One radical idea: The world is a good place

I have often said that life is an echo; what you send out is what you get back. It is also a filter; what you believe is what you will see. And you have control of both. In today's Boston Globe we read that "there's a growing movement to get happy." In a post earlier this week, I talked about the recommendation in US News & World Report to "get happy" in order to improve your life in 2007. In the Globe article "Nice try," a number of salutes to "niceness"  are described.

[A] countervailing phenomenon has arisen in the form of movements, websites and organizations devoted to accentuating the positive, to looking for the silver lining, to seeing the glass as perpetually half-full, to being just ..... plain ..... nice. As Santa Claus takes his annual inventory this week, he may find the ranks of the naughty a tad less populated than usual.

For example, Daryn Kagan, former anchor for CNN, has created a Web site devoted exclusively to uplifting news. The site's tagline is "One radical idea: The world is a good place."

Without identifying it as such, the article mentions confirmation bias. Because so much sensory data hits us each moment, we have to filter much out to maintain our sanity; we tend to let through that which confirms what we already believe.

"Bad things happen in the world," Kagan says. "But I believe everyone has this life filter, this life view. We all run around collecting stories in our head to support whatever that life view is. I’m choosing to have the life view that good things are happening."

We cannot get rid of our confirmation bias but, with managed and focused attention, we can change the bias. How do you see the world? Whatever your answer to that question, you will continue to see through that lens. If you don't like what you see, trade in your bias for a new one.

Bob Sutton at Work Matters dropped into the blogosphere an extremely thorough post about the well-researched benefits of smiling and its affects on happiness. He also presents other ways to increase happiness. Very few times has a blog post made me laugh out loud and then chuckle at the thought of what had been written afterward. When you read his post, you will come to the second-from-the-last paragraph that begins: "So, I am not sure I am joking or not, but next time you . . ." Let me know if you can keep a straight face when reading what comes next.

I hope you laugh, too. Laughter is good for you, as are happiness and smiles. If there are any grumps reading this, it is never too late to change your Scroogey ways.  Highlight the "hug" in humbug. Go forth and find something to appreciate.

Note (added December 21, 2006, 3:15PM Mountain): Take a look at the cover of the current edition of  The Economist.

Note (added December 21, 2006, 4:30PM Mountain): At the beginning of the year, CNN will show Happiness and Your Health: The Surprising Connection for 7th to 12th graders. That link takes you to a page with curriculum benchmarks, discussion questions, and suggested activities. Many would be appropriate for adults, too. I asked myself some of those discussion questions.

Comments

[Senia.com - Positive Psychology Blog]

This is a great post, Stephanie - I like the links to "the world is a good place" and the researched benefits of smiling. Thank you!