Wellbeing, Happiness and Living Longer

Part of the basic human journey (a struggle for many ) is to stay happy, reduce stress and live a longer, more satisfied life

It makes us ask…”why can’t we be happy most of the time?”

Or, “what is the underlying secret to being happier, having more energy and living a stress free life?”

We all strive to answer these questions at one point or another in our lives.

Thanks to science and investigation, we are getting closer to answering those questions.

A study out of Princeton University and UCL  has shed some light on the link between feelings of wellbeing, happiness and living longer.

Specifically, they highlight 3 types of wellbeing lending to the notion that our emotional feeling of happiness is more complicated than just a single emotion or state.

1. Evaluative Wellbeing – which covers the feeling of personal satisfaction that we have with our life at any given time

2. Hedonic Wellbeing – a measurement of our moods including joy/happiness, sadness, grief, or anger

3. Eudemonic Wellgeing – our perception about our place in life (meaning and purpose in life)

All other factors controlled, researchers found that people with a lower Eudemonic Wellbeing factor (people who felt less meaning and purpose in life) were a full 20% more likely to live 8.5 years from when the study was done (Low Eudemonic wellbeing experienced a mortality rate of 29.3% while higher satsifaction with their place in life and purpose in life experienced a mortality rate of 9.3% )

So, for all of you who lack meaning in your life, struggle with procrastination and feelings of sadness and can’t seem to figure out what your purpose in life is all about – not only does this lead to short-term struggles with happiness but it also could be fatal.

Here are 3 Ways To Find More Purpose In Your Life

1. Re-Discover Your Passions And Interests

Why is it as a child we live “in the moment” and will always migrate toward that which we are interested, fascinated by or enjoy while as adults we find ourselves deliberately avoiding these areas?

For the sake of our own happiness, productivity and longevity, it’s time we go back and re-discover those things that kindled our inner fire, our passions and our interests and work those into our lives

2. Change Your State

Why we keep the same beliefs, keep thinking the same way and keep doing the same thing each day expecting a different result is really quite amazing…likely something we need to study in itself

What we do know, however, is that by changing what we do (everything from how we sit, the route to work, our daily routing, our diet, when we go to bed at night, etc…) we change our thought patterns (I call these pattern “interrupts”) and we can consciously change or add new beliefs that can also impact our thoughts and future behaviors

So, as a catalyst to kick-start change in our lives, we can change our state – something we can do right away that will lead to a snowball effect of change helping us to come closer to finding true meaning and purpose in our lives

3. Be Selfish – So You Can Be More Selfless

Many people we speak with feel “guilt” around spending time on themselves.

Whether it be for exercise, relaxation, meditation, introspection or determining your meaning in life, the thinking is that one is being “selfish” in these puruits instead of spending time on their kids, peers, job, or spouse

Quite the opposite is true however, what good are you to your family, the community, your employer when you are sad, procrastinating, negative and tired?

Instead, by spending more time on finding your place in the world, your purpose,  and your inner fire, you can become much more of a shining light for those around you.

Now that we know your sense of wellbeing based on your assessment of your meaning in life and your purpose directly impacts your health and longevity – it’s time to get serious about making some basic changes and finally learn to enhance our course in this fascinating journey called life don’t you think?