Taking Happiness Seriously - MC article from Hub...submitted by Annie Lewallen on 6 Nov, 2013. According to this report, humans are programmed to be social. When our brains are not actively working on a problem or task, we automatically switch to a default network which looks strikingly similar to what happens when our brains are making sense of people. So whenever it has a free moment, the human brain has an automatic reflex to go social. Neuroscientist Matthew Lieberman suggests that we think socially because it is the smartest thing we can do evolutionary. There are big payoffs for our well-being. Connecting with others is as good for us as quitting smoking. And it is even better for us to connect with those who need our help. Conversely, the way our brain processes broken relationships and rejection looks an awful lot like the way we process physical pain. When we are alone, we are vulnerable – and less able to protect ourselves from threats. When some economists started valuing relationships in dollar amounts, the benefits of human connection were even more startling: If you volunteer at least once a week, the increase to your happiness is like moving from a yearly income of $20,000 to $75,000. If you have a friend that you see on most days, it’s like earning $100,000 more each year. Simply seeing your neighbors on a regular basis gets you $60,000 a year more. Now that the study of happiness is getting serious attention, we may think differently about making time for dinner with friends or a family vacation. Because if we continue to go against our social nature, science tells us we will most certainly pay the price.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 05:23:48 +0000
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