It is not love and money that make us happy. On the contrary, happy people find it easier to create a family and become rich. Such are the paradoxical thoughts of Mike Viking, director of the Institute for Happiness Research.
Now he will come, dancing to the rhythm of salsa, with a smile from ear to ear, in a Hawaiian colorful shirt!.. I have an interview with the happiest man in the world!
This is the name of the Dane Mike Viking. In Russia, he is known mainly from the book about hygge - the wisdom of finding happiness in simple things like a warm blanket and hot tea on an autumn day.
A serious handsome Scandinavian in a gray jacket came, looking like a scientist or a manager, but not the main expert on happiness. And it turned out that the Viking was seriously thinking about happiness, only after experiencing great grief. As a result, he created the Institute for Happiness Research in Copenhagen.
WHAT IS GOOD FOR RUSSIANS, IS FOR CHINESE
- Our ideas about happiness are actually very similar. Happiness in Russia looks about the same as in China, the USA or Denmark - Viking began practically with a quote from Lev Tolstoy. It turns out that not only all happy families are equally happy - but all countries?
And what is this common happiness for all? Love, family, money, travel?
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- Exactly! When I am with my friends and my family, we have delicious food and good wine, I am happy. When I work, I manage to solve a difficult problem, I am happy. When I play sports or go fishing, I am happy. I'm happy on the beach. And I think many people feel happy in the same situations.
You can't argue - I like it all too. But why then create a research institute of happiness, if everything is simple and obvious? What are Mike and his colleagues studying? And sociologists, psychologists, economists, and political scientists work with him.
Happy people are more likely to start a family.
Do you have any instruments, devices, laboratories? How do you study happiness?
- In psychology, there is a lot of research about depression, stress, loneliness. And we study positive emotions using the same methods. But happiness is a very broad concept. We can talk about vivid momentary emotions (a football player is happy after winning the World Cup. Or a girl who was offered a hand and heart. - Yu. S.). But happiness is also a deeper feeling, life satisfaction, not affected by mood swings or minor setbacks. Surprisingly, different parts of the brain are responsible for these two types of happiness!
We also look at the impact of the economy on happiness - GDP, unemployment, inflation … The ideal study of happiness is a long-term observation of people's lives. We take 10 thousand people and study their life for ten years. How do they feel when they graduate from university, find a job, lose their job, move from Moscow to St. Petersburg, get married? How does all this affect their happiness?
HAPPY BY INHERITANCE
And what makes us happy and what makes us unhappy?
- There are many factors, and they can be divided into three categories. The first is genetics. The predisposition to happiness is in our DNA just like the risk of schizophrenia or depression. The second is the circumstances. I think there is no need to explain why Syria and Afghanistan are at the bottom of the world happiness ranking, while prosperous countries such as Denmark are among the leaders. And the third is our behavior and the choices we make. What we pay attention to, what we devote our time to and how we look at life.
The gene for happiness is called 5-HTT, and it is responsible for how our nerve cells perceive serotonin, a substance that is responsible for mood, feelings of joy and happiness. People with a “long” version of this gene feel happier and more content than those unlucky enough to be born with a “short” happiness gene. Now scientists believe that happiness depends on genetics by at least 30 percent, or even 50 percent!
In my head, happiness does not amount to interest. You probably have too. But geneticists and psychologists have counted everything. Otherwise, what kind of science is this?
And maybe then misfortune is recognized as a hereditary disease? And heal by inserting the correct gene into the DNA? And everyone in the world will be happier?
- I don't know if it's worth doing. I think no. I certainly want people to be happier. But unhappiness is also a necessary part of our life. Disappointment, illness, a broken heart - all this is hard, but people also need to go through such stages, through difficult experiences. I don't think we can just take and destroy misery with DNA.
Mike Viking's book * Hugge * introduced the world to the secrets of Danish happiness.
Why is unhappiness necessary?
