Managing happiness

A current MIT blog article, "Statisticians Reveal What Makes America Happy," startled me with its emphatic conclusion.  One thing that policymakers ought to be able to agree on is that more work is urgently needed:  the happiness of nations is surely too important to be left to the random forces of chance or to the flawed decision-making processes of politics. 

I agree. 

I just don't think chance or political process are the only two forces at work here.

The study, by researchers Guo and Hu, looked at 2 aspects of human life:  Personal conditions (age, health, marital status, personal income....) and macroeconomic indicators.  "The biggest personal factor in determining hapiness is health, followed by marraige.  Having children reduces happiness.  Children eat up spending money and this increases hardship.

GDP (gross national product) has little influence, but inflation has some.  A 1 percent increase in inflation reduces national happiness levels by about 3.1 percent. Guo and Hu speculate that this is due to reduced buying power. 

The article begs some questions: 

What is "happiness?"

Is it lack of stress.... feeling empowered....or that your living your dream (or the dream someone else laid out for you)?  

Is happiness measured by what I feel at any given moment or by the satisfactions and disatisfactions that build over time?  

In Christian scriptures, greek words that we translate into English as "happy," have more layers of meaning than what we think of as happy.  Makarios is "having a peaceful soul." Enlogimenos means"blessed" and eulogio is "to praise, celebrate, cause to be blessed."

In India yesterday, the Dalai Lama wrapped up the 12 day annual Kalachakra (meaning "time wheel".  This celebration marks the Mahayana Buddhist New Year with renewal. In earlier published words on Compassion he spoke to the notion of happiness:
...individual happiness can contribute in a profound and effective way to the overall improvement of our entire human community.
 
Because we all share an identical need for love, it is possible to feel that anybody we meet, in whatever circumstances, is a brother or sister. No matter how new the face or how different the dress and behavior, there is no significant division between us and other people. It is foolish to dwell on external differences, because our basic natures are the same.
 
Ultimately, humanity is one and this small planet is our only home

I don't think that either the Dalai Lama or scripture's authors are talking about the kind of happiness that comes from sufficient descrectionary spending. What they're describing is happiness/blessing that is created by intentional choices that bring our inner life into healthy and productive alignment with life around us and with the creative life that sustains us.
The study's statisicians conclude that improving health is the best thing policy makers could do to increase public happiness. You and I are practical policy makers whose choices affect our own happiness and that of everyone our choices move out to touch.  May there be happiness not only in, but as a result of your choices today!