The truth about happiness

Everyone thinks that the No Impact regime causes some sort of deprivation, but the fact is that I was more deprived before than I am now. Here’s why: happiness is simply not based on how much stuff you have. It’s based on how you live. Science shows it.

Happiness, the research confirms, is derived from strong relationships, using your core talents, living a life according to your values, and connecting to something larger than yourself so you have a sense of meaning. Unplugging from the consumption matrix has helped me to do all those things: no TV means more time with family, trying not to hurt the planet connects me to something larger and makes me feel like I’m living in accord with my values, and I get to use my core talent which is communication.

It turns out, you see, that once I had the courage to challenge my consumption addiction, living a life that is better for the planet turns out to be better for me, too. That’s great news. To convince people to use fewer resources all we have to do is show how doing so can make them happier. And here’s a BBC video about the science that confirms it.

Comments

[Justin Simoni]

Here's another one worth watching, No Impact Man!

The (misguided) pursuit of happiness (TEDTalks, Dan Gilbert)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7822696446273926158

In this memorable talk, Dan Gilbert demonstrates just how poor we humans are at predicting (or understanding) what will make us happy. ... all » Gilbert is a psychology professor at Harvard, and author of "Stumbling on Happiness". (Recorded February 2004 in Monterey,

Sorry that the flick was sponsored by a car company :(

[John]

I have not commented for some time but read every one of your wonderful notes. Keep up the good work, people! We're all learning a lot from your experience. You raise great issues to think about. Most importantly, why is it that the rest of us cannot seem to get off our duffs and reduce our eco-footprints? Our rationalizations are endless, but you provide great motivation for us. I am looking forward to reading the book!

[Tirzah]

You make very good points! So many people are unhappy and they try to fill the void with stuff! It doesn't make the pain go away and it makes you poorer and then you have to find a place in your life for the junk you bought! People have to be happy from the inside!

[Susan Och]

Please be careful about making blanket statements about happiness. Many people, even in Manhattan, are still striving to merely sample the creature comforts that have already satiated you. If saving the planet means agreeing on a definition of happiness, we are surely doomed.

[Sheri]

It seems almost every time I come to post a comment I get beat to it by some negative Nelly who has nothing better to do than poo poo on your parade.

Doesn't the U.S. Constitution or Declaration of Indepedance...whatever, I'm Canadian, make the largest blanket statement about happiness..."the right to the pursuit of happiness?"

Do you think all those men who wrote that and signed it each equally agree on the definition of said happiness? No, they were merely stating that they were all in agreement for each individual's right to pursue it...whatever it means.

Colin's point was merely that HE's happier with less and that there is scientific evidence to back up why that is.

Go Colin!

[P~]

I agree, happiness is a tricky thing to quantify with material stuff. I would go into my perspective on it but at the risk of looking like I'm advertising, it's easier to just link to it since I already wrote about the same thing a whole back.

-Susan, as always, a very good point. I'd love to hear your comments on my article about happiness. You make very cogent points.

[Theresa Carey]

I don't think Colin is proposing a universal definition of happiness. I think he's just saying that having an abundance of material goods isn't what causes it.

[P~]

Sheri, I think I understand Susans point differently that you. Colin makes the argument that we can possible show people that they could be happier by reducing their consumption. I see Susans point as being that if people are struggling to merely get by as it is, reduction is not an idea that is going to bring nirvana so to speak.
P~

[chile]

I completely agree with you on this one. For us, no TV means more time to do fun things ourselves rather than watching other people do fun stuff. And it's wonderful not being tied to the TV schedule (or Tivo).

[MartyL]

To quote Lisa Germano in her excellent song 'Happiness'

"Happiness is like TV,
on or off, it's up to me"

[Rachel]

Excellent post Collin, succint and to the point. In regards to the discussion on Susan's post, I think Collin's ideas can apply to people who have less. When you do without because you have to, you can feel very deprived. When you do it for a higher cause it all changes. I, for one, since reading Collin's blog from the beginning, have been able to completely change my attiude about the things I have to "do without". No I feel linked to a larger group of eco-warriors reducing consumption to save the earth, I no longer feel deprived. I spent less money in the last two months than I ever have, and I don't feel in the least sorry for myself. It was easy.
Susan said, "Many people, even in Manhattan, are still striving to merely sample the creature comforts that have already satiated you." That's part of the problem. Put differently, many people are still striving to be as wasteful of our earth's resources as the Beavans once were. And they will if they get the chance, it's the measure of success. If people like Collin can lead the way in showing the world that things aren't necessary for happiness, maybe we can stop consumption in its tracks before it starts. The things that make the Beavans happy- charades with friends, spending time with their daughter, walking everywhere, etc. are within reach of everyone no matter how little they have. And if more people who don't "have to" do without started consuming less, it would go a long way to closing the gap between they and their neighbors.

