:: Shekhar Bhatia

For a happy Depression, look beyond GDP & GNP

By Shekhar Bhatia

What will you do if your savings have gone for a six in the stock market crash, your job is on the line, and someone tells you, "Smile, mate, look at the brighter side...?"

You could a) ignore the person, b) say something rude, or c) ask, "Is there really a brighter side?"

Personally, I would simply shrug my shoulders and look the other way, but if your choice is ‘c’, chances are the reply will be some spiel about what goes down eventually comes up. But try and forget your misery for a moment and answer this question: how happy were you before the crash?

Before you jump to conclusions and throw at me your favourite bumper sticker that says "Money can’t buy happiness but it sure makes misery easier to live with," let me clarify: I am not getting into some feel-good or spiritual mumbo-jumbo. This is not about the joys of simple living; this is about the new scientific theories of happiness. Many neuroscientists, psychologists and even economists are trying to understand what they call the mysteries of happiness, and eventually, at some point in the future, we will hopefully have a convincing answer to the eternal question: does money buy happiness?

Two economists at Brookings Institution in Washington believe that money matters — even if it does not guarantee happiness. In research published recently, they say that people with six-figure salaries are happier than those whose income is in five figures. They also say the more prosperous the country, the happier its people.

Unless, of course, you live in Bhutan where the King has made happiness a national goal. He believes that any measure of progress must include the spiritual and cultural well-being of the people, the state of the environment and good governance. He has coined a unique term for this: Gross National Happiness. Today, many economists are going beyond GDPs and GNPs and trying to factor well-being into the definition of economic prosperity.

Neuroscientists are studying the brain to understand what really makes a person happy; why one person can be satisfied with less and others need a lot more to be happy. They are probing various segments of the brain to discover the wiring of an optimist and why is it that one person has a more positive approach to life than the other.

According to new research, scientists now believe that your attitude to happiness depends a lot on your genes and how you were brought up. Did you have a happy childhood and a good relationship with your family when you were growing up? Fifty per cent of your approach to happiness depends on this; and the rest on the choices you make as an adult.

I recently read about a new book called Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth by Professor Ed Diener and his son Robert Biswas-Diener, who have redefined the word "happiness". The father and son duo are "positive psychologists" — a fairly recent stream of psychology that deals with positive emotions and human traits.

They define "psychological wealth" as something that goes beyond the simplistic definition of happiness and includes "the feeling that life is full of meaning... the pursuit of important goals". According to them, to be really happy you need a cause, a hobby, a goal that is not about money — you need to be "connected to something larger than yourself".

I was looking for examples of pursuit of goals and found this nice definition on a psychology blog: "Happiness is satisfaction with life as a whole". The blogger cites this rather interesting case of Clea Koff, "a forensic anthropologist who spent nine years working in Rwanda, digging up the remains of people killed in the 1994 genocide. While this was clearly a gruesome task that would have given most people nightmares, afterwards she explained that the work was meaningful, which made it worthwhile. For Koff, then, happiness was satisfaction that she had done the right thing with her life".

The father-and-son team says their research also reveals that a happy person radiates a certain well-being, is more creative than someone who is unhappy, and has a stronger immune system.

All very well but that still does not answer the question about money and happiness. Aren’t the rich happier than the not-so-rich? Yes, say the two psychologists, but they also add that "people who are less well off can have more psychological wealth". You could be broke and worried stiff but if you have an interest that goes beyond your immediate needs and concerns, life can still be meaningful. I guess this is one way of looking at the "brighter side" —provided, as they say, you are connected "to something larger than yourself". Perhaps work for a charity in your spare time, or an NGO?

But what happens if there’s a sudden and sharp dip in income? It can leave the person shattered unless there is something else to cling to. Psychologists are unanimous that it is easier to cope with stress if you have friends and family — or even pets. They believe that more money does not mean greater happiness. And in a crisis, they say, try counting your blessings.

I often look at the faces of the people who work on the fringes of our household, and wonder how they can smile and transcend their wretched living conditions. It’s then that I realise that money is not the only reason for happiness; it can buy you comforts but not contentment. Though contentment varies from person to person on the economic scale, it is the real wellspring of happiness.

Shekhar Bhatia can be contacted at shekhar.bhatia@gmail.com