Positive Psychological Method

Resiliency is one data point showing that external circumstances are not a major contributor to a happy life. Another series of data points is the work of Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky which suggests that external circumstances lead to somewhere between 5 and 10% of a person's happiness level. 

So if external conditions don't really lead to a person's well-being, what does? 

This chart came out of Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky's meta-analyses of hundreds of happiness studies. While I have a pretty profound faith in her work, I question the "genetic set point" finding. I think that for most people (who don't do extreme practices) there is probably a genetic set point, but there are findings that throw this into question. Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson talk about epigenetics in their book "Altered Traits" even showing that a single day of meditation can change gene expression. Not only this, but Matthieu Ricard, in his book "Altruism" mentions a study where subjects were able to change the tone of their vagus nerve through compassion meditation even though, up until recently, the tone of the vagus nerve was considered set at birth, a product of genetics. This, however, is a side point. Most of what we're going to talk about falls under the "intentional activities" portion of the above pie chart.

Some of the major contributors to happiness are resiliency, mindfulness, meditation, virtue, positive relationships, engagement, a feeling of mastery, being able to acheive "flow," and optimism. We will not be able to cover all of this, especially because each psychologist organizes the information differently. Instead, we will focus on a few key concepts that will be important when discussing karma later.

• Goal Setting and Value setting are important for happiness. If we don't know what our goals and our values are, then it's difficult to have resiliency. Altruism is an incredibly useful value to have. It has many positive benefits phyiscall and mentally. Being Virtuous is a useful value to have because virtue is also instrumental in happiness.
• Visualization and Planning are useful techniques for happiness. Visualizing perfect scenarios is useful because it allows the brain to practice creating pathways for feeling ways that we want to feel. Visualization also causes nerves to fire through our body, so can have physical effects. Planning is useful because we practice overcoming obstacles even before they arise, so that when we are going through them we can focus on execution rather than figuring something out.
• Helping Others, Engagement, and Accomplishment are useful for producing happiness. Helping others is more useful in creating happiness than fun activities (cite). It also creates a feedback loop because your social circle views you positively. Engagement and accomplishment are more easily understood but I mention them for our later discussion of karma.
• Reflection, particularly gratitude and rejoicing are useful in creating happiness. They are inherently enjoyable activities, and training in them creates the habit to find the good in any situation.

There are some physiological processes that underly these mental/physical processes:

• Neuroplasticity is the ability of our brain to rewire itself, according to our thoughts. It's like muscle memory for the mind. If you think a thought a lot, it becomes easier and easier to think that thought. If you pair two thoughts together, those thoughts come together more and more often.
• Mirror Neuron's existence is debated, but the fact is that when we see pain or pleasure in others, similar parts of our brain become active. Empathy employs mirror neurons. This will be important when we discuss some of the benefits of giving.
• Nervous System Plasticity: This one doesn't have a vocab work. I'm not sure why. You train your nervous system every time you learn an instrument or hobby. Singers train their ear to hear very subtle differentiations in pitch. This will be important when we talk about karma and perception.