The Happiness of Being
If science is your religion, I am happy to report that it seems to be
heading in the right direction. At the very least, some studies are
finding evidence of "spirits in the material world."
Take, for instance, George Vaillant, M.D., who has curated the Grant
Study for more than 40 years. He's said that humans are hard-wired for
empathy. The Grant Study was established at Harvard University in the
late 1930's by Dr. Arlie Bock, who began the study to learn "how to
live well" by studying the lives of "normal" young men, 268 students
at Harvard University.
While normal was the label given to the students at the start of the
study, by middle age, one third of the participants showed signs of
mental illness. Arlie Bock said, " 'They were normal when I picked
them,' he told Vaillant in the 1960's. 'It must have been the
psychiatrists who screwed them up.' " (Shenk, Atlantic, June 2009)
Now, at the end of the study, with the surviving men – combined with
another study which includes both men and women – in their 80's or
90's, George Vaillant has discovered a few things that make for happy
lives.
Vaillant was interviewed several times in 2009. The Atlantic article
was accompanied by the video below. After the video, I'll discuss some
of his other observations from this and other interviews, show how it
all meshes with the findings of other scientists, and
A Course in
Miracles.
A Course in Miracles has over one hundred
references to happiness.
To begin, there are three things Vaillant advises:
1. Stay away from self-help books, but think about helping someone else. 2. Think of faith, not as belief, but as trust. 3. Add gratitude, forgiveness, joy, compassion, and awe, and you're talking about something people who are deeply religious understand. - George Vaillant (Growing Bolder interview)
Happiness isn't about me. Try being funny. Try making yourself fall in love.
Try making yourself forgive someone. Studies have shown that, while
forgiveness is tremendously helpful to the heart and to peace of mind,
if you enocourage someone to try to forgive, their blood
pressure goes up and they get more and more tense. - George Vaillant
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