A Map to Happiness
Wowzers it's been a while! Honestly, I got addicted to crossword puzzles so I put down my books for a while. But I'm back at it! The book I just finished is of a different breed than most others that I've written about. It's nonfiction, for one, and for another, it's aimed at a more adult audience. The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner was an excellent read and it sparked a lot of introspection and deep thoughts on my end.
When I found this book, I was trawling the "World & Cultures" section of the public library, in search of a book about traveling, as my wanderlust had kicked up but I was stuck here in Nebraska. The sky blue binding caught my eye at first, but the tagline was what made me pluck it from the shelf: "One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World". I was intrigued by the concept of a self-proclaimed glass-half-empty sort of guy traversing the globe in search of happiness. I consider myself a relatively sunshine-y, glass-half-full kind of gal, but one could always use an extra hit of happiness, right? And if I couldn't seek it out myself, might as well let someone else do it for me and save me the miles.
Eric was searching for happiness. Lucky for him, there's a relatively new branch of science called "positive psychology"- basically, happiness studies- that has sprung up. One institute that is involved in the case for bliss is based in the Netherlands, and they have created what they call the World Happiness Database, or WHD. They have incredible amounts of data, all used to study the emotional well-being of the world's population. One of the most interesting results of their data is a ranking of all the countries of the world, from most to least happy. Eric used this list as his starting point. What made these countries so happy or unhappy? Is there a secret to creating a happy society? What affects happiness? Eric set out to answer these questions.
Over the course of the book, Eric visited ten countries: The Netherlands, Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, Great Britain, India, and America. Most of them rank on the high end of the happiness scale, though Moldova, Britain, and Qatar were exceptions to the rule. Their societies are diverse- could you think of more different societies than Switzerland and India?- and their traditions and cultures vary from extremely permissive and open to almost overly strict and rule-bound. Some experience half a year of darkness, and others endure insufferable heat. Eric found that happiness could be found in almost all of the places he visited, though often for different reasons than he expected. One of the poorest countries was also one of the happiest, whereas the richest of the bunch seemed to be losing happiness as fast as it made money. Surprises lay around every bend, and happiness sprang up in the most curious of places.
This book got me thinking. What is happiness to me? How do I find it, if I don't have it? Is it something that can be achieved or earned, or is it something that just strikes like lightning out of a clear sky? After reading about all the ways other people around the world interpret their own happiness, I took a moment to consider mine. According to Eric's findings, the thing that made people the happiest was relationships. Not money, not sunshine, not careers. People. Cultures that put an emphasis on maintaining families and friendships often had happier people. People make people happy. As I stepped back and examined my own life, I could see this in action. All of my favorite memories have been made with people. Yes, I love to curl up with a book or Netflix, but those moments don't create happiness. Laughing with my friends about one of my awful jokes, watching Dancing with the Stars with my family, long car rides to see my grandparents, singing hymns in chapel, communal complaining about terrible college food- these are the things that leave impressions on you and actually make you happy. Your relationships with the people around you. It reminds of a bible verse that I have stuck up on my mirror: Ephesians 3:19, "Be filled with all the fullness of God." Living a full life is (oftentimes) living a happy life. Armed with this information about happiness and myself, I'm going to try to keep filling up my happiness quota by making more memories with the people I have been blessed to know.
So thank you, Eric, for this book and letting me travel in search of happiness with you. It filled me right up.
When I found this book, I was trawling the "World & Cultures" section of the public library, in search of a book about traveling, as my wanderlust had kicked up but I was stuck here in Nebraska. The sky blue binding caught my eye at first, but the tagline was what made me pluck it from the shelf: "One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World". I was intrigued by the concept of a self-proclaimed glass-half-empty sort of guy traversing the globe in search of happiness. I consider myself a relatively sunshine-y, glass-half-full kind of gal, but one could always use an extra hit of happiness, right? And if I couldn't seek it out myself, might as well let someone else do it for me and save me the miles.
Eric was searching for happiness. Lucky for him, there's a relatively new branch of science called "positive psychology"- basically, happiness studies- that has sprung up. One institute that is involved in the case for bliss is based in the Netherlands, and they have created what they call the World Happiness Database, or WHD. They have incredible amounts of data, all used to study the emotional well-being of the world's population. One of the most interesting results of their data is a ranking of all the countries of the world, from most to least happy. Eric used this list as his starting point. What made these countries so happy or unhappy? Is there a secret to creating a happy society? What affects happiness? Eric set out to answer these questions.
Over the course of the book, Eric visited ten countries: The Netherlands, Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, Great Britain, India, and America. Most of them rank on the high end of the happiness scale, though Moldova, Britain, and Qatar were exceptions to the rule. Their societies are diverse- could you think of more different societies than Switzerland and India?- and their traditions and cultures vary from extremely permissive and open to almost overly strict and rule-bound. Some experience half a year of darkness, and others endure insufferable heat. Eric found that happiness could be found in almost all of the places he visited, though often for different reasons than he expected. One of the poorest countries was also one of the happiest, whereas the richest of the bunch seemed to be losing happiness as fast as it made money. Surprises lay around every bend, and happiness sprang up in the most curious of places.
This book got me thinking. What is happiness to me? How do I find it, if I don't have it? Is it something that can be achieved or earned, or is it something that just strikes like lightning out of a clear sky? After reading about all the ways other people around the world interpret their own happiness, I took a moment to consider mine. According to Eric's findings, the thing that made people the happiest was relationships. Not money, not sunshine, not careers. People. Cultures that put an emphasis on maintaining families and friendships often had happier people. People make people happy. As I stepped back and examined my own life, I could see this in action. All of my favorite memories have been made with people. Yes, I love to curl up with a book or Netflix, but those moments don't create happiness. Laughing with my friends about one of my awful jokes, watching Dancing with the Stars with my family, long car rides to see my grandparents, singing hymns in chapel, communal complaining about terrible college food- these are the things that leave impressions on you and actually make you happy. Your relationships with the people around you. It reminds of a bible verse that I have stuck up on my mirror: Ephesians 3:19, "Be filled with all the fullness of God." Living a full life is (oftentimes) living a happy life. Armed with this information about happiness and myself, I'm going to try to keep filling up my happiness quota by making more memories with the people I have been blessed to know.
So thank you, Eric, for this book and letting me travel in search of happiness with you. It filled me right up.
(picture courtesy of amazon.com)
Jayme,
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading and glad to see you found relationships to be more important than 'things'! Our relationship with Jesus is 'fullness' of God! Living Blessed,
Grandma