If it makes you happy…..

“If it makes you happy
It can’t be that bad
If it makes you happy

…then why the heck are you so sad?”

Haha! I know you all are busting out to Sheryl Crow right about now. Well this song was stuck in my head… So I started thinking about it. What makes people happy? What makes the human heart sing (or rap!)? haha! (for those of you that don’t know me personally..I love to pretend I can rap)

I read an article in Time Magazine that said some really interesting things when they tried to answer the question, “What makes people happy!?”

“Take wealth, for instance, and all the delightful things that money can buy. Research by Diener, among others, has shown that once your basic needs are met, additional income does little to raise your sense of satisfaction with life . A good education? Sorry, Mom and Dad, neither education nor, for that matter, a high IQ paves the road to happiness. Youth? No, again. In fact, older people are more consistently satisfied with their lives than the young. And they’re less prone to dark moods: a recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that people ages 20 to 24 are sad for an average of 3.4 days a month, as opposed to just 2.3 days for people ages 65 to 74. Marriage? A complicated picture: married people are generally happier than singles, but that may be because they were happier to begin with. Sunny days? Nope, although a 1998 study showed that Midwesterners think folks living in balmy California are happier and that Californians incorrectly believe this about themselves too.

On the positive side, religious faith seems to genuinely lift the spirit, though it’s tough to tell whether it’s the God part or the community aspect that does the heavy lifting. Friends? A giant yes. A 2002 study conducted at the University of Illinois by Diener and Seligman found that the most salient characteristics shared by the 10% of students with the highest levels of happiness and the fewest signs of depression were their strong ties to friends and family and commitment to spending time with them. “Word needs to be spread,” concludes Diener. “It is important to work on social skills, close interpersonal ties and social support in order to be happy.”

I totally agree with all of the above. When I made my “Top 10 things that make me happy” list, this is what I came up with.

#1) God

#2) Family

#3)Friends

#4) Children

#5) The ocean

#6) Traveling

#7) Puppies/Cats

#8) Food

#9) Music

#10) Sports

What makes you happy?