Apparently, the secret to happiness has been unveiled, and there’s a lot to say about what makes us, women, happy.
According to Professor Paul Dolan, a behavioral science professor at the London School of Economics and self-proclaimed “happiness expert”, there are some things to follow and some things you need to avoid in order to achieve this happiness.
He is the author of Happiness by Design, and he says in his book that the true secret to happiness lies in our behavior. Dolan has carried out a long research that investigates the causes of human happiness and the consequences, and his most recent research suggests that the happiest group of people are single, childless women.
Professor Dolan suggests that the key to our happiness is the lack of a spouse, however, married people still claimed to be the happiest when their spouse was in the room.
His study also found that the levels of happiness of married people were higher than those who do not have spouses, but only when their spouse was in the room.
The sub-group that reported overall highest levels of happiness were single, childless women.
Even though he admitted that having children can be “an amazing experience” for some, he noted that it just “isn’t for a lot of people”, and it can bring misery to many women.
The professor believes we are living our lives by narrative, and we turn out lives and aspirations into “stories”, even though those narrated stories don’t necessarily bring us happiness.
For example, us, women, are often told that we need to get married or have children, because that’s what women traditionally do. However, it doesn’t mean that it will make ALL of us happy, and some of us need to challenge those narratives.
Dolan believes that it’s time for people to break these statuses and expectations, and take on the fact that if you don’t like to get married and have children, there are other things to do in life.
Professor Dolan claims that we should actively seek experiences that bring us purpose and pleasure, and happiness can be found in the day-to-day experiences like laughing, engaging in random acts of kindness, gratitude, being open to new experiences, having conversations about all things. Happiness is living in every day.
