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据美国一项最新调查显示，尽管现在的生活更富足、犯罪率更低、空气更清新、住宅更大、生活质量更高，但是今天的美国人并不比50年前的美国人更快乐。有人说：“影响快乐的不仅仅是基因，有一半的快乐还需要后天的学习和培养。” 感激生活、时时行善、宽恕敌人、体验快乐、保持健康和积极的心态、爱家爱友……或许这些才是通往幸福大门的金钥匙。
Psychologists have recently handed the keys to happiness to the public, but many people cling to gloomy ways out of habit, experts say. Polls1 show Americans are no happier today than they were 50 years ago, despite significant increases in prosperity, decreases in crime, cleaner air, larger living quarters and a better overall quality of life.
“Happiness is 50 percent genetic,” says University of Minnesota researcher David Lykken. What you do with the other half of the challenge depends largely on determination. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Happiness does not come via2 prescription3 drugs, although 10 percent of women 18 and older and 4 percent of men take antidepressants4, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Antidepressants benefit those with mental illness but are no happiness guarantee, researchers say. On his web site, University of Pennsylvania’s Martin Seligman offers questionnaires5 for assessing6 your happiness, beating depression and developing insights into how to be happier.
Nor will money or prosperity buy happiness for many of us. Money that lifts people out of poverty increases happiness, but after that, the better paychecks stop paying off sense-of-well-being dividends7, research shows.
One route to more happiness is called “flow”, an engrossing8 state that comes during creative or playful activity, psychologist Mihaly has found. Athletes, musicians, writers know the feeling. It comes less from what you’re doing than from how you do it.
Sonja of the University of California at Riverside has discovered that the road toward a more satisfying life involves a recipe9 repeated in schools churches. Make lists of things for which you’re grateful in your life, practice random10 acts of kindness, forgive your enemies, notice life’s small pleasures, take care of your health, practice positive thinking and invest time and energy into friendships and family.
The happiest people have strong friendships, says Ed Diener, a psychologist at the University of Illinois. Interestingly, his research finds that most people are slightly to moderately11 happy, not unhappy.
Gregg Easterbrook, author of The Progress Paradox12: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, said, “Research shows that people who are grateful, optimistic and forgiving have better experiences with their lives, more happiness, fewer strokes and higher incomes. If it makes the world a better place at the same time, this is a real bonus13.”
Diener has collected specific details on this. People who positively evaluate their well-being on average have stronger immune14 systems, are better citizens at work, earn more income, have better marriages, are more sociable and cope better with difficulties.
Lethargy15 holds many people back from doing the things that lead to happiness. Easterbrook, also a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institute, goes back to Freud, who theorized that unhappiness is a default16 condition because it takes less effort to be unhappy than to be happy. “If you are looking for something to complain about, you are absolutely certain to find it,” Easterbrook said. “It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don’t make it. Most people take the path of least resistance. Far too many people today don’t take the steps to make their life a more fulfilling one.”
