“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” ~ Guillaume Apollinaire
Over the course of my gastrointestinal career, I have been honored to speak at roughly 20 SGNA conferences on various topics, either keynoting or as a breakout. Thirteen years ago (that was 2012; good heavens!), I presented “Happy People Don’t Get Sick: The Link Between Joy and Health.”1 As I’ve recently had free time on my hands with surgical recovery,2 I have gained unstructured time to delve back into that topic.
Coincidentally, a group at my alma mater, the William & Mary Society of 1918, sponsored a Zoom conference on “The Science of Happiness” last week. The stars had aligned, and I was delighted to virtually attend. The keynote speaker was the amazing Alexis Franzese, associate professor of sociology and chair of the department of sociology and anthropology at Elon University, who achieved the daunting task of distilling a 15-week/one-semester course into a one-hour Zoom—the whirlwind data dump was fabulous!
“My message to women: Do what makes you feel good, because there’ll always be someone who thinks you should do it differently. Whether your choices are hits or misses, at least they’re your own.” ~ Michelle Obama
Franzese led an interactive session with superior skill in post-COVID Zoomland, asking the retirement-age, alumni women participants to define “happiness.” Our definitions ranged from “contentment” to “pleasure,” with “life satisfaction,” “joy,” and “subjective well-being” also making the list. On defining what we considered to be “the good life,” participants differed.
The answers included:
- Friends/connection/family
- Love/pleasure
- Physical wellness/lack of limitations
- Exposure to sunshine/nature
- Laughing out loud
What is your good life? Take a moment to contemplate. It works better if you choose a lane.
“When people feel insecure about something, they look around for validation. Show them that other people trust you.” ~ Francisco Rosales
Franzese described the differences on a spectrum between hedonic happiness (all of one’s time spent in the pursuit of self-pleasure) to eudaimonic happiness (gaining happiness via virtuous actions). And yes, I believe that most in healthcare are driven by eudaimonia—caring for others to validate and support our own happiness and self-worth. Franzese noted how our current society and our nation’s youth have been aggressively marketed into believing in hedonic happiness, the pursuit of newer and cooler stuff that marketers promise will allow us to finally purchase and achieve happiness. We are now extensively trained by marketers and a culture whose purpose is to show us what we should want to achieve fulfillment.
Have you become lost in today’s hedonic marketing trap?
“I didn’t have any accurate numbers so I just made up this one. Studies have shown that accurate numbers aren’t any more useful than the ones you make up.”
“How many studies showed that?” “Eighty-seven.” ~ Dilbert, by Scott Adams
Being 100% happy is a pathological state; Franzese suggests a more reasonable target is 70%, with occasional highs and lows. Of your own baseline happiness, 50% is based on genetics, 40% is your own governance by choice or behavior, and 10% is due to life circumstances. The final 10% tends to be transient; even in illness or trauma, that 10% resets to baseline, as has been seen in studies of folks who’ve suffered a traumatic hemiplegia. That means that even in times of scary current affairs with the locus of control seemingly out of our reach, that 40% remains under our own control.
“For once, I’d like to spiral into control.” ~ Unknown
So what infringes on your personal mellow and interferes with your happiness and control of that 40%? Is it not enough free time and “me time”? Would you like to simply feel “whelmed” occasionally, neither over nor under?
We each need to choose to be happy in the now—not waiting for the stars to align to an excellent intimate relationship, a 20-pound weight loss, good health, sanity in government, and/or a new car or house.
We get stuck in indecision, believing that focusing, correcting or obtaining one new thing will cause our happiness (that hedonic happiness from earlier), or a decision-paralysis cycle, akin to going to a restaurant with a multipage menu—“Please just tell me your three best-reviewed dishes and I’ll choose one of those.”
“You have chosen…wisely.” ~ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
What can you choose to do, today, to increase your happiness? Several simple and free actions have been found to bolster that personal 40%.
First, please don’t get trapped in decision paralysis here, just choose one action that you can implement. Two, perhaps, if you’re an overachiever.
- Schedule unstructured time for yourself.
- Give to others, even simple thanks and gratitude.
- Do 20 minutes of cardio exercise three times a week, preferably in nature.
- Identify your happy place to visit daily. Your happy place can be real or imagined, it could be by water or a beach, in a garden, listening to a joyous mix tape, a cozy nook in which to read, a memorable smell that returns you to a moment of childhood bliss. Be authentic to yourself with your happy place; it need not compare with others’.
“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.” ~ Calvin & Hobbes, by Bill Watterson
All too quickly, the one-hour whirlwind was over, followed by concurrent sessions on happiness through mindfulness or through art therapy. In the art-therapy session, we learned to register and then artistically recreate “glimmers” we had experienced that day; the opposite of a traumatic trigger, a “glimmer” is something that brings fleeting happiness and joy. We learned to capture our glimmers through decidedly imperfect art, and to reinforce and to seek glimmers daily.
“Cherish the glimmering moments, for they are the ones that will light up your memories.” ~ Unknown
Notes:
- The non-animated version of my 2012 happiness presentation, done on a software called Prezi, remains available at https://prezi.com/view/JFyvPqf4Eb5H2UfBSnhN/. The data is still accurate.
- I’m doing great now after left total-knee replacement January 24, 2025; I was recently released from six weeks of homebound/home physical therapy. Now starting outpatient PT for at least an additional six weeks. (If you’ve been on the knee fence, just do it!)
