Happiness. Good for our health?

What if I told you that 40% of your happiness is within your control? 

Taking this control to the next level, what would you do with this knowledge if you knew for sure that happiness causes a healthier state of well-being?

Happiness and Health. 

The two seem to go hand-in-hand. The groundbreaking research around happiness began in 2005 when Sonja Lyubomirsky, Kennon Sheldon and David Schkade set out to answer the question, how can happiness be increased and sustained? Their infamous paper, titled Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change, proposed that a person’s happiness was determined by three factors: genetics, circumstances and choice. Their Sustainable Happiness Model integrated these three factors in what became known as the Happiness Pie as it assigned percentages for each piece. 

This model has been highly influential in the science of positive psychology and over the years the exact percentages have been criticized. In a follow up paper, written in 2019 by Sonja Lyubomirsky and Kennon Sheldon the researchers agreed with the critiques and reiterated the cautiousness with which the numbers were originally proposed. Additionally, they held firm of their original goal; to bring awareness to the fact that we have some level of personal influence over our well-being by the choices we make and our ability to learn and cultivate new habits.  

The research, then and now, supports the fact that we are not merely a product of our genes and external life circumstances. We have influence of our happiness via our intentional behaviors. 

Self-agency, also known as “personal agency” in psychology is a term that describes the power an individual has over their own life.

My life circumstances support the personal choice or self-agency piece of my happiness pie is likely around 40%. Your percentage may differ depending on your life circumstances.  If your degree of control in personal choice feels more like 10%, then 10% is in your control! 

Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor writes about the influence of circumstances on human beings in this way:

“But what about human liberty? Is there no spiritual freedom in regard to behavior and reaction to any given surroundings? … Most important, do the prisoners’ reactions to the singular world of the concentration camp prove that man cannot escape the influences of his surroundings? Does man have no choice of action in the face of such circumstances? 

We can answer these questions from experience as well as on principle. The experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action. … Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress… Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

That last line bears repeating.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Viktor Frankl

Health and Happiness.  

Now, why is this important? Because the choices you make throughout each and every day have a direct effect on your happiness and your health.  Leaning on scientific research to help make the point, The Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley summarize studies that support the link between happiness and health effects such as:

• Protecting the heart.

• Strengthening our immune system.

• Combats stress.

• Fewer aches and pains.

• Combats disease and disability.

• Lengthens our lives.

What are you going to do with your personal agency percentage? 

What choices can you make throughout your day to influence your happiness and your health?

Resources:

Lyubomirsky, S., et al. 2005, Pursuing Happiness:  The Architecture of Sustainable Change. Vol.9. 2, 111-131. Review of General Psychology

Lyubomirsky, Sl, Sheldon, K. 2019. Revisiting the Sustainable Happiness Model and Pie Chart: Can Happiness Be Successfully Pursued? 2019 The Journal of Positive Psychology.

Man ‘s Search For Meaning, by Viktor Frankl 1959, Beacons Press