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DallasNews.com | News for Dallas, Texas | Texas Living: "Researchers are trying to define 'happy'"

. . . Nowadays, though, happiness has become a buzzword, more than the birthday song, more than "if we're happy and we know it" clapping our hands or stomping our feet. Everywhere we look, it seems, there's a quiz to take, steps to follow, articles to read that measure, guarantee, heighten our happiness.

What we used to take for granted now has come under the microscope. Amazing research is being done on what makes us happy, how happiness affects our health, whether some of our brains are more wired toward happiness than others.

All of which makes us wonder about the basics: What IS this thing we know when we feel it, but it seems so hard to put a finger on? Just what constitutes happiness?

The sensation of a shared sunset with someone you love? A really good steak? A raise? A child's smile? A thumbs-up from the doctor? Finally conquering a fear, maybe finally giving up smoking?

"Happiness," says my friend David, "is a snapshot."

Moments, he means. Moments that bring us pleasure, peace, absolute joy. Those we can call upon when we're driving home or taking a walk; when . . .

The Observer | Comment | A constitution penned by lawyers, not poets

The Observer | Comment | A constitution penned by lawyers, not poets: "An influential historian urges a radical new approach to France's political relationships "


. . . The message of France's and our own Enlightenment was that happiness was the natural consequence of liberty - the right to do what one pleased without being controlled by others - and that prosperity was the path to both. But we find we cannot be happy if others are unhappy. We have discovered complexity and unpredictability and developed a taste for diversity and for transgressing boundaries. Medicine, despite all its triumphs, is now confronted by the problem of individual variability. The simple formulae we have inherited can no longer work for everyone.

So the European dream must go beyond freedom, security and economic prosperity. What is missing from the lives of so many people today is a sense of purpose, of meaning, of achieving something worthwhile, for others as well as themselves, for the future as well as the present. Boredom is the most widespread of our chronic diseases. A more personal vision of Europe will allow us to value ourselves by what we give others, rather than simply by what we accumulate for ourselves. . . .

Researchers delve into the meaning of happiness

Researchers delve into the meaning of happiness

Peggy Reising seemed to have all the touchstones of a perfectly happy life.

She had a marriage that lasted, children she loved, a beautiful home and her own computer-training business.

Yet when she was asked to rate her level of happiness from that period of her life -- with 10 representing "extremely happy" and 0 representing "extremely unhappy" -- Reising gave her life a 3.

"It just seemed I was on a merry-go-round with work, raising teenagers and being married," Reising of Indianapolis recalls. "I hit a point that I believe everybody hits. I call it 'the dark night of the soul.' I had lost me. I just decided I wanted to be happier." . . .

Emory study finds health care use, work productivity linked to health levels

Emory study finds health care use, work productivity linked to health levels: "Emory study finds health care use, work productivity linked to health leve"

. . . Emory study finds health care use, work productivity linked to health levels: "Using national survey data, Emory sociologist Corey Keyes examined the prevalence of mental and physical health issues among adults between the ages of 25 and 74, and how varying levels of health correlated to healthcare use and work productivity. Keyes found striking differences in productivity and healthcare visits among the healthiest and unhealthiest of those surveyed, and less than optimum levels of productivity among the incompletely healthy.

The results of the study demonstrate that health care providers and public health officials need to focus on the promotion of wellness to improve quality of life and increase productivity, and not just on the prevention and treatment of illness and injury, says Keyes, an associate professor of sociology and public health.

'We need to look at health as more than just the absence of illness and recognize that there are varying levels of health. Ultimately, we have it backwards -- we focus first on disease and illness instead of good health,' Keyes says. 'Rather than providing treatment only when the patient is broken, we need to promote physical and mental health at the same time we prevent the onset and course of disease. " . . .

OrlandoSentinel.com: Lifestyle

OrlandoSentinel.com: Lifestyle

Researchers advocate positive spin on health

. . . "There are pathways by which positive emotions influence health and well-being," says Chesney, deputy director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Most of the mind-body research to date, she says, has focused on the effect of negative emotional states -- anger and depression, for example -- on bodily health.