- My mother died at 49 years old. And I wondered - what if I also live only 49 years? What have I done, what am I doing, what is my life spent on? When we lose loved ones, we think about the fact that we ourselves will die sometime, that life is not eternal. And we ask ourselves the question: what am I spending my time on? And thinking about it is important. And to be happy, we need to feel that you are doing what you really want to do, and that it makes sense.
LOVE, MONEY, HEALTH. OR VICE VERSA?
The findings of the Institute for the Study of Happiness sometimes sound like a captain of the obvious. The wealthy are happier than the poor. Married and married are happier than single (on average and overall). But there are also unexpected turns.
- If we ask 10 thousand Russians whether they are happy, we will see that married people are, on average, happier than single ones. But what is the cause and what is the effect? Is the person happy that he is married (or is she married)? Or vice versa - are happy people more likely to start a family? Let's try a different approach. Let's take 10 thousand people and watch them for ten years. Some of them will definitely get married over the years. What will happen to the level of happiness? Immediately, after two years, after five years of family life? Such studies were carried out in Europe. And they showed that the feeling of happiness builds up even before the wedding. Obviously - the person is in love, met his soul mate. The peak of happiness comes immediately after the wedding, then gradually decreases. But in any case, starting a family is an investment in your long-term happiness. However, let's go back to the beginning of the experiment, ten years ago. And we will see that it is precisely those "experimental" who have been happier in their single years who have got married and got married.
That is, being happy is a way to meet your love?
- Yes! More precisely, it is a two-way process. And the same can be said about money. Scientists have observed dozens of pairs of twins over the years. Who among them feels happier in his youth - that in 20 years becomes richer. We often link money and happiness: they say, if I had a million, I would become the happiest person! But it works differently. Happy people are more successful and earn more. And with health the same story. Moreover, the effect of happiness on health and life expectancy is comparable in strength to smoking, only with the opposite sign. People who are happier are healthier and live longer.
WORK AND ANOTHER MONTH HOLIDAY
It remains to figure out how to become happy - after all, then we will have love, money, and health!
- There is no secret, “magic pill”, - Mike Viking refuses the role of the goldfish. - Happiness has many elements. Yes, the most obvious ones are family, friends, interesting business, but not only.
What determines whether we feel happy (findings of the Institute for Happiness Research in Copenhagen, and this is not a complete list):
Confidence. Friends, colleagues, neighbors. And here we are talking about the most different levels. Forgot your wallet in a cafe - are you sure they will return it? Do I trust my colleagues that they will not substitute and do not cheat? Do I believe in people's good intentions in principle?
Security, confidence in the future. That you won't be left on the street without money, that your children will be able to get an education, and so on.
Material well-being (not necessarily wealth). Here, however, there are nuances. In poor countries, where people often do not have enough money for the simplest things, food and clothing, material well-being is a very important factor for happiness. But when basic needs are no longer a problem, family and social contacts come to the fore.
Freedom and the ability to make choices, make decisions - the feeling that I am in control of my life.
Job. And he's more important than he looks. First, the team or clients is communication and social connections. Secondly, work gives a person a sense of his own need. Being unemployed or fired is one of the biggest reasons to feel unhappy. Even if you have something to live on. Together with work, a person loses self-esteem, social ties, the usual daily routine, feels lost and useless.
Balance between work and family, free time. We do not go to extremes, workaholism has not made anyone happy either. The happiest people in the world spend 250 hours less at work per year than the average employee who plows 220 to 230 days a year. And 250 hours is, it turns out, 31 full working days! We need another whole month of vacation for complete happiness.
REFERENCE
Mike Viking is the founder and director of The Happiness Research Institute in Denmark. Expert on international projects such as the World Database of Happiness. The author of the best-selling books “Hugge. The Secret of Danish Happiness”and“Lukke. In Search of the Secrets of the Happiest People”and hundreds of articles about happiness in various newspapers and magazines. Graduated from the University of Roskilde (Denmark) with a degree in Business and Political Science, worked at the Danish Foreign Ministry.
YULIA SMIRNOVA