The Pursuit of Happiness Can Make You Unhappy!

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”  ― Albert Camus

Interesting thoughts from the French Philosopher, Author and Journalist.  So here's a question for you -- Can you handle the effort it takes to actually pursue happiness?

In a Happiness Study published in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, researchers conducted an experiment in which they had half of their test subjects make a list of all the things that would make them happier while others were asked to do something to make themselves happy while watching a dull movie - a task that represents the pursuit of happiness.

The other half of study participants were asked to think about achieving happiness as a goal they had already accomplished or to list the things they already have that make them happy.

After the exercise, all participants reported how much free time they felt they had.  And here's what really interesting -The results showed that a person's perception of limited time is influenced by their pursuit of  happiness.  In other words, time becomes a concern mostly when you feel you haven't yet achieved happiness.

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” ― Ernest Hemingway

An here is the irony -- research seems to show that the pursuit of happiness itself can actually undermine your sense of happiness!

Study authors suggest encouraging people to worry less about pursuing happiness as a never-ending goal, which in turn might just end up giving them more time and, in turn, more happiness. (EurekaAlert)

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”― Mahatma Gandhi