don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years. ~ Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you'll never find it. ~ C. P. Snow (1905 - 1980)

Introduction
Think of a turning point in your life, a time when you chose one college, job or location over another. Or, a time when you chose one romantic candidate, not someone else (don't tell your mate about this). Or, pick any key choice or "turning point" made years ago. Now consider how much that choice has affected so much of what has happened since, particularly, how different (in unknowable ways) your life would be today had you made a different choice on any of these turning point choices.

A Little Mental Exercise
Pick any of these fateful decision points, then answer this simple question about happiness: Am I happier today than if I had made a different choice?

Of course, you can't ever know. But, you can guess. Happiness research experts claim that if you did guess about such a matter, you would probably feel pretty confident about your estimation. Most people would say "yes" or "no" to such a question. However, the opinion of the happiness experts might surprise you. According to the leaders of a new science of "hedonics" or happiness, the correct answer to such questions is probably, "Things would have turned out pretty much the same, happiness-wise, either way. According to Paul Krugman's recent New York Times story on the topic, nearly all the "happiness" experts believe that. (See, "The Joy of Delusion," a review of Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert, New York Times, May 7, 2006.)

Hedonics
Hedonics or "positive psychology" is all the rage these days. At Harvard, where Gilbert teaches, a course on positive psychology is more popular than any other.

Gilbert's research has convinced him that we are not good at predicting what will make us happy. This is due to the fact that our brains make errors processing information logically. One result is we often don't want the things that would make us happy. What a fix we're in. For example, most believe more money will do the trick, but Gilbert says no. Ditto one material attraction or another, such as thinking that happiness would come from having a bigger home, a faster horse, a younger lover and so on. All such things bring short-lived happiness, at best.

The Nature of Happiness
Happiness is complicated, as are other emotions. What does it mean to be happy or very happy? People mean different things when they employ these terms. We do not share happiness parameters.

Gilbert's dramatic example uses conjoined twins: These folks, who suffered a fate many of us find nearly unimaginable, rate themselves as being just as happy as do non-conjoined people. That surely seems counter-intuitive to those of us who feel strongly about our personal space. This might give you a sense of the pull on our emotions exerted by what Gilbert calls a "hedonic thermostat" that keeps us at a steady state emotional (happiness) baseline in good times and hard times.

Keys to Being Happy
Our "psychological immune systems" protect us over the long haul. Our daily happiness is much more affected by little pleasures and setbacks than the big-ticket items. If we pay attention to that fact, we can have more of the desired emotional states than if we don't. Gilbert believes we delude ourselves all the time, or rather we "cook the facts." His book is, as the tile suggests, a testimony to the extent to which we delude ourselves. A few of Gilbert's key happiness points should interest everyone:

• We often make choices not in our best interests, happiness-wise.
• We delude ourselves sufficiently enough to get by. Without this capacity, we might be too depressed to get out of bed in the morning.
• We're not so good at imagining future emotional states with accuracy.
• Learning how to kid ourselves may be an unrecognized key to mental health.

Is It Worth the Effort?
One of the key reasons for bothering to shape a thoughtful, deliberate lifestyle with disciplined attention to habits of exercise, nutrition and all the rest is to be happier. Thus, it follows that the effort required to better understand the dynamic of happiness is another high payoff element of a wellness philosophy. Gilbert's work is devoted to making us all more effective at estimating how things will work out in the future when we make decisions we think will better our lot. Understanding what makes you happy will improve your skills at discerning happier futures. By better realizing the consistent mistakes made in years gone by, we might make fewer of them in the years ahead.

Be well, be happier and look on the bright side of life.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MENTAL DOMAIN under the skill area of emotional intelligence. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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