Chesney, who conducted research on the power of positive thinking among 200 HIV/AIDS patients when she was a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, spoke recently at the University of Connecticut's Center for Health/HIV Intervention & Prevention.

Medicine mainly aims to fix what is broken, she says. The National Institutes of Health, of which her center is a part, could be called "the national institutes of disease" because of their focus on illness rather than on health. Even the world of clinical mind-body medicine focuses on the dark side of the force.

Chesney says the emerging field of "positive psychology" could learn from the work that has been done on the toxic physical effect of anger and depression, especially in identifying the pathways that link the mind and the body.

The field of brain imaging and emotions is still fairly new, she says, but there appear to be clear distinctions between the way negative states and positive states "light up" the brain in functional magnetic resonance imaging. Negative states are associated with right side activity, while positive states are linked to left-side activity.

How the brain interprets events, says Chesney, has everything to do . . .

Stomach Surgery to Get Thin, But Not Necessarily Happy

Stomach Surgery to Get Thin, But Not Necessarily Happy

My Life as a Thin Person
People like Lisa Marie Sohr, who lose 100 pounds or more with stomach surgery, find that with their new bodies often come new friends, new spouses, new lives. But happiness is not a foregone conclusion.

By Jennifer Senior

To see her now—hips framed by low-slung pants, navel shot through with a $500 belly ring—it strains the imagination to envision Lisa Marie Sohr, a resplendent Long Island hottie, as an obese woman. She moves with the insouciance of someone who has always been 120 pounds, except when she stands up, when she looks a bit as if she’s been fired from a slingshot. (“It’s like, whoa—I’m used to going for the big lunge.”) Yet Sohr can recall the day her weight became not just an unsupportable physical millstone but a metaphysical one: It was her 33rd birthday. The New York City Police Department had just forced her into early retirement. And, at five foot four and 236 pounds, she had recently taken to climbing the stairs of her Baldwin home on her hands and knees. . . .

Steve Salerno on the Self-Help Dangers on National Review Online

Steve Salerno on the Self-Help Dangers on National Review Online

Overdosing on Oprah
The side effects of empowerment.

By Steve Salerno


. . . No matter. America keeps filling its children with this faux self-esteem, passing them on to the next set of empowering standards, and the next after that. If you teach college, as I do, you are certain at some point to be confronted by a student who's upset over the grade you gave him and seeks redress because, he will say, as though his point were self-evident, "I'm pre-med!" Only if and when that student actually reaches med school does he encounter less elastic standards: a comeuppance for him, but a reprieve for the rest of us, who otherwise might find ourselves anesthetized beneath his second-rate scalpel.

The larger point is that, with the gods of empowerment cheering in the background, society has embraced concepts like confidence and self-esteem despite scant evidence that they're reliably correlated with positive outcomes. The work of legitimate psychology notables Roy Baumeister and Martin Seligman indicates that often, high self-worth is a marker for negative behavior, as diagnosed in sociopaths and drug kingpins. Furthermore, self-esteem may be expressed in the kind of braggadocio — "I'm fine just the way I am, thank you" — that actually inhibits personal growth.

Unfazed by pesky questions about whether happy thoughts can even guarantee results for any one individual, today's champions of positive thought unflinchingly portray their quest as the folkloric rising tide that lifts all boats, supposedly enabling America en masse to reach new levels of happiness and prosperity. A nice thought — but impossible barring a wholesale change in the way the free market operates. . . .

The Happiness Gym (sm) - Discover and strengthen your happiness "muscles" thru Positive Psychology

The Happiness Gym (sm) - Discover and strengthen your happiness "muscles" thru Positive Psychology

Happiness and Lawyers

The April, 2005 issue of the Deakin Law Review contains several articles and comments re Happiness and The Law

Goodbye Justice, Hello Happiness: Welcoming Positive Psychology to the Law, by Mirko Bagaric and James McConvill
http://www.deakinlawreview.org/archive/10/1/data/1.pdf

Comment on the above by David Myers
http://www.deakinlawreview.org/archive/10/1/data/2.pdf

Personal Aspirations, the 'Good Life,' and the Law, by Tim Kasser
http://www.deakinlawreview.org/archive/10/1/data/3.pdf

