bodhi tree swaying

Eric Weiner writes about a recent report saying that the Danes are the happiest nation, and puts it down to their attitude of not having unrealistic expectations — something that he (rightly, I think) equates with Buddhism. It’s a post that’s worth reading in full, especially for his analysis of the "hedonic treadmill," but here’s an extract:

About once a year, some new study confirms Denmark’s status as a happiness superpower. Danes receive this news warily, with newspaper headlines that invariably read: "We’re the happiest lige nu." Lige nu is a Danish phrase that means literally "just now" but strongly connotes a sense of "for the time being but probably not for long." Danes, in other words, harbor low expectations about everything, including their own happiness. Though not an especially religious people, Danes would make good Buddhists. They live their lives as the Buddha advised: in

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Here’s a brief one from the Boston Globe:

QUICK, READ THIS paragraph out loud as fast as you can! Feel better? You should, if a team of Princeton and Harvard psychologists is right. Motivated by the observation that euphoria is often accompanied by “racing thoughts” among manic individuals, the psychologists conducted a series of experiments – including one that had people narrate the famous “Job Switching” episode of “I Love Lucy,” at fast or slow playback speeds – to test whether being forced to think faster results in a more positive mood. Not only was thinking faster significantly associated with positive mood, but there was some evidence that thinking faster inflated self-esteem and made it harder for people to stop talking. Other research by the authors even found that thinking fast about ostensibly depressing things can improve mood too. The authors conclude that “experiences

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The NYT has a report on studies claiming that the amount of time spent watching television is a good indicator of how happy a person is: the less time spent in front of the idiot-box, the happier a person tends to be.

The researchers caution that they can’t yet explain the correlation — whether happy people watch less TV or whether watching TV makes you unhappy.

I have no special insight into these studies, but I doubt the statement of the researcher who said, “I don’t know that turning off the TV will make you more happy.” In itself, no. But I think that socializing, exercising, meditating, and reading are inherently more enriching than watching television. But I suspect the relationship works both ways — watching TV diminishes our lives and when we’re unhappy we’re more likely to turn to a passive form of entertainment. …