Happy Days

New York City, NY June 4, 2009:

Happiness is here again.

After a far-too-long break from blogging (three months!), I’m returning to posting and presenting what makes us happy—here at The Art of Happiness.

Moreover, it also happens to be a topic of frequent reflection, introspection and earnest discussion in the media these forlorn days.

Before I left for a short trip to the sunshine state this last weekend I picked up the current issue of The Atlantic, which promised to divulge the secrets of WHAT MAKES US HAPPY (in cocky big and bold pink letters), as you can see above, on its cover.

Written by Joshua Wolf Shenk the article is “an inside look at an unprecedented seven-decade study of a group of Harvard men suggests that one thing, above all, truly makes a difference.”

It was good reading for the plane ride to Northern California (the happiest place on earth, at least for me) and those early mornings when I was alone in the kitchen drinking coffee, while others were still asleep—but I wouldn’t recommend buying the magazine, especially if you’re looking to save money, like everyone else these days.

Because, not only can you read the entire article online here, but I will reveal the most important point as follows:

What allows people to work, and love, as they grow old? By the time the Grant Study men had entered retirement, Vaillant, who had then been following them for a quarter century, had identified seven major factors that predict healthy aging, both physically and psychologically.

Employing mature adaptations was one. The others were education, stable marriage, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise, and healthy weight. Of the 106 Harvard men who had five or six of these factors in their favor at age 50, half ended up at 80 as what Vaillant called “happy-well” and only 7.5 percent as “sad-sick.” Meanwhile, of the men who had three or fewer of the health factors at age 50, none ended up “happy-well” at 80.

There were a few other tidbits of interesting conclusions and anecdotal evidence in the article, but I’ll let you read those yourself.

This morning, I also came across a new New York Times column that focuses specifically on the art of happiness titled Happy Days: The Pursuit of What Matters in Troubled Times.

(Speaking of troubled times, much like other papers, The Times has introduced human (people) interests sections like these, veering away from its traditional hardcore “all the news that is fit to print” and make you feel like we are doomed, because they are desperate to attract readers (and advertisers) in order to survive. You can read about their woes here— Lack of Vision To Blame for Newspaper Woes—and here— Newspapers plot survival as quietly as they can.)

Anyway, The Times’ column has good intentions and its mission is as follows:

The severe economic downturn has forced many people to reassess their values and the ways they act on them in their daily lives. For some, the pursuit of happiness, sanity, or even survival, has been transformed.

Happy Days is a discussion about the search for contentment in its many forms — economic, emotional, physical, spiritual — and the stories of those striving to come to terms with the lives they lead.

Moreover, I was pulled in to read the column by one particularly popular piece posted two days ago called Reprieve by Tim Kreider, who reflects on the value of life after experiencing a near death stab in the throat with a stiletto. It is an article worth reading which can be summed up with the following quote about his year after the incident: “It’s easy now to dismiss that year as nothing more than a sort of hysterical high. But you could also try to think of it as a glimpse of grace.”

Also, read-worthy are many of the 200+ comments which follow the article and reflect on their own near-death experiences, a few of which can be read here: More Light!