心理学家最近向公众宣布了获得幸福的方法，但是专家说许多人出于习惯，还在沿用不是很有效的办法。民意调查显示，尽管财富增加、犯罪率下降、空气更清洁、生活空间更广阔、生活总体质量大大提高，但今天的美国人并不比50年前更快乐。
“幸福有一半取决于基因，”美国明尼苏达州大学的研究员大卫·莱肯说。如何利用剩下的一半在很大程度上取决于自己的决心。就像林肯曾经说的：“对于大多数人来说，他们认定自己有多幸福，就有多幸福。”
根据美国健康与人类服务部提供的数据，虽然美国有10％的18岁及18岁以上女性和4％的男性在服用抗抑郁药，但是幸福并不能通过服用药物来获得。研究员指出，抗抑郁药物只能让患有神经疾病的人受益，并不能成为快乐的保证。宾夕法尼亚大学的马丁·塞列格曼在他的网站上提供了一份评定幸福、振奋精神及如何更幸福的调查问卷。
金钱和财富也不能为我们买来幸福。研究表明，让人走出贫困的金钱确实能提升幸福指数，但此后，更高的收入却并不能给人们的生活带来更多的好处。
心理学家麦哈里发现，有一种能够得到更多幸福的途径叫做“心流”，它是在创造过程中或在游戏中产生的一种有趣的状态。运动员、音乐家和作家都可以体会到这种感觉。它很大程度上取决于你如何做，而不是做了什么。
美国加利福尼亚大学河边分校的索恩加发现，学校、教堂等集会时反复提到的一个诀窍可以使人们对生活更加满意。那就是在一张纸上列出你所感激的事情、尝试随时随地做善事、原谅你的敌人、体味平凡生活中的乐趣、注意身体、凡事多往好处想、多花时间和精力陪朋友和家人。
伊利诺斯州的心理学家爱德华·迪勒说，最幸福的人拥有牢固的友谊。有意思的是，在他的调查中发现，多数人并不是不快乐，而是有一点点快乐。
格雷格·伊斯特布鲁克在《进步悖论：生活变好，感觉变糟》一书中说：“研究表明，心怀感激、积极乐观、宽容的人会有更精彩的人生，生活得更加幸福，摩擦少了，而且收入也会更高。如果它同时还能使这个世界变得更好，这可是一份意外收获。”
迪勒为此收集了一些特殊的细节性材料。那些比一般人感觉更幸福的人通常都有很强的免疫系统，都是尽职工作的好市民，收入也较高，有着令人羡慕的婚姻，社交广泛，还能很好地应对困难。
无精打采会阻碍许多人做获得快乐的事情。布鲁金斯学会的客座研究员伊斯特布鲁克重新提出弗洛伊德的理论。弗洛伊德认为：不幸福是由一种疏忽怠慢的状态造成的，因为不快乐要比快乐容易得多。“你如果想找些事情来抱怨，绝对可以找到，”伊斯特布鲁克说。“为生活创造一个快乐的前景是需要努力的，但是多数人却做不到，他们选择了阻力最小的路。当今社会中许多人不愿意行动起来，让自己的生活变得更加充实。”
听海 摘译自The Earth
Psychologists have recently handed the keys to happiness to the public, but many people cling to gloomy ways out of habit, experts say. Polls1 show Americans are no happier today than they were 50 years ago, despite significant increases in prosperity, decreases in crime, cleaner air, larger living quarters and a better overall quality of life.
“Happiness is 50 percent genetic,” says University of Minnesota researcher David Lykken. What you do with the other half of the challenge depends largely on determination. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Happiness does not come via2 prescription3 drugs, although 10 percent of women 18 and older and 4 percent of men take antidepressants4, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Antidepressants benefit those with mental illness but are no happiness guarantee, researchers say. On his web site, University of Pennsylvania’s Martin Seligman offers questionnaires5 for assessing6 your happiness, beating depression and developing insights into how to be happier.
Nor will money or prosperity buy happiness for many of us. Money that lifts people out of poverty increases happiness, but after that, the better paychecks stop paying off sense-of-well-being dividends7, research shows.
One route to more happiness is called “flow”, an engrossing8 state that comes during creative or playful activity, psychologist Mihaly has found. Athletes, musicians, writers know the feeling. It comes less from what you’re doing than from how you do it.
Sonja of the University of California at Riverside has discovered that the road toward a more satisfying life involves a recipe9 repeated in schools churches. Make lists of things for which you’re grateful in your life, practice random10 acts of kindness, forgive your enemies, notice life’s small pleasures, take care of your health, practice positive thinking and invest time and energy into friendships and family.
The happiest people have strong friendships, says Ed Diener, a psychologist at the University of Illinois. Interestingly, his research finds that most people are slightly to moderately11 happy, not unhappy.
