April marks the 15th anniversary of my blog, so during the A-Z blogging challenge, I will be sharing previous posts from over 2,000 I have written.
Today, I'm sharing a post from August 2014 when I was contemplating happiness and its relationship to mindfulness. At various times, throughout the years, this has been a theme I've returned to in one way or another.
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Happiness and Mindfulness
Seems to me that there is a lot of talk these days about happiness. Whether we're happy or whether we would be happier if we only emphasized the "right" things in our lives instead of the "wrong" things. Whether we're happier today than we were in yesteryear. I think one reason* there is so much talk about happiness is that the definition is different for everyone. Also, happiness is a complex concept and one that's hard to define and measure. But despite these complexities, there are people out there who are trying to understand and define happiness in a scientific way.One of these people is Matt Killingsworth. He developed a happiness app and is collecting data about people's moods and correlating them with what they are doing. From his various findings, there is one thing that is consistent across the study. People are happier when they are fully engaged in what they are doing instead of letting their minds wander. That was true even if they didn't like what they were doing at the time. Apparently, the reason for this is that when our mind wanders, it usually goes to negative places and focuses on things we are worried about. And when we're worried, we're usually not happy.
Unfortunately, I'm normal in this way. After learning about Killingsworth's research, I noticed that while I was mowing, I was spending a fair amount of time with my mind wandering to worrisome thoughts. The same thing happened later while I was taking a walk. I knew I was the worrying kind, but I didn't realize how much idle worrying I actually do.
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(Okay, to be truthfully honest, I've gone through this phase before with only minor success. It takes a lot of work to retrain a lifetime of rapid-fire, worrisome thoughts. But I'm gonna give it a try.)
*I think another reason there is so much talk about happiness is that we are doing very well as a whole. We have our basic needs met, so we have the luxury to think about things such as whether or not we are happy.
Until next time...
I think your last comment, that we are doing well enough to contemplate whether or not we are happy, is so true. As you know, I work in healthcare. I repeatedly find that working with patients who have true needs (physical, emotional, financial) is a great way to recalibrate my brain. At the end of a workday, I often find that my brain has shifted from whatever "woe is me" state that it was in, and I am more upbeat and thankful.
ReplyDeleteThis is a complex topic. Thanks for giving me food for thought.
You are in a profession that let's you be up close and personal to people who in the middle of difficult situation--sometimes life or death. That certainly helps put things in perspective.
DeleteIt's a difficult balance to keep in feeling your emotions, especially when something goes wrong, to being thankful that things aren't worse.
I do a lot of idle worrying without doing anything at all. It's so easy to get distracted but also to worry about even the tiniest things. That mindfulness methods sounds easy but is not. I guess we are so used to multi-tasking and even multi-worrying, we don't know how to just concentrate on just doing one thing.
ReplyDeleteYou are right most of us have the luxury to worry about happiness. But I think people shouldn't try to study happiness or find how to be happy when there are more worrying/pressing matters that needs fixing.
Have a lovely day.
You name it and you can find someone out there studying it. And while some of the studies sound ridiculous at first, you never know where they will lead. But there are many I question and know that I wouldn't contribute my money for them.
DeleteI agree with the study; when my mind has time to wander i usually do go right to the negative...i was doing that today at work today (really slow day). or sometimes i'll think about something i'd rather be doing which makes me unhappy because i'm not currently doing it.
ReplyDeleteMy mind still goes to the negative first, but I think I realize that sooner than I used to and try to change my thought to a positive one.
DeleteYes, mindfulness is something we are encouraged to practice on a daily basis. I listened to some of the speeches given by the monk who led the recent Walk for Peace and he really encouraged people to be mindful at all times, to be aware and present in the moment.
ReplyDeleteThat's easier said than done, but practice helps. Most monks spend a lot of time practicing mindfulness to be as accomplished at it as they are.
DeleteMindfulness is SO hard. Per doctor's orders I do the deep breathing daily and use an app, and my mind wanders about ten times a minute on average. Almost a year in and no improvements in these numbers. My brother got me an eye massager for the holidays, so now I use it when I do the deep breathing, and I can completely lose ten minutes of deep breathing without noticing. I think it's probably cheating though!
ReplyDeleteI don't think an eye massager is cheating. I think whatever works, works.
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