Happiness As We Age
Over 2000 years ago Aristotle concluded that more than anything, men and women seek happiness. There are times in my life when I don’t need an ancient Greek philosopher to tell me something that is so obviously true. This would be one of those times.
Yes, happiness. We all want to be happy but achieving happiness can be a challenge. Although we have been surrounded by happiness advice all of our lives. Who remembers the 1963 hit from Jimmy Soul -
If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life
Never make a pretty women your wife
So in my personal point of view
Get an ugly women to marry you.
This may not have been the advice we were looking for, but that song stuck in your head all dang day.
Well here is some good - not from a song. Actually great news - from science.
“Our older years can be some of the happiest time in our life”.
Whenever I made a statement that seemed too good to be true my kids would give me the “side eye”. Have you ever gotten the side eye from your kids? I would simply respond - “Don’t listen to me, listen to the experts”. I am going to use that same strategy here. I can feel a few “side eyes” from the crowd.
Jonathan Rauch, American Author, Yale grad, and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute wrote the best selling book The Happiness Curve. The book describes happiness as a U shaped curve. We start out happy, not a care in the world. Our happiness starts to crash in our twenties as we face the realities of adulting. We hit rock bottom as we go through our mid-life crisis. But then our happiness starts to rise as we get older.
Some of you may be saying “that’s not what my curve looks like.” I understand.
Associate Professor Christina Bryant of Melbourne University would also agree. However she goes on to say “As we age, positivity tends to increase. We develop cognitive capacity for more complex thinking enabling a more nuanced view of life. This allows us to be more content…to be happier.
My friends, this is what wisdom looks like. Wisdom can make us happier.
So much has been written about happiness. It is one of my favorite topics. I could go on forever. But I won’t because that would not make you happy.
I will end with words of wisdom from The Dali Lama captured in his book co-authored with Desmond Tutu. The book is called The Book of Joy. I highly recommend the read. He says
”I believe the purpose in life is to find happiness. True happiness is not jumping onto the hedonistic spinning wheel chasing the next dopamine fix from external stimuli. Instead, the ultimate source of happiness can be found within us - simply a healthy body and a warm heart.” I love it.
This will not be our last conversation about happiness.
Enjoy your day,
Just a little extra-
As I mentioned, we are surrounded by happiness advice. Good news, it has improved from 1963, the days of Jimmy Soul (side note- I am happy I did not follow his advice).
One very good source I would recommend comes from Yale University. Dr Lauri Santos teaches the most popular class on campus called The Science of Well-being. You can travel to New Haven Connecticut and enroll in the class. Or you can take the class for free online through Coursea- link below.(another side note, I chose this option sparing me the embarrassment of being rejected by the school.)
https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being
References
Pogosyan, Marianna. May 8, 2024. 3 Ideas From Aristotle on How to Build a Good Life. Psychology Today
Staff. February 10, 2024. U-Curve of Happiness. Fast Company
Lama, The Dali. The Book of Joy