Happy Now?

This is a very interesting article on what makes us happy as a people.

Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California at Riverside has discovered that the road toward a more satisfying and meaningful life involves a recipe repeated in schools, churches and synagogues. Make lists of things for which you're grateful in your life, practice random acts of kindness, forgive your enemies, notice life's small pleasures, take care of your health, practice positive thinking, and invest time and energy into friendships and family.

Also this is important too:

"Research shows that people who are grateful, optimistic and forgiving have better experiences with their lives, more happiness, fewer strokes, and higher incomes," according to Easterbrook. "If it makes world a better place at same time, this is a real bonus."

Hmm could this explain why conservatives are happier then liberals? They are grateful to be living at the time they are and for what they have achieved. They are optimistic for the future not only for the War on Terror but for Iraq as well. And they are more willing to forgive and forget because they are generally more religious then liberals.

I think a positive attitude mentioned above is very important to being happy. If you expect the worst out of government, people, and daily life then you will be rarely disappointed but you will always be looking on the dark side. If you expect the best out of everything you will be disappointed but you will looking for the bright side in everything.

So a liberal who says the economy has been destroyed, Iraq is a mess and is the next Vietnam, Social Security will be gutted, and Bush is a moron and should be impeached is looking on the dark side of life.

If you are positive you would say that the economy is robust but could be better, Iraq is in turmoil but it could be a beacon of Middle Eastern democracy, Social Security needs to be fixed but how will we do it, and Bush isn't very smart but is a generally caring individual.

If you have some historical perspective this time in America is nothing compared to what we went through in the last century. We had two World Wars in which more Americans died in a single day then in the entire Iraq war. We went through stagflation, an oil shock, and a depression where 1/4 of the workforce was unemployed. We also didn't have the best Presidents. Some were in over their heads (Hoover,) were too nice (Carter,) too mean for their own good (Nixon,) or were sex-fiends (Clinton.) In other words things are going pretty well nowadays considering what went on just a few decades ago.