[Uma]

Happiness as I understand from a spiritual point of view.
The nature of the universe is duality and duality is all pervasive-it is present in everything around us.
Day - Night
Joy – Sorrow
Good – bad
Beautiful – Ugly
Black - White
Pain – Pleasure
Higher self – Lower self
Unless you know, see, experience one you won’t know, see or experience the other.
Everything is also transient and in a state of flux. The secret of real happiness and peace as I understand is to go beyond duality and find oneness.

[dura mater]

Susan,
Thank you for reminding us once again that most of us reading and commenting on this blog are fairly middle-class.

However, it's the desire for stuff, not merely posession of stuff, that brings the discontent. "Pre-commercial" societies, if you will, do not, I suspect, have the same degree of despair that we do. Some of the things that come with development in societies, like clean water, probably do increase happiness, with fewer people dying of water-borne diseases etc., but no one tries to get bigger or better clean water, or more clean water than his or her neighbors, or water that confers immortality or makes you richer (although the bottled water craze argues against this. . .it's making someone richer). But clearly things like TV do not increase happiness, but only increase the sense of deprivation.

I know that I am sort of rambling.
But what underlies my ramblings is this: I have spent time in a tiny village in Honduras, where the average person has less stuff than most homeless people in NYC. The town just built a well a few years ago. There is no indoor plumbing. There are no stores. What the people do have is a rich network of family & community. They are happy. Sure, they have the same ordinary human sadnesses that go with the species, fear, loss, death, etc, but they do not have the same emptiness and discontent that so many of we affluent ones do.

So I don't think it's the having or not having; I think it's the wanting that's the problem.

[Eva]

Uma: I think it is a vast oversimplification of and disservice to the universe to state that its nature IS duality. I can see that duality may be one of its characteristics, but we rarely encounter pure black or white, rather we're surrounded by an infinite variety of shades. The same is true for beauty, pain, and even day and night: there is a long process every evening of day becoming night, and vice versa in the morning. Dualities are people's way of fitting what we observe in the universe into neat catagories. You may find happiness in the search for oneness, but I find more joy in the rich, messy, and unexpected complexity that is the world.

Thank you, Colin, for reminding us not to purchase more 'things' in an attempt to fill our lives, but to find gratification in what we already have: the people around us, and the natural ebb and flow of nature and life.

[P~]

Eva-"..I find more joy in the rich, messy, and unexpected complexity that is the world.".
Beautiful, simple and true. I think you may be the my next thought of the day.
P~

[dare]

I agree, happiness is not how much you own. Chasing after the invisible pie in the sky, slaving and stressing oneself out trying to pay for all that stuff, which most of we don't really need. Having more doesn"t make one better either.
Less is more. More time to enjoy Nature, to spend with family. This could be the best way to reduce our impact on the planet.

[Colin Beavan aka No Impact Man]

@Uma, my question for you is, once you get oneness, then what? What do you do with this experience of oneness and what do you use it for?

@Everyone else, I have a question for you, too. If you get happiness, then what? What do you do with this happiness and what do you use it for?
All the best,
Colin aka No Impact Man

[Jill]

To quote the voice of Zen:

WAKE UP!!

[Calendar]

Interesting segment. Thanks for posting. Reminds me of some of the ideas brought up in Douglas E. Booth's Hooked on Growth: Economic Addictions and the Environment.

P.S. I really enjoy your blog!

[Natasha]

great web site!!
I'm Italian and the environmental protection is also very important here. I agree with the article but I think that is not so simple to carry out. I'm sure you know who's James Lovelock and I agree with him when he say "to stop the end of Heart we need to stop the economy development" but who can we do that? we need to work we need to eat we need to wear ourselves!!! if we stop productions how can we survive??
how many people have a vegetable garden??
Thank you for reading, sorry for my bad english. Napy_78@yahoo.it

[Uma]

