Unhappiness
There's more misery in people's lives today than a decade ago - at least among those who will tell you their troubles. So says a new study on life's negatives from the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, which conducts social science research for government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and private corporations.
Ref. https://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060109/...inthepastdecade
Raya, I absolutely believe that and would like to add that it's also the disillusioned 20-somethings that realized that life after high school isn't the joy-party they thought it would be. When real-life happens with its bills and stress and unemployment rate, it can be really sobering. Great insight though.
Interesting study. In my personal life, I am much happier now than I was a decade before...actually, as the times goes by and I see my family growing in different aspects and myself also growing through experiences, I find myself much more happier now, as older as I get the better is becoming.
A decade ago I was 18, in college and living at home. Today I am 28, working full time with a family and living in my home. Happiness is relative. I can't say I was happier now than then or vice versa. What I can say is that I was happy or unhappy in different ways. I suppose 10 years from now would be a better gauge for me. I'll let you know then
I agree with you there, Malexander. I'm happy/unhappy in different ways now than I was a decade or two ago, although I can honestly say the scale is tipping toward the "happy" side more now than then, for a number of reasons. Partly because I can *decide* to be happy, and I feel a lot better when I do. We choose how we react to things, and just because something negative or sad happens, that doesn't mean I have to go off the deep end and start taking Prozac. This is where the acceptance comes in, I think, Raya. We can accept that bad things will happen, but it doesn't mean we have to be unhappy forever.
I really liked this quote from the article:
QUOTE |
"Happiness has a very weak relation to the events in our lives," Haidt says. "Your happiness level is determined mostly by the structure in your brain - not by whether good or bad things happen to you. Negative events hurt or feel bad, but they are not usually as bad as we think and don't last as long as we think." Happiness is an individual thing, he says, like a thermostat in our brains with a baseline that's predetermined by genetics. "We all move around, up or down, around our set point" depending on life events, he says. "The key to the psychology of happiness is to move to the upper range of your potential." |
Let's see...a decade ago I was...erm.. eleven. I think I can safely say I was happier then because I was still a child and didn't have the stresses I do now as an adult, or even the stresses I had as a teenager. When I was eleven I still had some of that carefree-ish attitude. My friends and I would be outside running around having fun most the time, and not stuck inside with mounds and mounds of homework.
A decade ago, I was eighteen. I would say that I am definitely happier now. I have been married almost nine years, and now have three kids. My life is much more fulfilled than it used to be. In fact, I couldn't have thought my life would be this good ten years from then.