Science of Happiness (part three)

Okay so I REALLY liked that documentary called happy.  I totally recommend it.   It didn't just pump me up with useful information about happiness, it actually gave me a clearer view about what makes people happy and how much control we have over our own happiness. 

The chart below shows us what determines our level of happiness.

 

I am sure you all know what genetics are they determine 50% of our happiness. Circumstances include your health, success, and finances. We will get more into the "How You Live" part in my next post, which accounts for 40%.  The thing I think is interesting is that only 10% of our total happiness is determined by our circumstances and I think that most people tend to believe that they mean everything when they really mean so little in the whole scheme of things.

 

So why is this such a big deal? Well the bottom line is that we all want to be happy, don't we? I have listed some of the benefits of being happier below that they listed in the film, but I would wager that there are probably a lot more that we are unaware of. 

• Happiness helps your relationships
• Happiness helps you meet your goals
• Happiness helps you make more money
• Happiness helps you recover from tragedy faster
• People like you more when you are happy
• Happy people are able to respond to adversity and do not just ignore it
• The more happiness you have, the more everyone around you has

Seems to me that being happy can automatically make you more happy.  Crazy how that works. It can really affect every area of our lives so it really is a BIG deal.  They said that taking lots of little steps in our lives really can make a BIG difference in the long run.

 

Another thing I think was interesting is their talk on the brain.  They said that happiness basically boils down to the transmission of dopamine in the brain.  Dopamine also affects motivation, pleasure, cognition, memory, and fine motor control.  This transmission happens in one of two ways, either through drug therapy or naturally, by the way you live.  The brain is also like a muscle, in the way that the more these transmissions happen the more they are capable of happening in the future.  We NEED to seek out these happy experiences because it is a use it or lose it function.  They also said that the brain changes and adapts as it needs to.  It can even develop new areas of the brain as it adapts to the changes in our lives. Everyone's dopamine levels decrease as we age starting in our teenage years so it is really something we all need to be aware of.

 

Okay well I think this post is getting to be longer than I usually like so, I will save my list of things we can do to be happy for my next post.  :)  Until then keep smiling, keep shining!