Community Corner

The Quest for Happiness

Centegra counselor explains the science of happiness and how you can find it.

Sun City resident Greg Ward knows about gratitude. He is grateful that he can walk and talk following a traumatic brain injury three years ago.

It is that gratefulness that helps him embrace his life today and find happiness.

There is a science to happiness, said Shira Greenfield, a Centegra Health Care Behavioral Health Clinical Specialist.

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The field of positive psychology, which has been developed over the last 25 years, explores what makes people strong and happy despite difficulties, traumas or circumstances, said Greenfield speaking to the Sun City Huntley Visually Impaired Support & Assistance Group this week, which Ward also attended.

Positive psychology is also providing a way to deal with mental illness by spending more time on building people’s strengths rather than dealing solely on their weaknesses, she said. The idea is to increase a person’s well being, not just decrease their misery, she said.

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This new paradigm finds that pleasure does not necessarily equal happiness, Greenfield said. Pleasure only lasts moments but developing lots of good moments leads to more happiness, she said.

Trying to find constant pleasure is like a “hedonic treadmill” or like trying to climb up an escalator going down, she said, quoting experts in the field.

What researches have found is people have a genetic set point for happiness. Intentional activity and circumstances are the other factors of happiness, she said.

Circumstances that can create happiness are varied, but researchers have found that some of the things believed to create happiness necessarily don’t, Greenfield said.

People often say their children are their greatest happiness, she said.

Sun City resident Lou Haskins, who has seven children, 17 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, joked children bring happiness to their parents when they leave home.

While Haskins was joking, it’s actually true, Greenfield said.

Researchers found people are happier when their children leave the nest, she said.

“Children are our greatest source of pride and joy and our greatest source of stress,” she said. Researchers found parents of young children often felt aggravated, stressed, frustrated and impatient, she said.

Money, too, doesn’t necessarily lead to happiness.

“I’d like to find out,” Linda Hallman said.

“There is absolutely no correlation between money and happiness,” Greenfield said. 

Faith, religion and marriage _ at least for men _ created happiness according to the research, Greenfield said.  

What can you do to increase your own level of happiness?

Greenfield said cultivating your strengths and using those strengths to overcome obstacles leads to happiness. The research followed high profile people in business, sports and entertainment and found those people who were happy and successful had cultivated their strengths, she said.

Gratitude is another way to be happy, she said.

“Our purpose in life is to find our gift, perfect it and give it back to others,” is a quote that Greenfield used in her presentation.

“Gratitude is the intention to count your blessings everyday, every moment while avoiding whenever possible, the belief that you need or deserve different circumstances,” is another quote Greenfield gave audiences.

Ward knows this firsthand.

“Post-therapy, I signed up for a year with AmeriCorp, I got so much more out of it,” Ward said. “It really helped me learn about myself.”

Finding happiness requires being engaged, not passive, with your life, Greenfield said. Focus on things you love and things you are good at, she said.


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