reading the whole article here is the link http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness) The article discusses the most comprehensive longitudinal research study ever done and the man, George Vaillant, who has dedicated his life to understanding the meaning of this research. It is called the Grant study, and Harvard researchers have followed 268 men’s' lives who entered Harvard in the late thirties. Seventy-two years of research on just about every aspect of their physical and psychological conditions over that period.



Vaillant has spent decades analyzing these men, their lives and trying to come to conclusions on what makes people happy. At one point in the article it states:



"Vaillant, who had then been following them for a quarter century, had identified seven major factors that predict healthy aging, both physically and psychologically. Employing mature adaptations was one. The others were education, stable marriage, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise, and healthy weight.

"Of the 106 Harvard men who had five or six of these factors in their favor at age 50, half ended up at 80 as what Vaillant called “happy-well” and only 7.5 percent as “sad-sick.” Meanwhile, of the men who had three or fewer of the health factors at age 50, none ended up “happy-well” at 80. Even if they had been in adequate physical shape at 50, the men who had three or fewer protective factors were three times as likely to be dead at 80 as those with four or more factors."

I found his conclusions very consistent with what I have seen in my 52 years. Education, stable marriage, refraining from smoking and alcohol, exercising and maintaining a healthy weight are very important keys in finding happiness in this life.

The article also refers to another longitudinal study done at about the same time on a blue collar group -- the Harvard (Grant) group mostly came from privileged circumstances -- and how the conclusions of the Grant study compare to this different group. It says:

"But Vaillant has largely played down the distinctions among the samples. For example, while he allows that, in mortality rates, the inner-city men at age 68 to 70 resembled the Terman and Harvard cohorts at 78 to 80, he says that most of the difference can be explained by less education, more obesity, and greater abuse of alcohol and cigarettes. “When these four variables were controlled,” he writes, “their much lower parental social class, IQ, and current income were not important.”

So the things that we sometimes think are such great predictors of happiness and success -- social class, IQ and income -- are "not important" compared to lack of education, obesity, abuse of cigarettes and alcohol when predicting happiness.

Here is one more that I found very interesting and speaks to the total benefits of exercise:

"Regular exercise in college predicted late-life mental health better than it did physical health."

Finally, there is great wisdom in this quote:

"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 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.”

I am deeply grateful for wonderful relationships with my seven siblings and that our eight children seem to have strong relationships as well. The above quote reminds of me that my Dad had it right when he said over and over again, "Family is everything."