Happiness is one thing everyone wants and people even go far in search of happiness to no avail.
I’ve never seen anyone who wants to be unhappy, but everyone wants happiness.
Psychiatrist Robert Waldinger did a research to find out the real secret of happiness, and he described some of the secrets in a recent TED talk.
One of his major findings pointed out that good relationships keep us happier and healthier.
To conduct the study, the researchers surveyed the men about their lives (including the quality of their marriages, job satisfaction, and social activities) every two years and monitored their physical health (including chest X-rays, blood tests, urine tests, and echocardiogram) every five years.
The study which was conducted for 75 years found these three key things as a secret to happiness.
1. CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS
Previous studies have found that loneliness can affect a person’s mental health and well-being.
The men in groups of the Harvard study who reported being closer to their family, friends, or community tended to be happier and healthier than their less social counterparts and even reported living longer lives than their less social counterparts.
2. QUALITY OF RELATIONSHIP, NOT QUANTITY
The study also found that it was the quality of the relationship that actually matters and not necessarily being in a relationship. Married couples who reported that they argued constantly with each other had low affection for one another. The author defined their marriage as high-conflict marriage and found that those who weren’t even married had happier lives than them.
3. STABLE, SUPPORTIVE MARRIAGES
Stable, supportive marriages were also key to a happy life, the study found. Being socially connected to others would help your mental health.
The study found that People who were married without having divorced, separating, or having “serious problems” until age 50 performed better on memory tests later in life than those who weren’t.
The study points that close relationships are important for our health and happiness.
Society places a lot of emphasis on wealth and “leaning in” to our work, Waldinger said. “But over and over, over these 75 years, our study has shown that the people who fared the best were the people who leaned in to relationships, with family, with friends, with community.”
Phil