The way to be happy may be to live in a country where everyone else is happy too. If you live in Denmark, you live in the happiest country in the world. Switzerland, Austria and Iceland are next, in that order. Canada is number 10 and the US is number 23, behind Costa Rica, The Netherlands and Norway.
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One way to do it is to move to a third-world country. But how can we be happier while staying right where we are?
Psychologist Michael Frisch has discovered that As much as 50% of your happiness is genetic, so it’s inherited from your parents. What that means is that we inherit or basic serotonin level. Serotonin is our “happiness hormone” and can be elevated by meditation, certain foods and by sex.
The other 50% of our happiness is made up of 16 specific areas, ranging from health to goals to relationships. For many people, their spiritual life is vital to their happiness and fulfillment, probably because having faith allows people to be optimistic. Helping others is another key, and so are and strong, rewarding relationships with loved ones.
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It may not seem like it to us, but research shows that moneydoesn’t buy happiness. Another ongoing controversy iswhether it?s hard on children when their mothers work.Scientists have found this is true?but only for wealthywomen!
On a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 means “not at all satisfiedwith my life” and 7 means “completely satisfied,” the peopleon Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americansaverage 5.8?the same as the Inuit people in Greenland andthe cattle-herding Masai of Kenya, who live in dung hutswith no electricity or running water. Calcutta’s slumdwellers score only a little lower, at 4.6.
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Reading poetry is good for your health, just like prayingthe rosary or chanting. Cardiologist Francois Haas says, “Ifthere’s a message, it’s that our internal rhythms can bemodified by external stimuli.”
Randy Dotinga writes in abcnews.com that researchers studied20 healthy men and women, average age 43, who read Homer’s”The Odyssey,” while machines monitored their hearts andlungs. As they read the verses, their breathing rates sloweddown, and their heart and breathing rates became moresynchronized.
Other research has shown that the rosary and the “Om” yogamantra both reduce respiration to six breaths a minute,helping the heart work more effectively. This could be onereason why saying the rosary make people feel better.
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