- Everywhere people want their innate needs met for food, social support, and shelter. Will this meeting of personal needs generate happiness?
- This is a summary of interview of Ed Diener who is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the University of Utah, and senior scientist for the Gallup Organisation (Source: GGSC).
- There is no single key to happiness because a number of factors influence it.
- There are behaviors and choices we make that can influence our well-being.
- Some environmental factors such as air pollution can lower well-being, and other environmental factors such as parks and green space can raise it.
- There is a recipe with some needed ingredients, such as supportive social relationships, spirituality that is based on positive feelings linking the person to goals bigger and more important than themselves individually, feeling valued by others, and the ability to deal with setbacks, which we all experience.
- The happiest people are often those who are doing the most to help others and their societies.
- It seems that making others happy is one good way to move toward personal happiness.
- Feeling that one’s life is worthwhile and meaningful is also important to well-being.
- It Is important not to confuse happiness with simply having fun—for example, by going to parties, playing sports, and participating in leisure activities. The deep and long-lasting sources of happiness contribute to what we call sustainable happiness, which is lasting, not just momentary.