{"id":2415,"date":"2011-11-30T00:14:07","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T05:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/?p=2415"},"modified":"2011-11-29T16:54:20","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T21:54:20","slug":"4-ways-to-choose-happiness-lessons-from-americas-elders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/11\/4-ways-to-choose-happiness-lessons-from-americas-elders.html","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways to Choose Happiness: Lessons from America’s Elders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s guest blog comes from Dr. Karl Pillemer, author of <\/em>30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans<\/b><\/a>. Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A perennial question is: What makes us happy? Indeed, there\u2019s so much interest in this topic that a veritable torrent of books have been published over the past few years on the \u201chow to be happy\u201d theme. Despite all the advice, people often struggle to maintain a positive attitude in the face of the challenges, losses, and stress life throws at us.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent the last six years conducting a series of surveys that ask older people (mostly age 70 and beyond) to offer their \u201clessons for living\u201d to younger people. Using a variety of methods, we\u2019ve asked over 1200 older Americans to share their thoughts on the question: \u201cAs you look back over your life, what are the most important lessons you have learned that you would like to pass on to younger people?\u201d And many of the elders offered this piece of advice: Strive intentionally to maintain a positive attitude every day.<\/p>\n

Sifting through hundreds of pages of responses, one quote leaped out that summed up the view of the elders: \u201cIn my 89 years, I\u2019ve learned that happiness is a choice, not a condition.\u201d <\/p>\n

Most of our respondents reported the same lesson. Keep in mind that everyone who reaches old age has lived through loss, illness, and disappointment. Nevertheless, the overwhelming opinion is that people need to make a daily, conscious decision to maintain a positive attitude. Based on their life experience, they exhort us to take charge and to assume control \u2013 not over what happens to us, which is often impossible \u2013 but over our own attitude toward happiness. <\/p>\n

Fortunately, they don\u2019t just offer this as a general platitude. The elders had some specific tips they wanted to share. Here are some of them.<\/p>\n

Eliminate unnecessary worrying.<\/b> Over and over as they reflected on their lives, I heard versions of \u201cI wish I\u2019d spent less time worrying\u201d and \u201cI regret that I worried so much about everything.\u201d Indeed, from the vantage point of late life, many people felt that if given a \u201cdo-over\u201d in life, they would like to have all the time back they spent poisoning the present moment with fruitless rumination about the future. As John, 83, put it: \u201cDon\u2019t believe that worrying will solve or help anything. It won’t. So stop it.\u201d Doesn\u2019t get much clearer than that.<\/p>\n

Focus on the short term rather than the long term.<\/b> To stay positive, the elders suggest you focus on the short term; many endorsed the idea of dealing with immediate problems rather than spinning endless \u201cwhat-ifs\u201d in your head. When a centenarian gives advice, I tend to listen, and here\u2019s what Eleanor, 102, told me: \u201cWell I think that if you worry, and you worry a lot, you have to stop and think to yourself, \u201cThis too will pass.\u201d So the most important thing is one day at a time. You can plan ahead but it doesn’t always work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acceptance.<\/b> The elders told me that acceptance isn\u2019t purely passive; rather, it\u2019s something we can actively foster. They recommend actively working toward acceptance of problems and limitations as a key to a positive attitude. Sister Clare, 98, is a very wise nun. She shared a technique for reducing worry through pursuing acceptance \u2013 saying to herself \u201clet it be.\u201d She told me: \u201cSo many things come to your mind, for instance somebody might hurt your feelings, you’re going to get back at him or her, well \u2013 just let it be. Push it away. Some people get on your nerves and they will be there until you die. Let it be. Often, before I say anything, I think ‘If I did that, then what?’ And let it be.\u201d <\/p>\n

Savoring.<\/b> When people seek happiness, they often think about \u201cbig-ticket\u201d items: buying a house, finding a partner, having a child, getting a new job, making more money. The elders tell us that a positive attitude depends on thinking small: the morning cup of coffee, a warm bed on a winter night, a brightly colored bird feeding on the lawn, an unexpected letter from a friend, even a favorite song on the radio (all pleasures mentioned in my interviews). Ursula suffered immense hardship as a child in Hitler\u2019s Germany. Her advice: \u201cI think the most important thing I learned was not to take things for granted. You cannot be entirely prepared for what will happen to you in life, but I learned that despite everything that happened, life is worth living and you can enjoy every day especially because of the little things in life. You can have joy, even if the big things go wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, many of the elders believe that young people can benefit from this advice. Some respondents told me that they wish they had learned to make a positive attitude a conscious choice, to practice acceptance, and to savor the small stuff earlier in life. As Malcolm, 70, told me: \u201cIt seems to take a lifetime to learn how to live in the moment, but it shouldn\u2019t. I wish I could have learned this in my 30s rather than in my sixties. It would have given me decades more to enjoy life in this world.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After a chance encounter with a remarkable 90-year old woman, Dr. Pillemer decided to find out what older people know about life that the rest of us don’t. His quest led him to ask more than a thousand older Americans their advice for living. He asked about all the big issues – love, marriage, children, work, happiness, avoiding regrets. This 6-year project led to the book: <\/em>30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s guest blog comes from Dr. Karl Pillemer, author of 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans. Enjoy! A perennial question is: What makes us happy? Indeed, there\u2019s so much interest in this topic that a veritable torrent of books have been published over the past few years on the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24,4,20,6,26],"tags":[196,194,193,94],"class_list":["post-2415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happier-you","category-inspiring-books","category-inspiring-messages","category-something-to-think-about","category-thought-to-ponder","category-well-being","tag-emotional-wellness","tag-happiness","tag-happy","tag-thought-life"],"yoast_head":"\n4 Ways to Choose Happiness: Lessons from America's Elders<\/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\/inspirationreport\/2011\/11\/4-ways-to-choose-happiness-lessons-from-americas-elders.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4 Ways to Choose Happiness: Lessons from America's Elders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today’s guest blog comes from Dr. Karl Pillemer, author of 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans. 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However, her greatest skill is crushing anyone in a game of \"Name That Tune.\" In her spare time, she is an amateur home chef, a rock star marathon runner and wannabe novelist.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/author\/jjones"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2415"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2420,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2415\/revisions\/2420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}