Harvad's Study on Happiness und a Fulfilling Life

This is the One Secret You Need to Live a Fulfilling Life

Good relationships keep us happier and healthier.

Finding a way of coping with life that does not push love away.

It’s important to rely relationships to help you heal rather than closing yourself off.

What Harvard’s Study of Adult Development Reveals about Happiness

The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health.

Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation.”

Our study has shown that the people who fared the best were the people who leaned into relationships, with family, with friends, with community,

Three lessons

1. Social connection are 'really good for you

It turns out that people who are more socially connected to family, to friends, to community are happier, they’re physically healthier and they live longer than people who are less well connected

2. When it comes to relationships, pick quality over quantity

it’s the quality of your close relationships that matters.

Eighty-year-old men and women who were happily partnered reported that on the days when they had more physical pain, their mood remained just as happy. Meanwhile, those in unhappy relationships had their physical pain magnified by being in more emotional pain.

3. Good relationships actually protect your brain

“As long as they felt that they could really count on the other when the going got tough, those arguments didn’t take a toll on their memories,” Waldinger said. If you want to be happier and have stronger, positive relationships, Waldinger recommended “replacing screen time with people time,” “livening up a stale relationship by doing something new together,”