The Pursuit of Happiness

1. The Pursuit of Happiness Dr. Brian Inbody Association of Kansas Community College Occupational Professionals Convention

2. How to achieve higher morale and happier employees • More productivity, less missed time, less turnover • Understand the Science of Happiness • Creating an environment to improve happiness • Ways to utilize strategies to improve happiness

3. Happiness • For centuries psychology studied depression • Only very recently have they begun to study happiness

4. What is happiness? • What is it not correlated with: • Money (past a certain point) • Beauty • Materialism • Youth • Marriage, Kids • Situation (only moderately)

5. What is correlated with happiness? • Happy people: • Devote a great deal of time to family and friends • Express gratitude regularly • Offer help to others often • Are optimistic about the future • Savor life’s pleasures and live in the moment • Exercise regularly • Are deeply committed to lifelong goals and “things larger than themselves” such as religion or causes • Have the same bad things happen to them as everyone else, they just deal with them better using poise and strength

6. Two schools of thought about improving happiness • It’s genetic (naturally happy and grumpy people) • Our happiness is predetermined • We all have a natural set-point of happiness that we return to over time “We can no more make ourselves happier in the long run than we can make ourselves taller.”

7. Two schools of thought about improving happiness • One can improve their happiness over time

8. “Life is pain, you just get used to it.” • Hedonic adaptation • The bad feeling • You leave a room and come back in and only then can you smell a bad odor • The good feeling • The pleasure of a new car lasts only until that first payment • Because of hedonic adaptation we must continually do something to increase or decrease our happiness level past its “set point” • Lottery winner – “Happiness is hard work!”

9. Ways to negatively affect happiness • Large Events • Loss of Job (6 months or more) • Loss of limb (3 years) • Loss of Spouse (5-8 years) • Happiness will return to set-point over time thanks to adaptation • Large negative events sometimes make people more happy over time than if the negative event would not have happened to them (POWs, Paraplegics) • Small Events • Traffic jams, car won’t start, taking care of children, teenager angst • Small events have a worse overall effect than large events • Worst of all is prolonged isolation • on-going cumulative effect

10. Areas that happy people excel in that others don’t • Seeking pleasure - lasts the least amount of time • Engagement - always around people, always want to help others • Meaning - involved in something larger than themselves, part of a cause • They delude themselves - no kidding • They believe in themselves and in the world more than maybe they should – optimism is a must

11. Happiness is contagious! • 40+ year study of heart disease in one small community also included information on mood • Researchers found “viruses” of happiness that traveled from person to person through their connections. • If your connection (friend or family member) is happy you have a 15% greater chance of being happy. • If a friend of a friend is happy you have a 10% greater chance of being happy and you don’t even have to know that person • It takes 4 degrees of separation (friend of a friend of a friend of a friend) before the happiness effect stops.

12. Happiness High? • Studies have shown that happiness releases dopamine in the brain • Sometimes the same amount of dopamine as cocaine does • Monks that can meditate on the concepts of gratitude and compassion and release the dopamine. One in the study was a Ph.D. in Physics

13. Happiness by Country • Of the industrialized nations, the least happy country on Earth is…

14. Unhappy People • Japan • Work is much more important that family there • Karōshi- a word for “working yourself to death” and fundraisers to combat the problem • Happiest Country?

15. Happiest Country? • Denmark • Social Programs • Communal Living is popular

16. Can money buy happiness? • Yes – until needs are met, then lowers happiness as “money responsibilities” increase • If it is spent right – yes! • Using your money to help people and causes you care about actually adds to your long term happiness • Using your money to enhance your social interactions also increase happiness (vacations instead of blu-ray players) • Buying things adds to your happiness but only temporarily (remember hedonic adaptation?)

17. Ways to positively affect happiness • Gratitude journal • Once a week spend 20 minutes writing what you are grateful for • 5 acts of kindness a week, especially on the same day • Lasts 1-2 months • Write a letter and visit someone you are grateful to • (Last 3-6 months) • Conduct happiness inventory on a regular basis • Avoid Social Comparison • Commit to your goals • See your work as a calling and not a job

18. Change your routine • Routine is comfortable, but gets boring • The mind needs to make new connections to stay fresh • Change things up – as simple as taking a new route on your run or even driving a different way to work.

19. Flow! • Flow is the moment when you can think of nothing else but the task at hand or the situation you are immersed in • Also know as “In the Zone” • Completely committing to what you are doing at that moment. • Put your dang cellphone away and live in the moment

20. Creating an Atmosphere of Happiness at Work • Time off to contribute to the community • Campus Charity drives – Angel Tree, Relay for Life, Etc. • Employee to Employee and Employee to Student Appreciation and Gratitude • Help them make their job a calling by emphasizing the emotional aspects of working there, no matter the level of employee • Form teams and work together • Encourage Flow – turn off cell phones

21. Happiness is… • Positive relationships with other people • Kindness, gratitude and capacity for love matter much more than love of learning, curiosity, accomplishment, or success.

22. Sources • Stumbling on Happiness by Gilbert • The How of Happiness by Lyubomirsky • The New Science of Happiness by Claudia Wallis, Time Magazine, 2005 • This Emotional Life documentary, PBS, hosted by Gilbert • Happy, documentary, 2011, Directed by RokoBelic