5 Shocking Insights From The World's Longest Study On Happiness.

Harvard researchers began a decades-long study in 1938 to discover what makes us happy in life. It has tracked the same individuals for 85 years collected health records of 724 families throughout the world and asked extensive questions about their lives every two years.

Dr. Robert Waldinger a Harvard psychiatrist, was the director of this study. The study revealed some startling findings about what makes us happy and what keeps us healthy physically, mentally, and socially. It also answers some of the big questions we all are looking for.

1. The quality of our relationships is the key to living a happy & fulfilling life. This is in contrast to the popular belief that money, fame, or career achievement brings happiness. However, study reveals positive relationships keep us happier, healthier & help us live longer.

People who over the course of their life actively cultivated relationships reaped maximum rewards. They were quite proactive made plans with friends, made efforts to interact with people, and joined social groups. They didn't simply rely on luck to build relationships.

2. Loneliness Kills: It’s as powerful as smoking or alcoholism. People's health and happiness are more closely tied to their level of relationship satisfaction than to their cholesterol levels. People who were the happiest in their relationships at 50 were the healthiest at 80.

3. Long-term happiness is strongly influenced by marital satisfaction, It is highest when first getting together, and then it declines when children come along, rebounds when kids leave home and drops again if adult children return to live at home.

However, having a supportive partner along the way brought genuine mental and physical health benefits. Marriage provides couples with emotional support during difficult occasions and assists in building traits of resilience.

4. Taking care of your body in the long term is strongly correlated with your happiness. Apart from the physical benefits of exercise having poor health habits can add stress to your life and take a toll on your mental health as well. Exercising is the cheapest way to be happy.

5. Purpose > Payment: Purpose is powerful, people who have a purpose in their work experience greater life satisfaction and happiness. Even if they are not paid at the top of the market or make less money than their peers, they still feel fulfilled and grateful.

People who work for a purpose larger than themselves and in which they sincerely believe, when they know that their efforts are making a difference, money becomes almost meaningless. The joy comes from the activity itself and not the rewards.