Scientists have been searching for the recipe for happiness for 75 years. here’s the answer

What is happiness? Each answer to this question is different. But scientists are seriously trying to find out about the secret ingredient that can make a human being happy. Three generations of US psychologists have studied the life histories of hundreds of people to unravel the great mystery. And it looks like they did. Or, if not, they came close to succeeding.

O awesome.club became interested in knowing the recipe for happiness of American psychologists and even dared to create a small test.

For 75 years, psychologists have observed the lives of 268 Harvard University graduates, studying all aspects of their lives, interviewing them regularly with the help of a questionnaire. All these years scientists have dedicated themselves to the search for the answer: “What exactly helps a person to be happy?”

The science of happiness is quite complex. The research showed that, with age, the participants of the program changed their views, giving preference to a career, financial independence or the relationship with their family. Each lived through different events along their journey, but in the end, they all came to a common conclusion.

Each of us seeks his place in this life, and he who succeeds in joining in a fortunate way to the vigorous current called ‘society’ feels happier. The human being has to feel a connection with different spheres of his life, feel an implication in everything that happens around you🇧🇷 It is about the professional demand, the well-being of the family and the relationship with other people. “Here they need me”, this thought is good for the heart.

Research director George Valliant, at the end of the paper, wrote: “75 years and 20 million dollars have led us to a conclusion: happiness is love. And point”. Love in a broad sense is the main source of positive emotions and means that it is also the key to happiness.

Research has shown that the presence and support of close people are closely linked to stress level, life expectancy and sense of well-being. Interestingly, life’s difficulties did not significantly influence the participants’ happiness: couples who survived poverty, serious illness, and the loss of loved ones ended up being happier than those who did not face serious problems.

Valliant also identified the vices, in particular, the abuse of alcoholic beverages, as the main enemies of well-being. The psychologist pointed out that, normally, happiness is achieved by other people. narcissism and pessimism. Knowing how to solve any problem in life is, at best, the most valuable quality a person can have.

Inspired by the ideas of American psychologists, we asked the awesome.club to share their life stories, from when they felt a state of pure and genuine happiness to see how the conclusions of scientific work work between us, here and now.

Here are the brightest and most stimulating stories.

“My colleagues and I were vacationing in Turkey and we decided to take a tour of the 3 seas: Black, Mediterranean and Aegean. I have great memories of that moment and I swam enough for the whole year. We returned almost at dusk. I remember putting my legs on the back of our little boat so that it touched the sea. The engine that powered the water tickled my feet and I started to cry. For the first time, I cried with happiness. It was a state of pleasant fatigue, I felt tranquility and silent joyI realized that the world had sensational places and it was possible to experience such feelings in nature, the pleasure of swimming and a complete union with everything that was happening.”

“I was transfixed when I saw my wife (then girlfriend) arrive at the registry office door on our wedding day. She got out of the car in her white dress and smiled at me. She was beautiful and walking towards me. I kept looking at her like I was levitating above the earth and everything happened in slow motion, until she kisses me.”

“One of the happiest days of my life was the end of my boyfriend’s military service. Neither before nor after did I feel such emotion. I felt hope near the gates of the military detachment and the feeling of anxiety, fear and nervousness turned dramatically into a wave of warm happiness and music in my ears as I found myself again with the love of my life. Even 6 years later, I remember the scene and start crying.”

“That year we were at the beach with the whole family. Until now I feel a knot of tenderness in my stomach and it all happened when my daughter saw the sea for the first time. It was late and the waves were strong, she ran along the shore and said, ‘How beautiful! How much water!’. This happiness was so sincere it brought me to tears.”

“One of the most memorable and happy events was when I sang a solo from one of the compositions of the choir that I participate on stage at the Chapel of the Resurrection. I had already sung a solo over 100 times in different settings with the choir, but in Capela it was something special. At first, I felt very nervous: I had forgotten part of the lyrics of the previous song and I thought I would forget everything in my turn. And then when I left, it all happened, the euphoria came and I liked how my voice sounded and felt under the dome, and the sight of this huge, tall room with a crowd of spectators took my breath away. For 2 minutes I felt like the solo singer of the group Celtic Woman🇧🇷

“One day, we were returning from a walk with my 2-year-old son and he wanted to open the apartment door without my help. He took the keys from my hands and ran ahead of me down the long hallway, and suddenly, I had a sharp feeling of the moment: I was breathless, I felt a lump in my throat. He is red-haired and, at the time, wore a blue jacket with a very cute deer design. He ran and so gracefully, it was so incredible that I thought about how that moment would never be repeated and that when he turned 13 he would say to me in a masculine voice ‘Mommy’, avoiding any caressing in his hair. But that was still a long way off, but I still felt sad and happy at the same time. Today he is 13 years old and I remember that moment like it was yesterday.”

Our authors have told us about important events in their lives, such as travel, friendships, reunions and separations, and all the stories are quite different. Almost all were filled with love, but in each there was a sense of belonging, as mentioned by the aforementioned author of the study, George Valliant. Therefore, we, without much modesty, conclude that, as a song says, It’s impossible to be happy alone… happiness, in short, must be shared. With friends, family, passers-by or simply with the world around you.

Also, if you don’t want to be infected by the virus of unhappiness and apathy, you should enjoy and remember every moment that happened in your life. Trust me, it really works!

We are happy to share interesting findings and posts with you. Tell our team: what makes you happy?