Community Corner

Hey Encinitas, Harvard Figured Out the 5 Secrets to Happiness ...

Really, and the famed university is still at it. Researchers have tracked a group of men for 75 years to lock down the keys to contentment.

Encinitas, all you need is …

The top secret to happiness? Yes, the Beatles had it right in 1967 it turns out, according to the Harvard Grant Study, the boring name for a quite extraordinary endeavor.

The Harvard University set out to track 268 undergraduates' lives in 1938, according to The Huffington Post, and is still going at it. The participants who are still alive are in their 90s. One sign of the times, though – no female subjects were included.

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And why did they do it? Researchers wanted to find out not just what makes us happy, but how all our thoughts, experiences and values evolve over decades.

So what are the five keys?

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Love, according to Harvard psychiatrist and author George Vaillant, but not just the emotion itself, but the ability to keep yourself open to it, despite life's challenges (ah, the hard part). But ...

Thumbs down on money, power, success, because by a person's late 70s, they're thinking about if they were content or not, not how much they acquired in their careers. And what helps with contentment …

Connection, Vaillant said. He puts it simply: “Joy is connection.”

The next two steps take a bit of effort – overcoming miserable beginnings (Vaillant points to Mother Teresa as an example) and facing challenges.

For more, see The Huffington Post.


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