Saturday, October 26, 2013

Happiness is what it is. So is unhappiness.

Whenever the context of poverty comes up in my classes, I almost always feel compelled to remind students that poverty and affluence are not the respective synonyms for unhappiness and happiness.  One can expect poor to be unhappy and the rich too can be unhappy. Similarly, one can find happiness among the poor and rich alike.

Extreme, abject, poverty is not what I refer to--a situation in which one is starving, suffering, from a sheer lack of food. That is a terrible condition, indeed.  But, otherwise, happiness is what we make of it.  Despite the best attempts by our brain to dwell on the factors that make us unhappy:
According to Dr. Rick Hanson, a neuropsychologist, a member of U.C. Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center's advisory board, and author of the book Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence, our brains are naturally wired to focus on the negative, which can make us feel stressed and unhappy even though there are a lot of positive things in our lives. True, life can be hard, and legitimately terrible sometimes. Hanson’s book (a sort of self-help manual grounded in research on learning and brain structure) doesn’t suggest that we avoid dwelling on negative experiences altogether—that would be impossible. Instead, he advocates training our brains to appreciate positive experiences when we do have them, by taking the time to focus on them and install them in the brain.
Hmmm ...
The simple idea is that we we all want to have good things inside ourselves: happiness, resilience, love, confidence, and so forth. The question is, how do we actually grow those, in terms of the brain?
Isn't that the tough challenge!  To find the good things, including happiness, within us.

Calvin explains why it is one heck of a challenge:


So, why does the brain focus on the negative?  Evolutionary training at play here:
As our ancestors evolved, they needed to pass on their genes. And day-to-day threats like predators or natural hazards had more urgency and impact for survival. On the other hand, positive experiences like food, shelter, or mating opportunities, those are good, but if you fail to have one of those good experiences today, as an animal, you would have a chance at one tomorrow. But if that animal or early human failed to avoid that predator today, they could literally die as a result.
Too much to think about?  Well, simply live a good life without messing up with others, and enjoy it. Don't overthink--it is what it is! ;)



6 comments:

Ramesh said...

Oh yes. There is so much positiveness in each of our lives and yet we do not appreciate that enough. As you say, evolution has hardwired us to focus too much on the negatives.

On the linkage of poverty with happiness, I have a sneaking feeling that beyond a certain point, happiness and wealth are inversely related. I also believe instant wealth is the worst destroyer of happiness. For each person, the threshold wealth might be different, but there is such a threshold I believe. After that, you get more unhappy if you get more wealthy. Maybe the very act of getting that much more wealth is a contributor to the unhappiness. I don't know - this is all uninformed speculation, without any real evidence and only a "feel". I am sure that this is a topic on which much research has been done, but academic publications being what they are, I have steered clear of them !!

Sriram Khé said...

two years ago, the findings of a research study made some headlines here--the research identified a certain income level as the one where happiness is maximized. i, for one, was doubly excited by that: first, that more money does not mean more happiness, and second, i was squarely there in that income level--almost there ;)

Ramesh said...

Congratulations. I for one, will never attain the lofty heights of the ideal income level which has been achieved by the good Prof. I'll live with a little less happiness though :):):)

Sriram Khé said...

excuse me!?
you will never attain the lofty heights of my income?
what the what!?
when my lifetime earnings won't be a fraction of what you pocketed in a decade???

hmmmm .....

Mike Thissell said...

I love the discussion on happiness. It is such an important topic. In the film Happy, one psychology team presents there is no difference of happiness, in America, for those who make a household income or $50,000 and $500,000 a year.

My personal finance class focuses on a dual mandate of happy and secure. I like students to think of their future career in these terms, rather than the more common income based focus.

Ramesh, I agree instant wealth is highly damaging.

I will be out of my classroom for a conference tomorrow, so my students will be watching Happy. Tuesday will be a provocative John Stossel special titled "Greed."

Thank you Dr. Khe for your blog post. I hope you are happy with your courses thus far this year.

Sriram Khé said...

Oh, yes, of course, I am very happy with the courses thus far--I always am. The question is whether students are ;)

One of these days, I hope Ramesh will send me enough money for me to find out what instant wealth means. Only then will I be able to conclude for myself whether or not instant wealth brings happiness. My bank account # is .... ;)