Psychology had traditionally focused on healing the
dysfunctional segment of the population. Recently, the field
of positive psychology has been concentrating on the healthy
portion of the population and researching how to help people
move from a neutral emotional state to a positive one. As
chareidi Jews, we are commanded to be happy. Feeling
positive about our lives instead of disinterested is crucial
to our avodah in this world. Using some elements of
the latest studies in positive psychology, we can imbue our
lives with optimism and renewed devotion and reinforce
crucial guidelines of traditional Mussar self-improvement
work and lessons from Pirkei Ovos from a different
angle.
What makes a person satisfied with his or her life? Studies
show that wealth does not increase life satisfaction once a
person's basic needs are met. Education and intelligence
don't make people more content. Are younger people happier?
The research actually finds that older people are more
steadily satisfied with their lives than younger ones, and
older people are also less inclined to dark moods. Does sunny
weather make people happier? Researchers found little
difference between those who live in sunny climates and those
who live in more varying climates.
So what does make people more satisfied with their lives?
Religious belief has been shown to increase life
satisfaction, and close relationships with family and friends
are also important predictors of life satisfaction. The most
dominant traits shared by the 10% of those with the highest
level of happiness were their strong connections to friends
and family and the commitment to spending time with
them.
However, when we move beyond life satisfaction to the
definition of happiness, we find three more vital components.
The three components to happiness have been found to be:
Pleasure (physical enjoyment of one's life),
Engagement (the degree of involvement with one's
friends, family, work and hobbies) and Meaning (using
one's individual strengths to serve a higher end). However,
pleasure is the least important component. Many people
structure their lives around pleasure, but it turns out that
engagement and meaning are far more critical.
How does one increase his/her level of happiness? A person
can improve his life satisfaction by working on one or all of
the three components of happiness: pleasure, engagement and
meaning.
One method is the gratitude journal in which once a
week a person writes down things for which he or she is
thankful. A study found that keeping a gratitude journal
considerably increased the subjects' general life
satisfaction in comparison to a control group which had no
increase in life satisfaction. Additionally, it was found
that gratitude exercises do more than improve one's mood. The
gratitude exercises have been found to increase energy
levels, improve physical health and relieve pain. The
subjects who gained the most from the exercises were the ones
who were grateful for a broader range of things and who
described their blessings in detail.
Another proven joy expander is doing acts of kindness. A
study found that doing five acts of kindness a week,
especially all in one day, significantly improved subjects'
level of happiness. The most effective tool studied for
immediately increasing one's happiness level is a "gratitude
visit." This means writing a letter of gratitude to anyone
who has helped you or influenced you and then visiting that
person to read the letter. It was found that people who do
this even just once are happier even a month later.
However, the strongest recipe for enduring happiness is
finding one's strengths and learning new ways to use them. It
has been found that interpersonal characteristics like
kindness, appreciation and one's ability to love are closely
tied with one's tendency to be happy.
Since identifying and utilizing one's strengths is one of the
strongest predictors of happiness, psychologists developed a
handbook called Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV)
which classifies positive psychological traits. These
character traits are found in many of our own Mussar works as
well. The character traits that contribute to happiness
are:
1. Wisdom and knowledge: creativity, curiosity, open-
mindedness, love of learning, perspective
2. Courage: bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality
3. Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
4. Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership
5. Temperance: forgiveness and mercy, humility and modesty,
prudence, self-regulation
6. Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence,
gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality
By studying these traits, a person can become aware of her
character strengths and learn to channel them in various ways
in her life. We can use this contemporary research to focus
more on feeling grateful for the blessings in our lives, to
forge closer connections with others and to cultivate
consistent meaning in our lives by directing our talents
toward a meaningful goal. It is not enough to believe that we
should live our lives with joy.
Creating and maintaining happiness is a lifelong
avodah that is critical to our mission as individuals
and as a people.
Let's begin today.
