I finished an excellent three-part series called This Emotional Life, late last night. It was available on “Watch Instantly” through Netflix. Each episode is about 2 hours long and is hosted by Dr. Dan Gilbert, a Harvard Professor of Social Psychology. The series covers a LOT of a topics which are all extremely interesting. But four things stood out for me in particular….
- The first is the idea that we all are born with a certain level of happiness and no matter the ups and downs in our life, if we win the lottery or end up paralyzed, we are likely to return to that designated level of happiness we were born with. I think my daughter’s level of happiness is extremely high. It’s more difficult to determine the happiness levels of my son and I because we both so love dramatics and are continually bouncing all over the place.
- The second is that married couples with children are less happy than married couples without kids. In fact, the more kids you have, the less happy you are. Maybe children give you something that is beyond happiness? Kids can definitely be a pain in the ass, but I can’t imagine my life without them. They are my very heart!
- The third is that the best (and probably the only) way to solve post traumatic distress disorder is to directly face the fear and relive the trauma. I don’t know why, but that totally blew me away.
- The fourth is that there isn’t a lot of scientific evidence for activities that boost happiness levels except for two totally opposite things: social interaction and meditation. Studies on meditation are blowing scientists away. Sitting in silence is not a frivolity. It completely changes the brain. When people meditate, their brains become more active, not less active, so something major is going on but no one is sure exactly what that is. (There is a lot of great information starting here.)