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What makes you makes you happy

To understand life satisfaction scores, it is helpful to understand some of the componentsthat go into most people's experience of happiness. One of the most important influences onhappiness is social relationships.

People who score high on life satisfaction tend to have close and supportive family andfriends, whereas those who do not have close friends and family are more likely to bedissatisfied. Of course the loss of a close friend or family member can cause dissatisfactionwith life, and it may take quite a time to bounce back from the loss. Another factor thatinfluences the life satisfaction of most people is work or school, or performance in animportant role such as homemaker or grandparent. When the person enjoys his or her work,whether it is paid or unpaid work, and feels that it is meaningful and important, thiscontributes to life satisfaction. When work is going poorly because of bad circumstances or apoor fit with the person's strengths, this can lower life satisfaction. When a person hasimportant goals, and is failing to make adequate progress toward them, this too can lead tolife dissatisfaction. A third factor that influences the life satisfaction of most people ispersonal - satisfaction with the self, religious or spiritual life, learning and growth, andleisure.

Other sources of happiness

For many people these are sources of satisfaction. However, when these sources of personalworth are frustrated, they can be powerful sources of dissatisfaction. Of course there areadditional sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction - some that are common to most peoplesuch as health, and others that are unique to each individual. Most people know the factorsthat lead to their satisfaction or dissatisfaction, although a person's temperament - a general

tendency to be happy or unhappy - can colour their responses. There is no one key to lifesatisfaction, but rather a recipe that includes a number of ingredients.With time andpersistent work, people's life satisfaction usually goes up. People who have had a lossrecover over time. People who have a dissatisfying relationship or work often make changesover time that will increase their satisfaction. One key ingredient to happiness is socialrelationships, and another key ingredient is to have important goals that derive from one'svalues, and to make progress toward those goals. For many people it is important to feel a

connection to something larger than oneself. When a person tends to be chronicallydissatisfied, they should look within themselves and ask whether they need to develop morepositive attitudes to life and the world.

Power of happiness

Happiness seems to have almost magical properties. We have not got proof, but the sciencesuggests it leads to long life, health, resilience and good performance. Scientists work bycomparing people's reported happiness and a host of other factors such as age, sex, maritalstatus, religion, health, income, unemployment and so on. In survey after survey involvinghuge groups of people, significant correlations between happiness and some other factorsare repeated. At the moment scientists cannot prove causation, whether for example peopleare healthy because they are happy, or whether people are happy because they are healthy.

However, psychologists have been able to identify some very strong links. According toProfessor Diener the evidence suggests that happy people live longer than depressed people."In one study, the difference was nine years between the happiest group and the unhappiestgroup, so that's a huge effect. "Cigarette smoking can knock a few years off your life, threeyears, if you really smoke a lot, six years. "So nine years for happiness is a huge effect."

Richer but no happier

Happiness researchers have been monitoring people's life satisfaction for decades.

Yet despite all the massive increase in our wealth in the last 50 years our levels of happiness

have not increased. "Standard of living has increased dramatically and happiness hasincreased not at all, and in some cases has diminished slightly," said Professor DanielKahneman of the University of Princeton. "There is a lot of evidence that being richer... isn't

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making us happier" The research suggests that richer countries do tend to be happier thanpoor ones, but once you have a home, food and clothes, then extra money does not seem tomake people much happier. It seems that that level is after average incomes in a countrytop about 10,000 a year. Scientists think they know the reason why we do not feel happierdespite all the extra money and material things we can buy. First, it is thought we adapt topleasure. We go for things which give us short bursts of leasure whether it is a chocolate baror buying a new car.

But it quickly wears off. We compare our lot against others. Richer people do get happierwhen they compare themselves against poorer people, but poorer people are less happy ifthey compare up.

The good news is that we can choose how much and who we compare ourselves with andabout what, and researchers suggest we adapt less quickly to more meaningful things suchas friendship and life goals.

What makes us happy?

According to psychologist Professor Ed Diener there is no one key to happiness but a set of

ingredients that are vital. First, family and friends are crucial - the wider and deeper therelationships with those around you the better. It is even suggested that friendship can ward

off germs. Our brains control many of the mechanisms in our bodies which are responsiblefor disease. Just as stress can trigger ill health, it is thought that friendship and happinesscan have a protective effect. According to happiness research, friendship has a much biggereffect on average on happiness than a typical person's income itself. One economist,Professor Oswald at Warwick University, has a formula to work out how much extra cash wewould need to make up for not having friends. The answer is 50,000. Marriage also seems

to be very important. According to research the effect of marriage adds an average sevenyears to the life of a man and something like four for a woman. The second vital ingredient ishaving meaning in life, a belief in something bigger than yourself - from religion, spiritualityor a philosophy of life. The third element is having goals embedded in your long term valuesthat you're working for, but also that you find enjoyable. Psychologists argue that we need tofind fulfilment through having goals that are interesting to work on and which use ourstrengths and abilities.

