Why living No Impact contributes to happiness

I have a college professor friend and today he conjectured as to the reasons why choosing a life with less impact contributed to my family's happiness during the No Impact year.

He said that important contributors to happiness are:

• Meaning: I got a lot of satisfaction out of living a life that seemed connected to something larger and more important than myself.
• Autonomy: By deliberately designing my own No Impact life, I got to make a lot of choices for myself, rather than feeling that my way of life was foisted upon me by my upbringing and culture.
• Connectedness: Because we unplugged from the electronic matrix--TV, computers--we plugged into what was happening in our neighborhood and with our friends. Our relationship strengthened.

Cool, right? And what it all adds up to is what I always say: a happier planet makes for a happier people.

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