Happy

I watched a documentary a few days ago, called Happy. And it's about what makes people happy~ I thought I'd write about some of the interesting things it talked about.

What are the general causes of happiness?
Apparently 50% of the factors that contribute to happiness are from genetics. Which seems odd to me. I should look into exactly how genetics have such a huge impact. Unless you have a genetic disease or disorder, I guess.
The circumstances of your life - your job, social status, the amount of money you earn, and your health account for 10%. Only 10%.
Which means that 40% of comes from you trying to be happy. Doing stuff that you enjoy, going for walks, staying positive, ex.

Money. If you have enough money to meet your basic needs, then any additional money is not important for your happiness. There's isn't a difference in happiness between rich people and people who have what they need. Happiness has not increased over the past 50 years, even though people have more money.
And no matter how much money you make, you'll get used to that lifestyle and end up wanting more. Just remember, more money won't make you more happy.

Religion can make people happy too. But not always. For example, religions that think everyone else is going to hell besides them are actually less happy than average people. Hmm.

Flow is how you feel when you're doing something that you wish could go on forever. This could be because you're really into your work, or when you're having a really good time with people lose to you, or anywhere. Flow is a nice feeling~

People who are happy have close friends and family. You don't have to really like everyone, but good company means happy people.

You know how excited you are when something really awesome happens? Well, that feeling fades pretty fast. But you know what? If something really bad happens, that means that you can get over those awful feelings pretty fast. I'm surprisingly good at that. I guess I have to be, since I'm studying environmental problems. XP
Being happy means that you are able to recover quickly from adversity. That does not mean that you don't feel awful when something bad happens. It means that you are able to get over it and go on with your life and find happiness again.

After your teenage years, you start losing parts of your brain that you don't make use of. This includes parts of your brain that feel happiness. So, theoretically if you don't be happy often after you're a teenager, you'll start to lost the ability to be happy. O__O
Be happy! Be happy lots!

Out of all of the developed countries, Japan is the least happy. Actually, that doesn't surprise me, considering what I've learned about it. I always wondered, if they work so hard, how do they find time to have fun and be with people? Since WWII, japan has accomplished amazing stuff. But it's been at the cost of their happiness, from working so hard that they lose time for everything else. Including their families and friends. Remember what I said about happy people having great friends/family?
In fact, people in Japan will actually work themselves to death. It even has its own word. Karoshi. They work so hard that they drop dead (or commit suicide).
Working hard is good. But it's not good to work so hard that you lose everything else.
What happens when the people of a country aren't happy?

Well, Bhutan doesn't want to find out. They recently started something called GNH, instead of GNP. It's Gross National Happiness. That means that they're not only focused on making more money. They want to focus on making the people happy. They don't develop everything to try to "keep up" with other countries. They leave older things that are important for the people - temples and forests ad such. They don't want only fleeting pleasure, but lasting happiness.
Denmark is actually the happiest country on Earth. I should visit there. They have free education and free healthcare. That must relieve a looot of stress. O___O Another interesting thing is that a lot of people live together in co-housing units - more than anywhere else on earth. Their housing unit is a little community. They share responsibilities, so you'd only have to cook a couple times a month, for example.
Being happy can make you healthy. Despite unhappiness in lots of Japan, Okinawa seems like a pretty good place, considering an unusual number of very old people live there. Healthy old people. People who are over 100 years old wake up and work in the garden every morning. They're always active, they get plenty of sleep and eat small portions of food. And they have great, supportive communities of people. Their community has activities where everyone in the village, of all ages, interact together.
Hmm. I'll have to try all that out. Heheh.

Basically, cooperating with people makes you happy. This is what I was talking about with Jiro, from The Wind Rises.
Except in America, they drill into us that we have to compete with each other. The powerful people are the people who stomp on everyone else weaker than them.
Thus we end up with video games where we kill people, running over them with cars or shooting them.
And we end up with kids at school bullying each other because they're not tall enough, or they're the wrong color or the don't like the same things you do.
Oh boy. How fun. I probably would have gotten a lot more of that if I didn't fight back at the worst ones. It all went away once I had good friends around me though.
Compassion. Being kind to others, whether or not you know them. That is what makes people happy. Doing random acts of kindness is great. Meditating on compassion is actually more powerful than anti-depressants.
And doing stuff that is worthwhile will make you feel good.

Basically, having wonderful people around you, being kind to others, and doing something useful.
So, go out and be as happy as possible!

Because:

Smiling is infectious. you catch it like the flu
When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too~
I passed around the corner and someone saw my grin.
When he smiled, I realized I'd passed it on to him.
I thought about that smile and realized its worth.
A single smile just like mine could travel round the earth.
So if you feel a smile begin, don't leave it undetected.
Let's start an epidemic quick and get the world infected!

Goodness... I memorized that poem in middle school. It was on a poster in the locker room, and I learned it for some reason. It's only one of 2 peoms I actually remembered for fun, and still remember both. How the heck is it still in my head? O__O

Okay, off to do homework. Must carry some happiness with me to get me through it. ^-^'