The Happiness Project

This is the book I am reading now, if you have read some of my previous posts you know that what I have been interested in lately is finding out what makes us happy and why our society is the way it is. I started off in January by reading some Sociology to learn more about behavioral science and the society. 

Now that I have started on my MBA I am reading Economics and find this very interesting - and it is also providing me with a lot of answers and knowledge about our society. It seems so easy and straight forward when you read it in the book, but then I watch some discussions on tv in the evening it is suddenly not so easy anymore - people have very strong opinions and they differ very much! Not easy to make sense of everything but I have my core values based on my background, then add on what I learn as I go along. 

I think I will make a collection here on Storify various things I find, I tend to RT a lot of articles but they just get "lost" in my feed so it would be nice to collect them somewhere. I have so far used Storify to collect some stuff on US politics and today some things about the health care reform, it is difficult to see all sides of the story, but for sure I know nothing is black or white so I try to understand it better.

Anyway - back to the book I am reading at the moment, I thought it might give me some more input on what I just learnt in my Economics book, our behavior and society is based on: 

Insatiable wants (in human nature) + limited resources (fact of life) = Scarcity (what economic as a subject focus on)

So what the author of the book found out to be her happiness formula (so far in the book) was based that it is necessary to generate more positive emotions, "Increase amount of joy, pleasure, enthusiasm, gratitude, intimacy and friendship in life. Then at the same time remove sources of bad feelings, less guilt, remorse, shame, anger, envy, boredom and irritation."

Similar to what I thought was a good advice, basically "what you focus on - grows"

Sounds quite logical but never that easy as we all know, one more thing that is important is growth itself - and I agree that this one is very important, we always want to get somewhere else and THEN be happy, but it is the journey towards the goal that is the essential - this is what gives us satisfaction and sense of accomplishment. Once you get to your goal, the new house or the baby you will have other issues and problems that need to be solved. So it is a never ending chase.

Another thing that she mentions in the book is that work is very important for our life, it gives the "atmosphere of growth, social contact, fun, a sense of purpose, self-esteem, recognition."  

So true - and one that I really understand now that I am at home with my baby, it is so important to get out there in the real world and interact with other people, to get some intellectual stimuli and so on. 

Just read on twitter today that mum´s are typically the most active on Social Media - so I definitely recognize that ;)

At the end, something else I found in a Norwegian newspaper, not sure where the origin is, I just noted down what I thought was good to remember: 

How to be happy

Be grateful for what you have. Be optimistic. Don’t over analyze, if you do - distract yourself. Be a good person. Work on your relationships. Get involved in stuff. Remember the good things that has happened to you. Have goals. Make strategies. Forgive, forget and move on. Spend time alone without distractions. Think. Take care of your body. Learn something new. Be present in the moment.

And for more wise words - check out my Pinterest board where I have collected many nice ones - can´t get enough ;)

Contrasts

I think what most amazes me about this contry is the big contrasts, rich and poor, polished and shabby, fake and genuine. I feel homesick today, and longing for something fresh and natural - rain, mountains, nature, wild gardens, my friends and family back home. 

Shiny happy people?

We are here going through the motions, living the good life in many ways, and I am grateful, there are so many places that I am glad I didn´t have to go to because of my husbands work. Sometimes the melancoly just sets in and I wish I was somewhere else.

It goes up and down, round and round

We went to the beach in the weekend, it was great, so different from the city, it felt like we were travelling somewhere in asia or latin-america :) So one really good thing about being here is that you can experience different worlds in short distances, and we can choose what we want to be a part of.

Escape to a different world

I do appreciate the contrasts as it makes me reflect on my attitudes and values, I have become a lot more interested in economics and are trying to learn more about the political system here. 

Different from home

This is of course the beauty of travelling and living abroad, you are out of your own element and have to make sense of the world around you in a new way - you don´t know the codes and you see things as a mix of from the outside and from the inside. It is liberating in one way and frustrating in another!  

It is what it is

:)

Cool house!