THE RECESSION IS OVER!!!...again.

PARODY
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"DON'T WORRY...BE HAPPY"

George Carlin hated the phrase, “too happy.”

“Oh, I’d only be TOO HAPPY to help you with that!”

“I’m TOO HAPPY to pick you up.”

Carlin: ”Sounds like a mental disease. Did you hear about George? Linda had to have him put away. He was too happy.”

For most people without a chemical or emotional problems, there are simple ways to make you happier. And being happier has many great benefits, as you’ll see.

Never Too Happy

I’m not sure anyone I know is too happy. In fact, most people would like to be happier. Harvard Cognitive Researcher, Nancy Etcoff, says, “We’re wired to pursue happiness [my emphasis].” Her colleague Shawn Achor, who heads Harvard’s Positive Psychology research unit says, “We’re wired for happiness.” I like Etcoff’s phrase better because my experience is that we’re looking for happiness whether we find it or not. Thomas Jefferson agreed.

Polls show that conservatives are happier than liberals, but no one’s as happy they’d like to be. I don’t think. Research also shows that happier people are more productive and healthier.

Happy Nuns Live Longer: In 1935, a study of nuns began. Nuns are great subjects for studies because they live together, they eat the same food, they share common beliefs, they usually perform the same kind of work. Fewer variables to control for. In this study, they had the nuns journal every day for several months. Then the researchers analyzed the journals and segmented the nuns into Happiness quartiles.

In 2005, the study was complete. Of the nuns in the top quartile of happiness were 5 times as likely to live to 90-years-old as the nuns in the bottom quartile. Happiness = longevity.

Happy Doctors Save Lives: Happiness also improves task performance. In another study, doctors were given a test. The physicians had to diagnose conditions based on symptoms as quickly as possible. They were graded on speed and accuracy. But first, the doctors were segmented into 3 groups. Group A was primed for happiness. Group B was primed for cognition by reading descriptions of the very diseases they were about to diagnose. Group C was not primed at all.

The results? Groups B and C performed about the same. But the doctors primed to be happy blew them both out of the water. Group A was 50 percent fast and 80 percent more accurate. So if you’re sick, find the happiest doctor, not the smartest one.