Have you ever been diagnosed with a complex like depression or anxiety? Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Have you ever taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator? If so, you’ve been labeled by the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.
One of the most fundamental services a psychologist provides clients is to simply help them to be happy. Sounds simple, but it’s a struggle for a lot of us and maybe it is for you too. A therapist once told me, “Clients come to me when the pain is greater than the $125 an hour. When the $125 an hour is greater than the pain, they stop coming.”
Certainly, we all have a bummer day here and there, but that’s the short game and you’re human. In the longer game, there are 5 basic things Jung said we can all do to help ensure the happiest future possible.
1. Physical and Mental Health
Jung believed that at the core of human happiness is being of sound mind and body. Harvard agrees. They’ve been studying this for a long time and what they’ve found is that the biggest predictors of a senior citizen’s well-being are 1) laying off the smokes, 2) laying off the booze, 3) maintaining a healthy body weight, and 4) exercising. Seems pretty obvious.
2. Personal and Intimate Relations
Family and friendships are huge indicators of personal happiness. We are social beings, and as we learned in the Covid time, we need each other. But there is a third indicator of longer-term happiness and that is a primary relationship – i.e. getting married. There is no causation that getting married or being with your person will make you happy, but there is a correlation. Study after study after study confirms it: married people are happier than single people, which is weird since over half of all marriages end in divorce, but apparently that’s what the studies say.
3. Seeing Beauty in Art and Nature
Jung believed that happiness also requires one to cultivate an appreciation for beautiful things and experiences. But to do this right you need to parse the thing from the experience. Beauty in nature is an engaging experience. If you do it right, you are immersed – you are “in nature”. Beauty in art is different – it correlates to the mood the art brings. For example, if you listen to a happy song, you’ll feel happy. Listen to a sad one, you’ll be bummed.
4. Enough Money and Meaningful Work
When talking about work, there’s a difference between “satisfactory work” and “meaningful work”. When you can make work meaningful, as in service to others, you just feel better (aka happy). Employment and income don’t really help you to be happier – just less unhappy.
And then there’s the number. How much money does it take to be happy in America? The majority of the data points at $75,000 a year. Apparently over that amount doesn’t really make you a lot happier. Your mileage may vary depending on your lavishness, dependents, and how many lottery tickets you require a week.
5. A Philosophical or Religious Outlook
Jung argued that happiness in life requires a way of understanding why things happen the way they do. He once wrote in The Atlantic magazine, “For it is not that ‘God’ is a myth, but that myth is the revelation of a divine life in man.” He wasn’t a secularist, but he did believe that everyone should have some sense of transcendent belief or higher power and purpose.
Research shows a faith-based belief system correlates strongly to finding meaning in life, and spirituality is positively correlated with better mental health – even as a protection from depression. Again, your mileage may vary.
Here’s a sticky for the fridge:
1. Sound Mind and Body
2. Personal and Intimate Relations
3. Seeing Beauty in Art and Nature
4. Enough Money and Meaningful Work
5. A Philosophical or Religious Outlook
Good luck and have a happy week.
Joe Still
2024.04.27
Cite
“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne