A new study from the Positive Psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert finds that we are most content/happy when we are absorbed in what we are doing. (Science 12, November 2010) Using a happiness iPhone App, the researchers checked in with 2,250 people at random times to see how happy they were at that moment. Not surprising, when asked to rate their feelings on a scale of 0 to 100, those people having sex gave an average rating of 90.
Personal grooming, such as brushing your teeth, was associated with a much higher rate of mind wandering. In fact 47% of the time, people’s attention is focused on something other than what they are doing-a sobering thought when you are driving or trying to have a meaningful phone conversation.
Aside from those having sex, 99.5% of the people had little correlation between the joy of the activity and pleasant thoughts. While mind wandering happens less with enjoyable activities, it still occurs and the mind is likely to be thinking negative thoughts.
The biggest predictor of happiness is whether the person was focused on what they were doing. It didn’t matter what the activity was, it was whether the person was engaged and focused.
“If you ask people to imagine winning the lottery,” Dr. Gilbert says, “they typically talk about the things they would do — ‘I’d go to Italy, I’d buy a boat, I’d lay on the beach’ — and they rarely mention the things they would think. But our data suggest that the location of the body is much less important than the location of the mind, and that the former has surprisingly little influence on the latter. The heart goes where the head takes it, and neither cares much about the whereabouts of the feet.”
The study found that it wasn’t necessarily what you do that makes you happier. Rather, the more mind wandering that occurs, the more unhappy people were. That appears to be happening because as the mind wanders, it tends to stray to negative thoughts.
The take home message is one we've heard from your parents, teachers, employer and even your spouse/partner, “Think about what you are doing.” Add to that “think about what you are thinking about.” Recognize that when your mind starts straying to negative thoughts, Stop, Take a breath, Observe and Then proceed.
Read more interpretations of this study
New York Times
Want to be Happier? Pay Attention by Soren Gordhamer
A Wandering Mind is an Unhappy one by Jason Castro (Scientific American)
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