Unhappiness

However, there are also many things we experience in life that can produce lastingnhappiness. Professor Ed Diener identifies two key events which can have lasting effects.After the loss of a spouse it can take several years to regain the previous level of well-being.The loss of a job can affect a person for years even they are back to work.

So if you are born grumpy are you always going to be grumpy?

The question of whether we can actually use our knowledge of what makes us happy to lift

our levels of happiness permanently is hotly debated by psychologists. According to thepositive psychologist Professor Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania it ispossible to lift our biological set range of happiness, at least to some extent if we work at it.

"The best you can do with positive emotion is you can get people to live at the top of theirset range.

"So I think you've got about 10 to 15% leverage but you can't take a grouch and make himgiggle all the time."

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Qu te hace que te hace felizPara entender los resultados de satisfaccin con la vida, es til para comprender algunosde los componentes que intervienen en la experiencia la mayora de la gente de lafelicidad. Una de las influencias ms importantes sobre la felicidad son las relacionessociales.

Las personas que puntan alto en la satisfaccin de la vida tienden a tener familia cercanay de apoyo y amigos, mientras que los que no tienen amigos cercanos y la familia tienenms probabilidades de estar satisfechos. Por supuesto la prdida de un amigo cercano ofamiliar puede provocar la insatisfaccin con la vida, y puede tomar bastante tiempo pararecuperarse de la prdida. Otro factor que influye en la satisfaccin con la vida de lamayora de la gente es el trabajo o la escuela, o la realizacin de un importante papelcomo ama de casa o un abuelo. Cuando la persona disfruta de su trabajo, ya sea pagadoo trabajo no remunerado, y considera que es significativo e importante, lo que contribuye ala satisfaccin de vida. Cuando el trabajo va mal, debido a las malas circunstancias o unmal ajuste de los puntos fuertes de la persona, esto puede disminuir la satisfaccin devida. Cuando una persona tiene metas importantes, y es no hacer un progreso adecuadohacia ellos, esto tambin puede conducir a la insatisfaccin de la vida. Un tercer factor que

influye en la satisfaccin con la vida de la mayora de la gente es personal - satisfaccincon la vida propia, religiosa o espiritual, el aprendizaje y el crecimiento, y de ocio.Otras fuentes de la felicidadPara muchas personas estas son fuentes de satisfaccin. Sin embargo, cuando estasfuentes de valor personal se sienten frustrados, pueden ser poderosas fuentes deinsatisfaccin. Por supuesto que hay otras fuentes de satisfaccin e insatisfaccin -algunos que son comunes a la mayora de la gente como la salud, y otros que son nicospara cada individuo. La mayora de la gente conoce los factores que conducen a susatisfaccin o insatisfaccin, aunque el temperamento de una persona - una tendenciageneral a ser feliz o infeliz - pueden colorear sus respuestas. No hay una clave para lasatisfaccin de vida, sino ms bien una receta que incluye una serie de tiempoingredients.With y del trabajo constante, la satisfaccin de la vida de la gente por logeneral aumenta. Las personas que han tenido una prdida de recuperarse con el tiempo.Las personas que tienen una relacin insatisfactoria o el trabajo a menudo se hacencambios en el tiempo que aumentar su satisfaccin. Un ingrediente clave de la felicidadson las relaciones sociales, y otro ingrediente clave es tener objetivos importantes que sederivan de los propios valores, y para avanzar hacia esas metas. Para muchas personases importante para sentir una conexin con algo ms grande que uno mismo. Cuando unapersona tiende a ser crnicamente insatisfechos, deberan buscar dentro de s mismos yse preguntan si necesitan desarrollar una actitud ms positiva ante la vida y el mundo.El poder de la felicidadLa felicidad parece tener propiedades casi mgicas. No tenemos pruebas, pero la cienciasugiere que conduce a la larga vida, la salud, resistencia y buen rendimiento. Loscientficos trabajan mediante la comparacin de la felicidad de las personas notificadas yuna serie de otros factores como la edad, sexo, estado civil, religin, salud, ingresos,

desempleo, etc. En encuesta tras encuesta con grupos grandes de personas, lascorrelaciones significativas entre la felicidad y algunos otros factores que se repiten. Por elmomento los cientficos no pueden demostrar la relacin de causalidad, si por ejemplo laspersonas son saludables porque son felices, o si las personas son felices porque estnsanos. Sin embargo, los psiclogos han podido identificar algunos enlaces muy fuertes.Segn el profesor Diener, la evidencia sugiere que las personas felices viven ms tiempoque las personas deprimidas. "En un estudio, la diferencia era de nueve aos entre losms felices del grupo y el ms infeliz de grupo, as que es un efecto enorme." Fumarcigarrillos puede golpear un par de aos fuera de su vida, tres aos, si realmente fumamucho, seis aos. "As que nueve aos para la felicidad es un efecto enorme."Ms rico, pero no ms felizLa felicidad investigadores han estado monitoreando la satisfaccin de la vida de las

personas durante dcadas.Sin embargo, a pesar de todo el aumento masivo de nuestra riqueza en los ltimos 50

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