It’s in the Air
Another day, another article about happiness. This one is in the June issue of The Atlantic. It’s actually very different than the one I referenced from Psychology Today a while back. Not different in conclusion, but different in approach. This article is the result of a 72-year study that has been going on at Harvard. The study has followed the same group of men from their college years until now (retirement age), and draws conclusions on the hows and whys some of them ended up where they did—whether that be a good place or bad. The study is called The Grant Study and has been directed by a man named George Valliant since 1967 (the study began in the 1930s). I’m not finished reading it yet, but here are some of the gems I’ve pulled from the article thus far:
~Block [founder of the study] declared that medical research paid too much attention to sick people; that dicing the body up into symptoms and diseases—and viewing it through the lenses of a hundred micro-specialties—could never she light on the urgent question of how to, on the whole, to live well.
~ Vaillant . . . had predicted seven major factors that predict healthy aging, both physically, and psychologically. Employing mature adaptations was one. The others were education, stable marriage, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise, and healthy weight.
~ Regular exercise in college predicted late-life mental health better than it did physical.
~ “What have you learned from the Grant study?” Vaillant’s response: “That this only thing in life that matters is your relationships with people.”
~ “What we do,” Vaillant concluded, “affects how we feel as much as how we feel affects what we do.”
I’m going to take Monday off from blogging due to the holiday. Let’s all stay far away from our computers for the next few days shall we? Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!
May 22nd, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Oh I love these kinds of articles! Thank you for pointing me to it.
So, which is it for you? Taking just Monday off? Or staying far away from your computer, for the next few days? Come now. It’s not *fair* to challenge us, to a few days. If you’re only taking Monday off! ,-)
But if I do take your challenge, I know perfectly well, what to fill lots of the freed-up time with… letter writing!
Aunt Amelia
‘Dear you,’ blog
May 22nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Sorry for the confusion. I will spend the majority of the next three days away from my computer. I have friends in town from Boston. So excited! I won’t blog on Monday, and the reason I felt the need to announce that is because I’ve gotten myself in the nice habit of blogging M – F and always taking the weekends off. I’m taking a 3-day weekend this time though—from both blogging and my computer in general. I do have a letter to write (for a customer), so I’ll use the word processor on my computer and avoid the Internet.
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Thank you.
And good for you!
In fact, I’m so intrigued by your suggestion, that I’m composing an entry, with a link to this blog post, in it.
I wonder how many people will try to take a bit of a Net break? It’s such a tantalizing possibility…
Enjoy your friends and the whole holiday time.
Aunt Amelia
May 24th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
I liked the last two quotes from George Vaillant as well. Thank you for sharing this article. I agree with Aunt Amelia, please keep these articles coming.
Okay, I usually stay away from the puter during the weekends, but I intentionally didn’t plan anything this weekend so I could catch up on writing. Wishing everyone a pleasant weekend.
May 29th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
I LOVED that article, too! I want to post it on my wall, except that my walls are full already and that the article is printed double-sided
And I also found the part about exercise–>mental health very encouraging.