Colin, good question. A seeker is encouraged to raise as many questions. I am not an expert but deeply interested in philosophy. What I am trying to talk about here is Advaita (non-dual or oneness) Philosophy found in the Upanishads (fundamentals of Hindu Philosophy). Advaita philosophy does not see God as a separate entity from you or me, but sees each one of us as potentially divine. The one thing that keeps us alive and helps us function in the world irrespective of our status, size etc. is the same thing present in each one of us, call it Brahman, atman, God, etc. In Sanskrit, the terms used are “Aham Brahmasi”– meaning “you are Brahman” in other words “you are divine”. It is comparable to the same electricity that flows through different gadgets and makes them work irrespective of their form or function. Enlightened people could see this oneness. Liberation (moksha) takes place with this realization. If we could see this oneness,a lot of our problems like hatred,jealousy,etc.would be at least minimized and we would be more tolerant of one another. We cannot escape being born with desires and wants and we do need possessions to live but if we can keep them to a minimum and focus on higher goals in life we can definitely experience bliss (Ananda). The path is not easy and we need not get discouraged but we can slowly try to change.

Eva, there are definitely shades but each shade, however light, has its opposite shade.
The existence of pairs of opposites is for a better understanding of the universe.You understand darkness as you have seen light.

[Uma]

Colin, good question. A seeker is encouraged to raise as many questions. I am not an expert but deeply interested in philosophy. What I am trying to talk about here is Advaita (non-dual or oneness) Philosophy found in the Upanishads (fundamentals of Hindu Philosophy). Advaita philosophy does not see God as a separate entity from you or me, but sees each one of us as potentially divine. The one thing that keeps us alive and helps us function in the world irrespective of our status, size etc. is the same thing present in each one of us, call it Brahman, atman, God, etc. In Sanskrit, the terms used are “Aham Brahmasi”– meaning “you are Brahman” in other words “you are divine”. It is comparable to the same electricity that flows through different gadgets and makes them work irrespective of their form or function. Enlightened people could see this oneness. Liberation (moksha) takes place with this realization. If we could see this oneness,a lot of our problems like hatred,jealousy,etc.would be at least minimized and we would be more tolerant of one another. We cannot escape being born with desires and wants and we do need possessions to live but if we can keep them to a minimum and focus on higher goals in life we can definitely experience bliss (Ananda). The path is not easy and we need not get discouraged but we can slowly try to change.

Eva, there are definitely shades but each shade, however light, has its opposite shade.
The existence of pairs of opposites is for a better understanding of the universe.You understand darkness as you have seen light.

[Correne]

I'm really not sure if reducing my impact would make me happier. The way it looks right now, the way to reduce my impact the most is to hang my laundry out to dry, to become vegetarian, to shop at the local farmer's market, to walk or take the bus there, to grow my own food in my backyard, and more canning, etc, in the fall.

Speaking as a mother of young children, all of these ideas sound like a lot of hard work. It doesn't sound like more time with the kids, it sounds like LESS, because I'll be doing more things manually, making things from scratch, and everything will take forever because the bus service here sucks.

As far as using my best skills, mine are researching and teaching, NOT gardening, or being a household slave.

Don't get me wrong, I am inspired by what you're doing, and I'm trying to make some changes, but thinking about changing all my grocery shopping habits, my diet, my consumption, the way I do the laundry, and EVERYTHING is so overwhelming I could start crying right now.

I am sure there is some kind of feminist angle in all of this, because it seems like reducing our household impact translates into a lot of grunt work for women, who still do the lion's share of the food shopping, the cooking, and the laundry. It sounds like you and your wife have a fairly good arrangement, but many families are way more "traditional." Maybe you could explore that in one of your posts.

[cynthia]

I see so many horrible situations on a daily basis as a law enforcement officer. Just last night I took to jail a man who beat his girlfriend in front of her children; and the children thought that was normal! After which, we dealt with a child abuse case where the step-father hurt the infant b/c she was crying. The list goes on. Deal with that on a daily basis and tell me it doesn't eat away at you. This is an existance my professional cohorts and I live with, so it is sometimes difficult to trust anyone outside of emergency services. Some turn to drinking to cope. Some get plain depressed. Almost all no longer trust the public in general.

Point being, happiness can be difficult no matter what you have or do not, when all you see is society turning on each other in cruel ways. It took time to break out of the mind set, and it takes a lot of will-power on some days, but we have to see what we have (not in the material sense) in comparison to others.

When we made a bust on a prostitution ring where the "madam" was pimping her own 14 yr old daughter, I called my mom to thank her for being wonderful. After each Domestic Violence call, I call the b/f to tell him he's wonderful and I love him.

It really is a "count your blessings, name them one-by-one" prescription to realize happiness does exsist when you feel very low down & that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

[Blondeemum]

Amen about restoring family time by turning off the b**b tube....we have seen a lot of changes, too! Thanks for your inspiration! ;-)