The science of Subjective Well Being, a.k.a Happiness.

hi I'm dr. Mike Evans and this is a short whiteboard on happiness it's kind of a crazy topic and the philosopher in me feels the the more we try and make it a formula the farther away we'll get it's also likely we all have different meanings for happiness pleasure being engaged life satisfaction in medicine we call it subjective well-being with many domains work family friends spiritual contentment control so I'll leave it to you to know what happiness means to you but I do think the science of happiness comes with some useful lessons first is what predicts it well the research points to a lot of factors but but three big picture players first are your genes your temperament or personality second are your life circumstances things like well where you live health third are your life choices and behaviors so of these three players which is the most important dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky a University of California professors tried to answer this question and I think she will say these are very approximate but about half is predicted by your genes 40% by your life choices and only 10% by your life circumstances so this is interesting I mean I do think there's a line in the sand so for example lifting people out of poverty would give a lasting bump in well-being but for most we think if I just had that new collar higher salary bigger how you love her sliced partner I would be so much happier but the research says that sure there is a boost with a new car and you hockey stick a new marriage but after time so with the car this might be a few months and the generally accepted time with the marriage is about two years the new becomes the norm and our happiness quotient drops back to what it was the fancy name for this is hedonic adaptation but perhaps the observation is that happiness doesn't come from getting something we don't have but rather from recognizing and appreciating what we do have or that happiness is best pursued by extracting the most possible from the present before turning one's attention to the future some would call this mindfulness or living in the moment the second big lesson is about your life choices the good news is they are mostly in our control and overlapping so expressing gratitude being more forgiving meditation and mindfulness exercise investing in quality relationships kindness altruism and doing things for others compassion having good flow where you have a kind of spontaneous joy from being fully absorbed in a task minimizing thinking traps that make us feel bad about ourselves all of these can work with our factory settings to increase happiness levels and don't underestimate their effects let's take one having good relationships the Granton glue at cohort trials have been following two groups of men one advantage in one disadvantage for over 75 years and when they look to see what most predicted being a healthy happy octogenarian well it was a middle-aged cholesterol it was middle-aged satisfying connectedness to family friends and community and there are many nuances we were just figuring out for instance dosage dr. Luber mirskiy showed in a small trial about counting your blessings where you list what I am grateful for helped when it was done once a week but not so much three times a week so in the end I think sure if you want to buy something cool go for it you might even give you a short-term bump and well-being but maybe also consider investing in a few things that have a longer-term effect a happiness portfolio if you will you may have a set point but just like your risk of heart disease you can alter this a lot by doing things differently hopefully this helps I'm grateful that you listened and watched see I feel better already

Channel: DocMikeEvans

Views: 189,969

Keywords: Dr. Mike Evans, docmikeevans, happy, happiness, health, wellness, reframe health films

Id: PPbjK3MmjL0

Length: 3min 58sec (238 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 18 2016