Casual Friday: The Importance of Meaning

From Extreme Kindness.

In his book Happier, Tal Ben-Shahar relates this thought-experiment by the philosopher Robert Nozick:  Imagine a machine that could give you the feeling of any experience you could possibly imagine. It could give you the feeling of a vacation in the Riviera, the feeling of directing a great movie, the feeling of discovering a cure for cancer, the feeling of being in love, or any other infinite number of feelings. If such a machine existed and the feelings it created were perfect replicas of the real things, would you choose to stay plugged into it for your entire life? Would you be happy staying plugged in?

Most people would say no. Even though humans desire pleasure, we also intuitively know that pleasure alone is not enough for longterm happiness. We desire to make a REAL difference in the world, no matter how small that difference may end up being. So as long as you know that the "experience machine" is not real, you would almost certainly feel a nagging incompleteness if you stay plugged in for a long time. (But if you don't realize you're in a machine, like a citizen in The Matrix, that might be a different story.)

So how do you create meaning in your everyday life? Not everyone has an obviously meaningful job like cancer researcher, but meaning is still within your reach in the billions of small moments you experience throughout your day. Tal Ben-Shahar suggests that you make a list of the things you find meaningful, then list the things that give you pleasure, then list your strengths as a person. When something shows up in all three categories, that's what you should spend your time doing, even when it seems insignificant to other people. This is the most basic recipe for longterm happiness there is, but it takes effort.

I think it's worth it, though.

Weekend Viewing: Tal Ben-Shahar's Happiness Class

Hey, let's watch Tal Ben-Shahar teach a class! You may remember me writing about Tal in my very first Casual Friday. As a quick refresher, he is the author of the excellent book Happier, as well as being the professor of the famously popular happiness class at Harvard. This video shows him on the first day of a new semester, but after he had already become famous.

For some reason, I was only able to find this video on a Chinese version of YouTube, but don't worry--it's all in English. I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but he starts by talking about one of my favorite topics:  the difference between the popular notion of outgoing cheeriness and real happiness. After a few notes on the class itself, he goes on to talk about the importance of silence in our lives. He is an engaging and informative speaker, so give it a try! (Embedding seems to stop working periodically. If that happens, use this link:  http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTE5MTAzODgw.html)

Boarding School with Classes in Positive Psychology Now Teaching Parents

From The Telegraph

Alastair Jamieson of The Telegraph reports that Wellington College, a boarding school with happiness classes for its students, is now offering those classes to parents. Wellington began teaching happiness and wellbeing classes in 2006. Anthony Sheldon, the teacher who introduced the classes, says that that they have been enormously successful, as evidenced by the creation of similar programs at other schools.

I've never heard of this school before, so I don't have much to add, other than these classes would probably be a good idea in American public schools as well, but with so many educational budget problems, they may not make the cut. It's an easier argument to make in college, where positive psychology classes overflow with students. Taxpayers may be harder to convince!

Casual Friday

Hey, it's a new weekly feature! Actually since this blog is only 48 hours old, all features are new, but this one is especially so. Since it's Friday, I thought it might be nice to take a break from discussing current happy science news. Instead, I'll use Casual Fridays to share some quick and easy happiness tips--all based on scientific evidence, of course.

On this casual-est of Fridays, I've picked the book Happier:  Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment by Tal Ben-Shahar. Mr. Ben-Shahar became famous for teaching "Positive Psychology" at Harvard, a class that filled up with 855 students in a single semester. In addition to writing several books on the subject, he has also appeared on The Daily Show:  http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-9-2007/tal-ben-shahar.

In a nutshell, Happier is a guide to creating happiness by balancing what you want now (pleasure) vs. what you want in the future (meaning). To be as happy as possible, you should, do things that are both pleasurable and meaningful at the same time. For instance, watching TV is pleasurable, but not particularly meaningful (unless you're watching The Wire, the greatest show ever!), so it won't make you happy in the long run. On the other hand, volunteering to clean up toxic sewage may be meaningful, but not pleasurable, so if you do it everyday you'll get burnt out before you feel long-term happiness.

To help you balance pleasure and meaning, Ben-Shahar suggests that you create a chart for yourself, mapping out your activities throughout the day and assigning a number value (on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest) to each activity's meaning and pleasure. So you might give "Watching TV" a 2 in the "Meaning" column and a 4 in the "Pleasure" column. Then write down how much time per week you spend doing each activity. At the end of the week, look at your chart and try to make a commitment to spend more time doing activities with high scores in both "Meaning" and "Pleasure", and less time doing activities with low scores.

Whew. That may seem like a lot of work, but it only takes a few minutes per week, and it can be an eye-opening experience to actually look at the time you waste doing stuff that's not meaningful or pleasurable. Like tallying up your expenditures for the week, actually seeing the numbers in front of you can make a huge difference in creating positive change.

So give it a try, then send us a comment to tell us how it goes--as long as commenting rates high enough on your chart.