#meanful

With these silly title I start this post :) hoping to make you smile and bring a bit of light into your week.

Now let’s get serious...Yesterday was the International Happiness Day like every other 20th of March. The United Nations declared 20 March the International Day of Happiness to recognise the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals. UN offices organized a motivational talk by a company called Belab.

Belab is an Inspirational Leadership Center, which seeks to support people to reinvent themselves in their field of development through the discovery, activation and expansion of people's passions and abilities.I found the talk very interesting what drives me to do a bit more research to find out what happiness looks like from different angles.

What is happiness?

The ancient Greeks were among the first to explore the link between the physical body and our emotional responses. Happiness is like every other emotional experience, the result of electrochemical reactions in the brain brought on by stimuli. Without entering into much complexity,biology or chemistry ,I will present 4 chemicals that once released inside our body make us feel really good:) 

Dopamine,Seroronin, Oxytocin and Endorphin.In case you haven't seen yet ,there is a great video in youtube showing how a happy cell looks like (btw it is very cute) you can find it on this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqYMSKo91eo  where the cute molecules of the protein myosin drag a ball of endorphins along an active filament into the inner part of the brain's parietal cortex, which produces feelings of happiness.

Although that is the scientific explanation ,other approaches biological, psychological, economic, religious and philosophical must be taken into consideration to have a broader perspective.The common denominator is that Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being and not always very easy to see or to define.

For example,there are plenty of studies backing up the idea that meditation has a positive impact in our health and well being.But why and how?are our cells so dependent on our state of mind or how we feel?

Whatever happiness is, we know that we want it!we could call it many other ways... and that is just somehow good. Lets dig a bit more on that...

How can we measure happiness?

A 2012 review of more than 200 studies found a connection between happiness and its positive psychological attributes. It is really amazing the power of our brain and how it affects to our general health and well-being but how can we measure how happy we are?????

I found on Wikipedia that Psychologist Martin Seligman asserts that happiness is not solely derived from external, momentary pleasures, and he affirms that humans seem happiest when they have:Pleasure (tasty food, warm baths, etc.)Engagement (or flow, the absorption of an enjoyed yet challenging activity)Relationships (social ties have turned out to be extremely reliable indicator of happiness)Meaning (a perceived quest or belonging to something bigger),Accomplishments (having realized tangible goals).

Dr. Laura Kubzansky, Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Society and Health Laboratory at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Also she serves as co-Director of the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness,has published many studies that connects happiness and health.For example some her publications : “The promise of well-being interventions for improving health risk behaviors” or “The prospective association between positive psychological well-being and diabetes” among others.I highly recommend you to look at this link where you will read about keys to a happier, healthier life :

 https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/happiness-stress-heart-disease/

The number of interesting journals and studies related to the topic are endless.

But how can be happiness measured?how well one likes the life one lives?

Apparently,the way to measure for research purposes, it is to ask the individual to give his or her opinion on one’s own happiness situation. The system is based in surveys either in face-to-face interviews or on questionnaires presented on the web.They measure the frequency where verbal and numerical scales are used.It can be measured in an individual or collective level.Others like : The Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS), The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) or the the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS).

World Happiness report 2017

The first World Happiness Report was published in April, 2012, in support of the UN High Level Meeting on happiness and well-being. Since then there are annual publications that put in spot the happiest countries on earth.Latest ranking placed Norway as the happiest country in the world followed by Denmark ,Iceland and Switzerland.

Find more details here :

http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2017/

The ranking is based on the following variables: happiness,GDP per capita ,social support , health and life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perception of corruption.

Alright since we have some people in class from these “happy” countries ,will be great to know your opinion. I certainly find some aspects of these report superficial. For example if we look other indicators like suicide rates (info below from WHO )seems like in Europe people commit suicide more than in other regions around the world or if we look at the ranking in Europe ,Iceland is over the suicidal average in the region...I just leave it for your own judgement and opinion.

How can I achieve happiness?

Although it is very personal,there are some patterns that can be followed.For example you can improve happiness by eating healthier, socializing more, meditating, giving more to others, etc.

Nevertheless, I am not an expert in the matter but I personally have experienced that when you get to know yourself ,when you listen to your body, and when give you space to reconnect whit nature and what matter in life, can have a powerful effects on your everyday.Also I found that having a purpose in life keeps you alive and moving. Some of us also believe that giving to others or trying to make a change in the world (one by one) is part of these process.

Love more,laugh more, enjoy more and specially whatever you go and you do , be present. We are surrounded by so many things that distract us from what matters.

I found in sports ,yoga and meditation a good way to relief worry and tension apart from keeping us active.There are studies linking yoga and meditation to mental health and well-being ,you can find in PubMed as usual.

I think will be interesting that new rankings could appear, instead to measure  the individual GDP ,they could focus on “Gross national happiness and health” of the population.

SOME FOODS THAT RAISE YOUR SEROTONIN:

OTHER TIPS FOR YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE:

I have read some great books that were very enlightening.If you are more curious about it ,I can send you some bibliography.Below you will read wise words from the book “The art of happiness” by Dalai Lama.

With his wise and beautiful words I end my post.

Hope you enjoyed the post and that you always find your way to happiness.

The secret to living a meaningful life

Your ambitions to improve your life do not need to be confined by your personality.

Brian Little, one of the world’s leading experts on personality psychology, is renowned as a public speaker. If you watch his recent TED talk on personality, as millions of others have, you will see an engaging and witty orator holding his audience’s attention with aplomb. You’d probably conclude that Little is an extravert: he’s not only good at what he’s doing, but he seems to be revelling in the opportunity.

Read the full article here. @bbc.com