The sun shone over the UK yesterday marking both a wonderful start to spring and an apt way to celebrate International Day of Happiness. There is no doubt that the weather contributes to our feelings of happiness and well-being but interestingly, Finland, a country with very few daylight hours for much of the year has ranked the happiest country in the world for the 8th successive year.
On March 20 each year, the Wellbeing Research Centre releases its annual World Happiness Report to coincide with the UN’s International Day of Happiness. The report analyses over 100,000 people’s responses from more than 140 countries and ranks countries based on inhabitants’ perceived quality of life. With 10 meaning someone is currently living the best possible life they can imagine; the Finns came in first again with an average score of 7.74.
“They’re wealthy, they’re healthy, have social connections, social support, [and] a connection with nature,” Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, professor of economics at the University of Oxford, leader of the Wellbeing Research Centre and editor of The World Happiness Report, told Fortune. “They’re not happy, joyful, dancing in the streets type people, but they’re very content with their lives.”
While the ranking’s analysis factored in a country’s GDP per capita, wealth distribution, and life expectancy, researchers found social trust and connection help determine happiness more than people may think.
This year the focus of the report was on benevolence and believing in the kindness of others. The more we believe in the kindness of others, or in other words, are socially trusting, the higher our individual well-being and the higher collective well-being. It seems that the Scandinavian countries and a number of less developed Latin American countries where social fabric is strong, are much better at this than their western counterparts in the US, UK and Western Europe.
The research proves that maintaining a strong sense of community with acts such as regularly dining with others and prioritising genuine social connections that are not cannibalised by social media, improves social trust and happiness. Another key indicator of happiness as demonstrated by those countries which ranked highly in the index was being contented with less.
It doesn’t seem like rocket science does it but somehow, we don’t always prioritise what we know we should, even when the research proves it.
Whilst reading about International World Happiness Day yesterday I stumbled across another article in Fortune looking at the “key to happiness”. The Good Life, a book published by Dr Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz distils what makes people find happiness from a study beginning in 1938 following the lives of 724 Harvard students and low-income boys from Boston in the world’s longest scientific study of happiness to date. The ongoing study, which has expanded to include the spouses and children of the original participants, consists of over 2,000 people. Following the participants lives they discovered that the one irrefutable predictor of happiness throughout their lives was the strength of people’s relationships, which are intrinsic to everything we do and everything we are.
In this era of political polarisation and social isolation where online interactions dominate, it is absolutely critical to bring people both metaphorically and physically back around the table together and encourage meaningful relationships. The importance of bringing people together, learning from each other and learning to appreciate others, be it friends, family, colleagues, new acquaintances or complete strangers is critical to building our sense of trust in others and strengthening our well-being and happiness.
So, with all that said, it seems to me that committing to spending time with others away from the day to day distractions and stresses of life is an obvious place to start. Take a break and book a holiday with friends and family where you can spend uninterrupted time together, get outdoors and embrace nature, share experiences, engage in conversations over the dinner table, make new memories and deepen connections. Having recently lost a close family member this need to spend quality time with loved ones is something I feel very strongly about. Multi-generational bonds are vital for all of us, so prioritise them at all cost….at the end of the day when we have exhausted our time on this earth, people tend not to say ,“I wish I had worked harder”; and as Waldinger said in “The Good Life”, “Relationships don’t keep us happy all day, every day because nobody’s happy all day, every day. What they do is they build a bedrock of well-being. They build a safety net. They build a sense that I got people in my life when I need them.”
Spend quality time with those people and if booking a cosy holiday cottage in West Wittering and enjoying some family seaside holiday fun on our beautiful West Sussex Coast is something you might consider, then Wellies & Windbreaks is here to help.