Why Lawyers are Unhappy, by By Martin E P Seligman, Paul R Verkuil and Terry H Kan
http://www.deakinlawreview.org/archive/10/1/data/4.pdf

James McConvill and Richard Edney examine the growing disaffection of young lawyers. - On Line Opinion - 11/5/2005

James McConvill and Richard Edney examine the growing disaffection of young lawyers. - On Line Opinion - 11/5/2005: "How happiness can save the practice of law"

. . . We accept that pressure is an inescapable aspect of law practice. But high pressure itself does not seem to be the problem; rather, it is the combination of high pressure and low decision latitude that causes negative health effects. By modifying this dimension, lawyers can become both more satisfied and more productive. One solution is to tailor a lawyer's day so there is considerably more personal control over work. Some law firms have begun this process as they confront the unprecedented resignations of young associates, and these efforts should be expanded.

A law firm can gain by learning more about associates' strengths and employing that knowledge to help shape the work environment. When a young lawyer enters a firm, he or she comes equipped not only with prudence and other lawyerly talents like high verbal intelligence, but with an additional set of unused signature strengths, such as leadership, originality, fairness, enthusiasm, perseverance, and social intelligence. As lawyers' jobs are crafted now, these strengths do not get much play, and when situations call for them, they do not necessarily fall to those who have the relevant strengths.

Law firms should discover the particular signature strengths of their associates. Exploiting them could make the difference between a demoralized associate and an energized, productive colleague. A firm can produce higher morale by setting aside five to ten hours of the work week for “signature strength time”, (i.e. a non-routine assignment that uses the signature strengths). Over time, higher morale will translate into higher billing hours. . . .

Science & Theology News

Science & Theology News

Good feelings caused by babies is all in your head
Holding a baby not only makes you feel good, but it might also create new brain cells.
By Heather J. Smith
(May 3, 2005)

Holding a baby not only makes you feel good, but it might also create new brain cells, said Sue Carter, the co-director of the study at The Brain-Body Center at the University of Illinois, at Chicago.

“There’s an underlying biological basis for the feelings we have when in a positive social experience,” said Carter.

To test the biology behind social interactions, researchers . . .

Latch on to the affirmative, researcher says: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Latch on to the affirmative, researcher says: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Plenty of research suggests that looking at the bright side is good medicine. Now, according to psychologist Margaret Chesney, it's up to the medical establishment to figure out how and why that works and the best ways to help people accentuate the positive.

"There are pathways by which positive emotions influence health and well-being," said Chesney, deputy director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Most of the mind-body research to date, she said, has focused on the impact of negative emotional states -- anger and depression, for example -- on bodily health. "We don't have nearly enough . . .

BRW | Magazine > Article

BRW | Magazine > Article

Stress less
The latest research on stress is pointing to better ways for individuals to cope and organisations to change.

By Gina McColl
BRW. 28 April 2005

. . . Elsner's practice is informed by a movement known as positive psychology, a school of thought that argues "positive" experiences - feeling engaged, challenged, and that one is making a contribution to something meaningful - do not balance out negative ones such as stress; instead, they help people increase their resilience over time. Good stress, or positive experiences of being challenged and rewarded, is thus cumulative in the same way as bad stress. . . .

Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/30/2005 | City tops a survey on sadness

Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/30/2005 | City tops a survey on sadness


Oh, we'd like to be happy about this...

By Art Carey

Inquirer Staff Writer


. . . Life here is easy. Philadelphia is an intimate city so deeply imbued with a Quakerly tolerance of mediocrity that it is a cinch to stand out, even if you are not particularly talented or ambitious.

Penn psychology professor Martin Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness, thinks the survey is poppycock.

"Depression and happiness are not opposites, so it's incorrect to infer from Prozac statistics that a city is unhappy," he said.

"From my point of view, happiness is about three things: positive emotion, engagement and meaning. El Paso may rank high when it comes to the giggly, ebullient, cheerleader sort of happiness. But if you look at the history of Philadelphia as far as meaning and engagement are concerned, I think we're right up near the top."