Gregg Easterbrook, author of The Progress Paradox12: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, said, “Research shows that people who are grateful, optimistic and forgiving have better experiences with their lives, more happiness, fewer strokes and higher incomes. If it makes the world a better place at the same time, this is a real bonus13.”
Diener has collected specific details on this. People who positively evaluate their well-being on average have stronger immune14 systems, are better citizens at work, earn more income, have better marriages, are more sociable and cope better with difficulties.
Lethargy15 holds many people back from doing the things that lead to happiness. Easterbrook, also a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institute, goes back to Freud, who theorized that unhappiness is a default16 condition because it takes less effort to be unhappy than to be happy. “If you are looking for something to complain about, you are absolutely certain to find it,” Easterbrook said. “It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don’t make it. Most people take the path of least resistance. Far too many people today don’t take the steps to make their life a more fulfilling one.”
心理学家最近向公众宣布了获得幸福的方法，但是专家说许多人出于习惯，还在沿用不是很有效的办法。民意调查显示，尽管财富增加、犯罪率下降、空气更清洁、生活空间更广阔、生活总体质量大大提高，但今天的美国人并不比50年前更快乐。
“幸福有一半取决于基因，”美国明尼苏达州大学的研究员大卫·莱肯说。如何利用剩下的一半在很大程度上取决于自己的决心。就像林肯曾经说的：“对于大多数人来说，他们认定自己有多幸福，就有多幸福。”
根据美国健康与人类服务部提供的数据，虽然美国有10％的18岁及18岁以上女性和4％的男性在服用抗抑郁药，但是幸福并不能通过服用药物来获得。研究员指出，抗抑郁药物只能让患有神经疾病的人受益，并不能成为快乐的保证。宾夕法尼亚大学的马丁·塞列格曼在他的网站上提供了一份评定幸福、振奋精神及如何更幸福的调查问卷。
金钱和财富也不能为我们买来幸福。研究表明，让人走出贫困的金钱确实能提升幸福指数，但此后，更高的收入却并不能给人们的生活带来更多的好处。
心理学家麦哈里发现，有一种能够得到更多幸福的途径叫做“心流”，它是在创造过程中或在游戏中产生的一种有趣的状态。运动员、音乐家和作家都可以体会到这种感觉。它很大程度上取决于你如何做，而不是做了什么。
美国加利福尼亚大学河边分校的索恩加发现，学校、教堂等集会时反复提到的一个诀窍可以使人们对生活更加满意。那就是在一张纸上列出你所感激的事情、尝试随时随地做善事、原谅你的敌人、体味平凡生活中的乐趣、注意身体、凡事多往好处想、多花时间和精力陪朋友和家人。
伊利诺斯州的心理学家爱德华·迪勒说，最幸福的人拥有牢固的友谊。有意思的是，在他的调查中发现，多数人并不是不快乐，而是有一点点快乐。
格雷格·伊斯特布鲁克在《进步悖论：生活变好，感觉变糟》一书中说：“研究表明，心怀感激、积极乐观、宽容的人会有更精彩的人生，生活得更加幸福，摩擦少了，而且收入也会更高。如果它同时还能使这个世界变得更好，这可是一份意外收获。”
迪勒为此收集了一些特殊的细节性材料。那些比一般人感觉更幸福的人通常都有很强的免疫系统，都是尽职工作的好市民，收入也较高，有着令人羡慕的婚姻，社交广泛，还能很好地应对困难。
无精打采会阻碍许多人做获得快乐的事情。布鲁金斯学会的客座研究员伊斯特布鲁克重新提出弗洛伊德的理论。弗洛伊德认为：不幸福是由一种疏忽怠慢的状态造成的，因为不快乐要比快乐容易得多。“你如果想找些事情来抱怨，绝对可以找到，”伊斯特布鲁克说。“为生活创造一个快乐的前景是需要努力的，但是多数人却做不到，他们选择了阻力最小的路。当今社会中许多人不愿意行动起来，让自己的生活变得更加充实。”
听海 摘译自The Earth