If you want to live a happy and healthy life, then reading the next two pages may help put you on that path… fast. Sound too hard to believe? Sure it does. Especially with all the “doom and gloom” our economy and country is facing right now.
But the truth is: most of the time, achieving success and happiness is actually easier than achieving failure and despair. And…
It is ALWAYS a choice.
A Choice That You Can Make Right Now…
What’s that, you want proof? Sure thing… here is some amazing and interesting PROOF…
According to a December 5th article in Reuters… happiness is contagious!
Here’s exactly what that means: Not too long ago, a team of researchers found smoking and obesity spreads in social circles. Basically, if you have friends who smoke and are obese, you are more likely to smoke and be obese too.
That was bad news. But now, the same team of researchers has GREAT NEWS!
On December 4th, in the British Medical Journal they revealed that getting connected to happy people improves your own happiness.
Here’s how they came up with this conclusion… this is pretty incredible: Nicholas Christaki (a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School in Boston) and James Fowler (a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego) used data from a huge health study that began in 1948. The study is called the Framingham Heart Study.
Data was kept on 4,700 children of the volunteers of that study.
Volunteers gave many types of personal information over the years including: births, deaths, marriages, divorces, etc.
But what seems to be one of the most important types of information gathered was their list of personal contacts: Personal friends, co-workers and neighbors.
Then Christaki and Fowler measured happiness using a basic four-question survey.
Subjects were asked how often during the past week:
(1) They enjoyed life.
(2) They were happy.
(3) They felt hopeful about the future.
(4) They felt that they were as good as other people.
And the results were simple: 60% with high scores were rated as “happy,” while the rest were “unhappy.”
That’s pretty straight forward and simple. But here’s where it gets…
REALLY INTERESTING…
The happiest people had something in common: they had the greatest number of happy people in their social network.
In other words, the people with the most friends, spouses, relatives, etc. who were happy were also the happiest people.
"Each additional happy person makes you happier," Christakis said.
"Imagine that I am connected to you and you are connected to others and others are connected to still others. It is this fabric of humanity, like an American patch quilt."
WOW! Researchers saying we are really all connected! We are not separate entities …
WE ARE LINKED!!!!
He went on to say that on our “patch quilt,” we are surrounded by all of our connections (other patches). These patches are either happy or not happy.
If happy patches surround us, then we are happy. Conversely, if unhappy patches surround us, then we are unhappy.
Pretty simple – isn’t it? So simple, we probably didn’t need a Harvard researcher to tell us that we are all connected and having happy people around us makes us happy and sad people make us sad… right?
Well, here’s something fascinating about that…
The research showed if a person in your social circle is happy, then your happiness increases 15%. But a negative or unhappy person in your social circle only decreases your happiness by 7%. Clearly…
One Bad Apple Does NOT Spoil The Bunch!!!
At least not the entire bunch!
You would need twice as many “bad apples” as “good apples” to be unhappy yourself. That is good because there seems to be a whole heck of a lot of negativity out there these days.
Now check this out… it’s pretty neat: According to the study, if you have a happy friend, it will increase your happiness by 15%. And, if that happy friend has a happy friend (which is a friend of a friend your chances of being happy increase by 10%.
And, if that friend (a friend of a friend of a friend) has a happy friend… your chances increase 6%.
And here may be the mot important part of all this for YOU:
According to the Reuter’s article, researcher James Fowler said, “Among other benefits, happiness has been shown to have an important effect on reduced mortality, pain reduction, and improved cardiac function. So better understanding of how happiness spreads can help us learn how to promote a healthier society.”
Here’s something that fits the economic times of today: In 1984, a study found that saving $5,000 increased a person’s chances of becoming happy by 2%. So, according to Christakis, “a happy friend is worth $20,000.”
Is that number adjusted for inflation? Who knows… or cares!!! J
Now for…
One Simple Change That Could
Reduce Obesity In The U.S. By 18%
According to a November 29th, 2008 article in Science Daily: “A ban on fast food advertisements in the United States could reduce the number of overweight children by as much as 18 percent, according to a new study being published this month in the Journal of Law and Economics. The study also reports that eliminating the tax deductibility associated with television advertising would result in a reduction of childhood obesity, though in smaller numbers.”
The article goes on to mention that eliminating the tax deductibility of food advertising from corporations would effectively raise the price of advertising by 54%.
It is clear the effects of childhood obesity are staggering. According to a December 13, 2008 article on Dr. Joseph Mercola’s website: “Research indicates that there is an 80 percent chance an overweight adolescent will be an obese adult. Over 300,000 deaths can be attributed to obesity and weight in the United States every year.”
But the fundamental question is: Is it the government’s job to regulate good food from bad and, therefore, who can advertise and who can’t? Or is it a parent’s job and responsibility to raise and educate their child? At this very moment, New York State is proposing “fat taxes.” One example is a 15% tax on non-diet soda. Somehow they have concluded that the chemicals in diet soda are better than the sugar in non-diet varieties. Many would disagree. And that is not to say non-diet sodas are good. But we must be careful whom we let decide for us what is good and what is bad, and what we can and cannot advertise… and eventually eat.
Bottom line: You have a brain and your television has and on/off button.