Having your own car means unlimited freedom. Right? A study shows that yes, it can increase life satisfaction. But freedom is a myth, and dependency on your vehicle will reduce overall happiness.
Tag: happiness
Both pessimism and optimism are stored in our genes: They helped us be watchful, while giving us the possibility to hope for a better future. But which one helps us lead a better life? For Die Zeit, Harald Martenstein, a self-declared pessimist, looks at the benefits of both.
Happiness applications promise to make users measurably happier in eight weeks. But is happiness a skill that can be taught? For Die Zeit, science writer Maria Mast put an app to the test.
We live in a political, social, economic and fundamentally cultural environment that viscerally rejects all pain and suffering as irrelevant. For the modern individual, it is not so much a case of being free to do this or that, as to be free from whatever limits us.
It’s not the passage of time or overcoming hardship that makes you wise, but rather the effort to keep your mind truly open.
It’s difficult to take a breath in the middle of all of the parenting chaos — but if we aren’t able to tell when happy moments are unfolding, we risk missing them altogether.
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Stop And Feel The Sea Breeze
Our Naples-based Dottoré catches a serendipitous chill amid the summer’s heat.
Gen Z, those 26 and younger, are entering the workforce. Their lives and values differ drastically from older generations, forcing employers to rethink how they work.
Hygge dreams and happy extended families are increasingly fading away.
“It’s just that all the hardships he has faced have made him more appreciative of the simple things — he’s happier than us.”
-OpEd- MEDELLÍN — A recurring theme one hears from families coming to school is that, above all, they just want their children to be happy. And when you ask parents what happiness means, they’ll say children need more time to play and to have fun — and not be forced to study and think about […]
Beauty and happiness may be in the eye of the beholder. But they’re also fundamental components of a healthy society, writes Colombian novelist William Ospina.
The Colombian government’s fondness for ‘happiness’ polls may be an attempt ot distract people from poor basic services that are a public responsibility.
It’s official: Norway has toppled Denmark to become the world’s happiest country in 2017. Or, to put in local linguistic terms, the world’s lykkeligste country. This year’s rankings, which came this morning to coincide with the International Day of Happiness, surely has left more than one Danish unhappy, or ulykkelig (yes, Norwegian and Danish languages […]
TURIN — Riding their bicycles along the banks of the Po river last Sunday, a university professor and his wife came upon a scene that caught their attention: A man and a woman, armed with shovel and spade, were busy digging out a bench, just before the Sassi bridge in central Turin, that had been […]
If Nordic people are the happiest people in the world, it is thanks to the state of welfare and cuddling with friends in the candlelight. Today the word for this ritual invades the life of Francophones.
-Essay- BOGOTÁ — Colombia’s Caribbean coastal cities have people with less depression, bipolar mood swings, schizophrenia and other mental health conditions than elsewhere in the country, according to a recent national mental health poll. Is that surprising? A few days after I arrived in the Caribbean, I was invited to a barbecue in one of […]
-Essay- I am short of breath. My brow is wet with sweat, and my fingertips are tingling. I can’t seem to concentrate. I’m happy, but there’s this idea nagging inside of me that I might lose that very happiness I’m feeling. That is indeed the cause of my anxiety. It’s not the fault of the […]
BERLIN — The sight of a swing causes not only children, but also many adults, to impulsively sit down, push off with their feet and swing back and forth for as long as possible. This very impulse was a stroke of luck for Oliver-Selim Boualam and Lukas Marstaller, when the management of the Cologne Furniture […]
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Can Work Make Us Happy?
The pursuit of happiness has been the endeavor of all people since the dawn of time. But can work, the central value of modern civilization, be the answer?
A volunteer who led a writing workshop for Syrian child refugees of the war did what he could to offer the aspiring writers some hope. His heart was touched in return.
Modern life, with its rules and material rewards, has robbed people of the most basic sense of happiness. What do we have to lose by ridding ourselves of so many imposed ideas?
The best-selling Argentine therapist pens a new book meant to help modern generations find a simpler path and, along the way, harmony and happiness. Self-help with a Latin twist.
Why are Poles such a gloomy and miserable lot, always assuming the worst and refusing to love thy neighbor? It turns out, cheerlessness here has deep roots.
BERLIN — Peter Seher sits on his balcony in Berlin-Wilmersdorf enjoying the late afternoon sun. He looks at the large puddles of water beneath his feet. It was nice and warm today, so after work the stockbroker set up a little wading pool on the balcony for his young daughter Hanna. “She really got going […]
There are medically proven explanations for why our minds and bodies generally feel better when the season changes. So, goodbye Winter Blues, and hello Spring Euphoria!
The refusal to give up amid dire political and financial conditions – call it old fashioned Optimism – helped Peruvians turn into a growing economic force.
-Commentary- OSLO — In Oslo, where snow falls abundantly, visibility is virtually nil. But what this white desert suggests is not melancholy à la Ibsen or a metaphysical Munch Scream. On the contrary, deep satisfaction and hope dominate here. In other words, unlike the French, Norwegians are happy people. They claim to feel no remorse, […]
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Wisdom Teeth
Pure happiness was radiating from this old man, whom we met during a trip in southern China. I don’t remember why he was so cheerful — but we learned a Chinese proverb somewhere in our travels: “If you are not a fish, how can you know if the fish are happy?”
GENEVA — No need to read Plato’s complete works or learn by heart the words of the Dalai Lama to understand the meaning of happiness. Science may have the answers. At the University Hospital of Geneva (UHG), neurologist Fabienne Picard has been studying for years a very rare phenomenon that scientific literature barely talks about […]
BEIJING – Who are the happiest people in China? In a survey conducted by Xiaokang (meaning basically well-off) magazine last year, in the eyes of the public, civil servant comes top of the list as a profession. However, the newly published 2012 China Workplace Mental Health Research Report has shown that officials’ own sense of […]
OECD Worldcrunch PARIS – The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has just released its Better Life index — a survey ranking 36 countries according to 11 criteria: Housing, Income, Jobs, Community, Education, Environment, Civic Engagement, Health, Life Satisfaction, Safety and Work-Life Balance. For the third year in a row, Australia takes the […]
MUNICH – It is shortly past 10 a.m. in a Munich middle school and Tammy is lying on the floor, muzzle tucked between his paws, stomach rising and falling gently as he breathes in and out, apparently asleep. Occasionally, when Salma leafs through the pages of her book, the dog’s eyes blink open then shut […]
GDP v. Happy Planet Index? Some New Year’s number crunching from Moscow, comparing life in cold and warm climates, rich and poor countries, free and less free societies.