{"id":9122,"date":"2017-03-27T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T10:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=9122"},"modified":"2017-03-24T07:39:58","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T11:39:58","slug":"americans-losing-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html","title":{"rendered":"Where is the Happiest Place on Earth?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-9131\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2017\/03\/smiley-1041796_1920-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"smiley-1041796_1920\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/>Are you happy? Surprise, Disney is not the happiest place on earth despite their heavy marketing!<\/p>\n<p>If you want to be happy, forget the theme park and move to\u00a0Norway! That&#8217;s right. Norway is the happiest place (country) on earth. The ranking is based on a number of social and economic factors that impact happiness.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the chilly weather, Norway ranks high\u00a0on\u00a0caring, community, freedom, generosity, health, income and good governance. In Scandinavia,\u00a0is human connection and community that matter,\u00a0not wealth.<\/p>\n<p>According to the World Happiness Report 2017, Norway surged to first place and the U.S. dropped from 13th to 14th due to what is being called a social crisis in the U.S. &#8211;a loss of trust, corruption, rising inequality, and isolation. In addition,\u00a0American are becoming more mean spirited-and mean-spirited behavior affects mental health and happiness.<\/p>\n<p>So what is our take away from this report? A simple reminder that wealth and stuff doesn&#8217;t bring a sense of community and support. Things do not\u00a0improve our mental health. A loving community, with people to support and care for for another, brings good\u00a0mental health to people in a country.<\/p>\n<p>Building a supportive community\u00a0should be part of the mission of the American church. In a day and age of increasing isolation, disenfranchisement, anger and hostility, the church can become a place of community, support, hope and care. And while happiness is not the\u00a0goal of the Christian believer, a life of contentment and joy is possible with a\u00a0relationship with God.\u00a0Jesus&#8217; command is\u00a0to love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor.<\/p>\n<p>Wouldn&#8217;t it be great if the Christian church could be one of the happiest places on earth because of the love of Christ and the impact that love has on caring for one another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you happy? Surprise, Disney is not the happiest place on earth despite their heavy marketing! If you want to be happy, forget the theme park and move to\u00a0Norway! That&#8217;s right. Norway is the happiest place (country) on earth. The ranking is based on a number of social and economic factors that impact happiness. Despite&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[925],"tags":[3762,729,198,3761,571],"class_list":["post-9122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mintle-mentions","tag-communiity","tag-faith","tag-happiness","tag-norway","tag-the-church"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Where is the Happiest Place on Earth?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where is the Happiest Place on Earth?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Are you happy? Surprise, Disney is not the happiest place on earth despite their heavy marketing! If you want to be happy, forget the theme park and move to\u00a0Norway! That&#8217;s right. Norway is the happiest place (country) on earth. The ranking is based on a number of social and economic factors that impact happiness. Despite&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-27T10:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-24T11:39:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/03\/smiley-1041796_1920-300x169.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Where is the Happiest Place on Earth?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Where is the Happiest Place on Earth?","og_description":"Are you happy? Surprise, Disney is not the happiest place on earth despite their heavy marketing! If you want to be happy, forget the theme park and move to\u00a0Norway! That&#8217;s right. Norway is the happiest place (country) on earth. The ranking is based on a number of social and economic factors that impact happiness. Despite&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html","og_site_name":"Doing Life Together","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","article_published_time":"2017-03-27T10:00:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-03-24T11:39:58+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/03\/smiley-1041796_1920-300x169.jpg"}],"author":"Linda Mintle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@drlindamintle","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html","name":"Where is the Happiest Place on Earth?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/03\/smiley-1041796_1920-300x169.jpg","datePublished":"2017-03-27T10:00:17+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-24T11:39:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/03\/smiley-1041796_1920-300x169.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/03\/smiley-1041796_1920-300x169.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/americans-losing-happiness.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Where is the Happiest Place on Earth?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/","name":"Doing Life Together","description":"Relationship Doctor, Mental Health, Emotional Wellness, Relationship Advice &amp; Entertainment","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142","name":"Linda Mintle","description":"It is rare that a trained academic who speaks passionately to the heart of people providing real answers to real life problems is so relatable. Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9122"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9133,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9122\/revisions\/9133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}