3 Surprises from Happiness Research: Don't pursue happiness, PTG not PTSD, and efficacy of meditation...

Suffering and pain are inherent in the experience of life.

Don’t bother with the pursuit of happiness.

And when it comes to meditation, there is a better use of your time.

That’s probably not the opening you’d expect for an article on happiness. But the last few days I’ve had my perspective challenged by a few different scholars. And I think there’s something to these statements.

PTSD —> PTG

We all know pain and suffering are a part of life (thanks for the reminder Jackson!). We may think it’s worth avoiding these or that happiness would consist of eliminating them entirely…

While I do think we shouldn’t go looking for them, these emotions may actually have a role in bolstering happiness. Happiness Studies pioneer and professor Tal Ben-Shahar draws on the work on Nassim Taleb to explain that humans are “anti-fragile systems”. Think about it like this. Resilience 1.0 says when a system is stressed and the stressor is removed it returns to normal (baseline). Resilience 2.0 says when a system is stressed and the stressor is removed the system comes back stronger or larger. Think of a muscle — it is stressed then comes back better.

Humans are anti-fragile systems. Now of course there are limits to this — and just like the muscle analogy — proper recovery is key.

It turns out that post-traumatic growth (PTG) is more common than post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Now this is not meant to overlook the very real challenge of PTSD. However there seems to be a tendency to think that all intensely stressful or even traumatic experiences mean doom. This is not the case.

The exact percentage of people who experience PTG vs. PTSD following a traumatic event is pretty much impossible to state with precise certainty. Based on the literature I’ve reviewed, it’s likely some 1 in 10 will develop PTSD after a traumatic event (REF 1) whereas about 2 of 3 will report PTG (REF 2).

Suffering and pain are a part of life and while we certainly should not advocate for nor seek out trauma — there is evidence suggesting that it can lead to growth. Humans have anti-fragile psychology.

Don’t pursue happiness.

Several studies have suggested that those who place a high value on happiness may end up being less happy (REF 3).

This seems paradoxical. But a metaphor is helpful.

Imagine if I focus on losing weight: I obsess over it, I check the scale every morning, I read blogs about weight-loss, etc. But notice that I never actually planned out or prioritized going to the gym, walking more, or changing my diet.

The problem is when we focus intensely on happiness we are focusing on some ambiguous outcome instead of the activities that lead to the outcome. We should shift our focus from outputs to inputs.

This claim is backed up by research from Lahnna Catalino. She has found just this. That while just focusing on the pursuit of happiness is counterproductive — those who instead prioritize investing time in more positive activities are happier (REF 4).

Don’t pursue happiness. Pursue the inputs and activities that lead to it.

There’s a better way than meditation.

Importantly, this is not a hit piece on meditation. Studies of mindfulness (particularly mindfulness-based stress reduction — MBSR) programs have shown a host of benefits from improved mood, to reduced stress, to pain relief, to even improved immune response.

But recent research from Stanford has found a more effective protocol than traditional mindfulness meditation (REF 5).

Researchers had groups spend five minutes per day with several practices. The control group did five minutes per day of mindfulness meditation. This is essentially paying attention to the present moment continuously, redirecting attention back to the present when it wanters. Other groups did some sort of controlled breathe-work technique.

The group assigned “cyclical sighing” show sizable reductions in anxiety and improvements in mood over just one month in comparison to the mindfulness meditation group. Respiratory rate — a biomarker relating to stress also decreased. Cyclical sighing consists of a deep breath through the nose with a second, sharp inhale at the top followed by a controlled releasing sigh that is about twice the duration of the inhale.

In this study, it seems that if one is interested in optimal protocols for improving happiness — the “most bang for your buck” so to speak — it is best to prioritize cyclical sighing as a daily practice over meditation.

I hope these surprises will serve as practical tools to support you in living a happier life. Thanks for reading.

Your happiness nerd,

Jackson K.

REFERENCES

1. Shalev, A. Y., Gevonden, M., Ratanatharathorn, A., Laska, E., van der Mei, W. F., Qi, W., Lowe, S., Lai, B. S., Bryant, R. A., Delahanty, D., Matsuoka, Y. J., Olff, M., Schnyder, U., Seedat, S., deRoon-Cassini, T. A., Kessler, R. C., Koenen, K. C., & International Consortium to Predict PTSD (2019). Estimating the risk of PTSD in recent trauma survivors: results of the International Consortium to Predict PTSD (ICPP). World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 18(1), 77–87. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20608

2. Wen-Jing Kou, Xiao-Qin Wang, Yang Li, Xiao-Han Ren, Jia-Ru Sun, Shuang-Yan Lei, Chun-Yan Liao, Ming-Xu Wang,Research trends of posttraumatic growth from 1996 to 2020: A bibliometric analysis based on Web of Science and CiteSpace,mJournal of Affective Disorders Reports, Volume 3, 2021, 100052,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2020.100052

3. Journal Source: Aekyoung Kim, Sam J. Maglio. Vanishing time in the pursuit of happiness. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2018. Retreived from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180312104036.htm

4. Catalino, L. I., Algoe, S. B., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2014). Prioritizing positivity: an effective approach to pursuing happiness?. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 14(6), 1155–1161. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038029

5. Balban et al., 2023, Cell Reports Medicine 4, 100895 January 17, 2023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895