I’ve been feeling not so very happy lately.  Not all of the time, but too much of the time. I’m not sleeping well.  I wake up anxious about how much I have to do each day.  I worry about the struggles that my family faces and of course how can I do anything but worry about the state of the world that I live in.  It’s been a while since I felt relaxed and content and this is definitely of concern to me.  So I perked up when I recently read an article in the Huffington Post entitled:  Women are Unhappy?  And you’re surprised?  In the article, Marcus Buckingham tells us that women are accomplishing more and more and becoming increasingly less happy.  That didn’t surprise me at all – especially the accomplishing more and more part – but it did lead me to read a little more about happiness.

James Montier, a global equity strategist (whatever that is) did research into the psychology of happiness and concluded that happiness has three components:

• About 50% of individual happiness comes from a genetic set point. That is, we’re each predisposed to a certain level of happiness. Some of us are just naturally more inclined to be cheery than others.
• About 10% of our happiness is due to our circumstances. Our age, race, gender, personal history, and, yes, wealth, only make up about one-tenth of our happiness.
• The remaining 40% of an individual’s happiness seems to be derived from intentional activity, from “discrete actions or practices that people can choose to do”.

So where do I go from here? Read more…