Happiness
Archbishop Whately (1787-1863) of Dublin said: 'Happiness is no laughing matter.'
Emeritus Professor of psychiatry Thomas Szasz is not even sure that it exists. 'Happiness,' he says, 'is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.'
To some extent Szasz is right since happiness defies any one definition. It is not related to a particular set of circumstances or to any special conditions so there is no automatic switch that allows happiness to be turned on. The Chambers's definition 'taking things as they come' is perhaps the best description.
Happiness, then, is subjective well-being – a sense that life is good. As psychologist David Myers states: 'People who feel happy also tend to think their lives are satisfying.'
Solomon in his Proverbs is therefore able to say, 'a cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones' (17:22). He is right since we know that emotions have biologic effects. The immune systems of happy people are boosted and they are better able to deal with the rigours of life. When we are depressed the immune system suffers and the way is open for the disease processes to gain a foothold.
Researchers at the universities of Texas and Pennsylvania have been analysing the writings of poets who have taken their own lives and have discovered that depression has predisposed some poets toward writing poetry and also that the expressing of deep dark emotions in some poetry has pushed the writers over the edge.
Psychiatric researcher Thomas Oxman concludes, 'This study reinforces my belief that one's choice of words reveals much about one's mental state.' Oxman's conclusion thus bears out another of Solomon's findings, 'As a man thinks in his heart, so he is' (23:7). So a 'downcast spirit' does more than just drying the bones.
Studies across sixteen nations show that gender and age have little bearing on happiness. Another study involving research in thirty-nine countries show that eighty percent of men and women are at least satisfied with life, the remaining twenty percent reporting that they are very happy. Of the elderly, the happiest of senior citizens are first and foremost actively religious, and why not? The Bible has much to say about happiness and how it might be objectively and subjectively experienced.
If there is one simple formula which comes close to the dictionary definition it is that expressed by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians '… I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content' (4:11).
Richard J B Willis
BUC Health Ministries Director
Archbishop Whately (1787-1863) of Dublin said: 'Happiness is no laughing matter.'
Emeritus Professor of psychiatry Thomas Szasz is not even sure that it exists. 'Happiness,' he says, 'is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.'
To some extent Szasz is right since happiness defies any one definition. It is not related to a particular set of circumstances or to any special conditions so there is no automatic switch that allows happiness to be turned on. The Chambers's definition 'taking things as they come' is perhaps the best description.
Happiness, then, is subjective well-being – a sense that life is good. As psychologist David Myers states: 'People who feel happy also tend to think their lives are satisfying.'
Solomon in his Proverbs is therefore able to say, 'a cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones' (17:22). He is right since we know that emotions have biologic effects. The immune systems of happy people are boosted and they are better able to deal with the rigours of life. When we are depressed the immune system suffers and the way is open for the disease processes to gain a foothold.
Researchers at the universities of Texas and Pennsylvania have been analysing the writings of poets who have taken their own lives and have discovered that depression has predisposed some poets toward writing poetry and also that the expressing of deep dark emotions in some poetry has pushed the writers over the edge.
Psychiatric researcher Thomas Oxman concludes, 'This study reinforces my belief that one's choice of words reveals much about one's mental state.' Oxman's conclusion thus bears out another of Solomon's findings, 'As a man thinks in his heart, so he is' (23:7). So a 'downcast spirit' does more than just drying the bones.
Studies across sixteen nations show that gender and age have little bearing on happiness. Another study involving research in thirty-nine countries show that eighty percent of men and women are at least satisfied with life, the remaining twenty percent reporting that they are very happy. Of the elderly, the happiest of senior citizens are first and foremost actively religious, and why not? The Bible has much to say about happiness and how it might be objectively and subjectively experienced.
If there is one simple formula which comes close to the dictionary definition it is that expressed by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians '… I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content' (4:11).
Richard J B Willis
BUC Health Ministries Director