The definition of happiness has been debated for centuries. In recent years, psychologists have suggested that happiness is a combination of life satisfaction and the experience of more positive than negative emotions, collectively deemed “subjective well-being.” Using MRI to scan the brain researchers found that individuals who had higher happiness scores had larger gray matter volume in the “precuneus” of the brain, a region in the parietal lobe. Psychological training that effectively increases gray matter volume in the “precuneus” may enhance subjective happiness. Dr Sato, a leading researcher in this field feels that meditation has a definite positive role but laments that more money and sex do not necessarily make a person happier.
There is a proverb that tells us, “A cheerful heart is good medicine.” Researchers at Penn State University have been investigating how positive thinking can lead to better health outcomes. The findings published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine conclude that a positive attitude can lead to better outcomes for people with heart disease.
“Positive psychology” has become a popular, although sometimes controversial field in recent years. Some research has indicated that positive thinking can increase longevity and recovery and survival rates after breast cancer and heart bypass surgery. Negative emotions and depression, conversely, are said to have harmful effects on health.
Research at Harvard has looked at the biology of emotion—and what it may teach us about helping people live longer. Could a sunny outlook mean fewer colds and less heart disease? Do hope and cheerfulness protect against hypertension, diabetes, and respiratory tract infections? Do happier people live longer—and, if so, why? A vast body of scientific literature has detailed how negative emotions harm the body. Sustained stress can alter biological systems in a way that, over time, add up to “wear and tear” eventually triggering heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. However, a recent study published in The Lancet, this December, questions the salubrious role of happiness and puts a damper on the tall expectations of inveterate optimists. In a detailed investigation meant to assess whether happiness has a direct effect on mortality researchers concluded that “happiness and unhappiness have no direct effect on mortality”. After studying a million of UK women, the authors opine that the widespread but mistaken belief that unhappiness and stress directly cause ill health came from “studies that had simply confused cause and effect”. The lead author, Dr Bette, avers: “Illness makes you unhappy, but unhappiness itself doesn’t make you ill”. He further elaborates, “We found no direct effect of unhappiness or stress on mortality, even in a ten-year study of a million women and this is true for overall mortality as well as for cancer and heart disease mortality. Previous reports of reduced mortality being associated with despondency, had not allowed properly for the strong effect of ill health itself on unhappiness and stress”.
It is a fact of life that every human being wants to live long. Thus hundreds of best-selling authors make a million bucks by publishing books on happiness relating it to all good things in life. They exaggerate everything so much leaving behind the impression that if you think positive you may even be able to stop a missile in mid-air! No wonder readers relish such books.
Keeping apart above considerations, and letting doctors sort out the wholesome role of happiness, we lesser mortals would agree that it is better to be happy rather than sad. Because “when you are happy you enjoy the present without anxious dependence about the future; happiness is also limitless just as someone’s bad mood can rub off on you and spread”.
Cameron Diaz, the American actress speaking candidly about happiness says: “Happiness isn’t something you capture, it’s something you create. Self-acceptance is the key to a happier life. The common denominator is that you feel content because of who you are. And that’s real happiness. People all over the world think that if you are famous you are happy. When people say to me I want to be an actor and want to be like you, remember that I am not an actor because I want to be famous. Acting is my job. When I’m home with my family and with my friends I’m not famous – I am me . If you are looking for fame to define you then you’ll always be searching for happiness. What is important is authenticity, intention. You should be motivated by something. Fulfilment comes from within you. Not chasing fame.”
So this Christmas, let’s shed our blues to be happy with what we are. The wasted emotions of envy and jealousy will continue to be present all our lives without offering any positive contribution. “Happiness is the experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I am going to be happy in it”. Buon Natale!
(Dr. Francisco Colaço is a seniormost consulting physician.)
