Are You Happy?

I don't often read books that are found in the "self-help" section of the library or bookstore.  However, after a conversation with my wife about a podcast that she had listened to by the author and "Happiness" researcher Arthur C.Brooks (I've posted about him once in the past, see "The mathematics of happiness"), I checked out his most recent book, Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, that he co-authored with Oprah Winfrey.  Apparently it's a book that needs to be read widely!  According to research cited by Brooks and Winfrey in their Introduction, the percentage of Americans saying that they are "not too happy" increased from 10% to 24% in the past decade, while the percentage of Americans saying that they are "very happy" has decreased from 36% to 19% during the same time period.  There is no question that the COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse impact on our overall level of happiness, but importantly these trends started even before the pandemic.  Regardless of why, the simple fact of the matter is that we are just not as happy as we once were in the past.

One of the most important things that I learned from the book is that happiness is not a destination, but rather a direction.  People can in fact be happy and unhappy at the same time!  It makes perfect sense to me that our level of happiness exists along a continuum, but "unhappiness" and "happiness" are not opposite ends on the same continuum.  It's not like this:

Instead, both our level of happiness and our level of unhappiness exist along a continuum.  It's actually like this:

In other words, feelings of unhappiness and happiness can co-exist.  We can feel both at the same time!  Some neuroscientists even believe that the positive feelings of happiness and the negative feelings of unhappiness correspond to activity in different hemispheres of our brain!  Negative emotions, such as unhappiness, largely involve the right brain, while positive emotions like happiness involve the left side of the brain (see in particular research by Richard Davidson).

Brooks and Winfrey use a scale developed by three psychologists at the University of Minnesota and Southern Methodist University in 1988 (see the original study here) called the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, or PANAS (you can take a free version of the test online on his website here).  It's quick and easy!  Basically, you rate yourself on 20 different emotions, some of which are positive and some of which are negative, using a five-point scale (ranging from 1=very slightly or not at all to 5=extremely).  It took me less than three minutes to complete, so it is super easy.  I did take the PANAS test on two separate days and scored fairly similar.  I scored 35 on positive affect and 15 on negative affect, which is right around the average.

The original PANAS study constructed a 2x2 table based upon whether an individual scores "high" or "low" in positive emotions and negative affect, thereby generating four different archetypes:

Individuals that score "High" on both positive affect and negative affect are classified as "Mad Scientists" who tend to react very strongly, either positively or negatively, to things that happen in life.  Individuals that score "Low" on both positive and negative affect are classified as "Judges".  "Judges" are "cool as cucumbers" and don't react much to anything.  Their friends and relatives may get a little frustrated with them, because they don't respond positively or negatively to things that happen.  

Individuals who score "High" on positive affect and "Low" on negative affect are classified as "Cheerleaders", which I think is self-explanatory.  Conversely, individuals who score "Low" on negative affect and "High" on positive affect are classified as "Poets".  "Poets" often are labeled pessimistic by their friends and family members.  However, they are also good to have around, because they often detect problems before things get too out of hand.  

Brooks writes, "Learning your PANAS profile - your natural blend of happy and unhappy feelings - can help you get happier because it indicates how to manage your tendencies, but in separating the two sides, it also points out vividly that your happiness does not depend on your unhappiness."  

If I were to be 100% honest, I was a little surprised to be smack dab in the middle of average.  Perhaps that means that, depending upon the situation, I may lean towards all four archetypes? Knowing how others perceive me, I would have guessed that I would lean more towards a "Judge".  Regardless, I thought this was a useful exercise that taught me a lot about myself.

There are some other useful tidbits in the book that I will address in future posts.  I generally consider myself a fairly happy person, but I also realize that self-care is important.  With that in mind, I do plan on incorporating some of the exercises discussed in the book.  I will leave this post, as I frequently do, with a quote - this one from the book.  Brooks said, "Happiness isn't found in some finite checklist of goals that we can diligently complete and then coast. It's how we live our lives in the process. That's why the four pillars of happiness are faith, family, community and meaningful work. Those are priorities we have to keep investing in."