What is the secret to happiness, according to an 80-year Harvard study

Achieving happiness is a valuable and difficult universal goal for many people. Such is the interest it arouses, that specialists at Harvard University have devoted 80 years of research to find the secrets of this state of happiness and contentment.

This investigation, which appears to be one of the most extensive in history, was conducted by the Harvard Adult Development Study and followed the evolution of more than 700 people from their childhood and youth.

It began in 1938 and began with the enrollment of 268 undergraduate students at Harvard College and 456 14-year-old teenagers from underprivileged neighborhoods in Boston.

The results were recently published in the book Lto the good life, supervised by Robert Waldinger, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Psychodynamic Therapy and Research at Massachusetts General Hospital; AND Mark SchulzAssociate Director of Research and Professor of Psychology at Bryn Mawr College, University of California.

After analyzing the results, Waldinger noticed this “Good human relationships are what make us happier and healthier.”

Furthermore, he specified that “These strong ties are more important to a happy and fulfilling life than wealth, IQ or social class.”

“We’ve learned that people believe happiness will come from buying a house, getting a promotion, or losing weight. As if it depended on ticking the right boxes. But the data shows that’s not true.”

The plan to have more happiness

As an approach to that state, Waldinger and Schulz propose habits that will fuel our relationships.

– Evaluate the quality of our relationships. It is worth remembering that having many friends is not synonymous with quality.

– Make an 8 minute phone call. It could be with an old friend we haven’t seen in a while.

– Chat with a stranger. It’s a good way to develop kindness.

– Write a speech to flatter someone. Highlighting someone’s qualities will impact our happiness.

– Cultivate friendships in the office. We spend a lot of time at work and having friends in that environment makes us happier and increases our comfort.

– Don’t cancel plans with friends and make new ones. Choose friendship over a Netflix binge.

– Review what has been practiced and congratulate ourselves for incorporating positive changes.

Furthermore, Waldinger and Schulz have coined a new term for the process of evaluating and caring for the health of our relationships and call it “social attitude”.

“It is as essential as good physical shape. Lsloppy relationships can atrophy, like muscles. Our social life is a living system and it needs exercise,” Waldinger said.

He also added: “It is scientifically proven that more socially connected people live longer and are better protected from stress, depression and neurocognitive degeneration”.