11 Key Insights from Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project - EDC 2016
Insight 8
Contemplate the heavens.
“Studies show that spiritual people are relatively happier; they’re more mentally and physically healthy, deal better with stress, have better marriages and live longer.”
After a month investigating the relationship between money and happiness, it was time to move in a new, more transcendent direction – looking at spirituality and its effect on happiness. A self-described “reverent agnostic,” Gretchen had always been attracted to belief. And from a practical perspective, research shows that people who contemplate their spirituality are healthier, live longer and deal better with stress.
One way to focus on spirituality is by reading memoirs of people dealing with trying circumstances or even catastrophe. While it might seem dark or depressing, there is in fact much to learn, and inspiration to be gained, from people remaining resilient in the face of tragedy.
Many experts recommend keeping a gratitude journal, a regular record of positive things and events to help stoke feelings of gratitude. Gratitude correlates highly with happiness; studies show that in addition to being happier, grateful people are even more physically healthy and exercise more. But the specifics of keeping a gratitude journal actually didn’t work for Gretchen—she found it burdensome, not gratitude-producing. Another reminder that we all must do our happiness projects in the way that’s right for us.
A similar strategy that worked better for Gretchen was keeping a daily one-sentence journal, a commitment to quickly capture one event from the day that she wanted to remember. This can help record the “fleeting moments that make life so sweet but that so easily vanish from memory.” It is so easy for us to forget just how irretrievable time is, to get distracted with trivial things. Calling it her Third Splendid Truth, Gretchen grasped that “The days are long, but the years are short.”
To further spiritual growth, people often find great value in imitating a spiritual master. Gretchen chose Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the 19th century Catholic saint. Saint Thérèse was known for her “Little Way” of achieving holiness – not by the great deeds of great souls, but through small, ordinary acts performed by ordinary people.
“Philosophers, scientists, saints, and charlatans all give instruction on how to be happy, but this doesn’t matter to a person who doesn’t want to be happy. If you don’t believe you’re happy, you’re not. As Publilius Syrus observed, “No man is happy who does not think himself so.” If you think you’re happy, you are. That’s why Thérèse said, “I take care to be happy, and especially to be so.”
VIDEO 8: Watch Gretchen talk about how finding your spiritual role model can help you shape your happiness.
