Below is an excerpt from a Newsweek article based on a compelling new study about happiness. Can you be too happy?? Feel free to express your opinion in the comments.
But is it really a good thing to be ultrahappy? Nobody thrives on sheer misery, of course, but might there be perils in endlessly striving for more and more good cheer and sunny days? Or, put another way: is happiness overrated?
A growing number of psychologists are thinking it might be, and one team in particular has been conducting some large-scale, data-heavy studies to test the point. Shigehiro Oishi, Ed Diener and Richard Lucas decided to compare people who see themselves as being extremely happy with people who describe themselves as being only moderately so. Surprisingly, this had never been done before—at least not this thoroughly. They studied men and women, young and old, students and working people, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the globe. After all the data crunching they came up with some consistent and surprising insights.
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I believe that just like anything else, wellbeing comes from moderation. Perpetual bliss is an unrealistic goal, and striving for it creates disappointment and loss. That is probably why psychologists are beginning to believe happiness is overrated. Striving for middle ground where you can weather the dynamic changes that life throws your way in both positive and negative directions is likely more realistic and achievable. The contentment that being at peace with yourself and the ebbs and flow of life is more stable than the pursuit of happiness anyways.
Posted by: Joanna Scaparotti | December 05, 2007 at 11:27 PM