The "Big Five" Happiness Factors

Good advice from a bunch of UK pencil pushers.

Where would you turn for help if you wanted advice on how to live a happy life? Low on my list would be to seek out an economist (unless I was looking for help balancing my checkbook). And yet, when a group of number-crunching British economists joined forces with researchers in psychology, medicine, and other disciplines they made solid progress on an enormous wellbeing project.

For reasons that are unknown, people in the UK rank among the most depressed in the Western World. Talk about a big project, the New Economics Foundation was tasked by the British government to help people affected by depression and to improve the emotional welfare of the entire population.

Further defying their reputations, the economists didn’t just come out with a droll list of statistical findings. Instead the Foundation produced remarkably practical guidance. Their recommendations were integrated into best practice guidelines for hospitals, schools, and other agencies, and are now followed in other countries as well.

They boiled the research down to the “Big Five” happiness factors. These are 1) spending meaningful time with people, 2) challenging yourself physically, 3) having here-and-now interests that stretch you creatively, 4) continuing to learn, and 5) finding ways to be community minded and help other people. Let me briefly unpack these five factors, as I have come to think of them myself.

Connect:

Most people choose to be alone when they are sad. Unfortunately, a vicious cycle often ensues, as waiting to feel better enough to engage in normal activities leads to more depression. Simply put, in your isolation, you miss the chance to have positive experiences that could help you dig out. Thankfully, there are groups such as the Society of Clinical Psychology that offer a wealth of useful information on getting unstuck.

Of course, the more you connect with a person, the more you lose if they die. There is no getting around that. But connection is still the key, as the living need to lean upon each other to survive loss.

Be Active:

Many psychiatrists make it a point to “prescribe exercise” to their depressed patients. They know that exercise, along with antidepressants and psychotherapy, have proven mood benefits.

Be Curious:

Notice the beauty around you. Find an interest that has nothing to do with what the world asks of you–an activity in which you can lose yourself. Build stuff. Meditate on your passions.

Keep Learning:

Neuropsychologists will tell you that mental effort and engagement are foundations of brain health. And then there is the corollary “use it or lose it.” This doesn’t mean you need to do a specific thing, such as learning a foreign language, but you will benefit by building outward from your intellectual comfort zones. The person who grew up playing piano picks up guitar, for example.

Give to others and foster community:

There is a basic experiment that has been done many times and many ways. You give something of value, say 20-dollars, to two groups of people. Then tell one group to spend it on themselves and another to buy a gift for someone else. Which group ends up happier? It is a slam dunk, the people who give are happier.

It occurred to me that the five factors would be a useful way for me to organize this website. You will see at the top of this and later blogs word descriptors, which act as navigation buttons, coinciding with the five areas.

I’m not sure how this project might develop over time, but as I contemplate the five areas, first, I am ready to write about connection and loss. Secondly, in a more lighthearted vein, I would like to share my athletic adventures: paddling, biking, and hiking. Thirdly, my creative activity is woodworking. Fourth, regarding learning, I would like to talk about my work helping children to overcome learning disabilities. Lastly, thinking about giving and community, I would like to talk about universal values that might help anchor us as we navigate these challenging times.

Remember the New Economics group was tasked to help everyone, not just people struggling with depression. That is especially important in this present moment, as Covid and its variants are making it more challenging for everyone to pursue the five factors.

It is harder to connect with people and get out of the house. It is easier for kids to fall into the rabbit hole of laying on their beds, scanning endless social media messages purporting to show them what they are missing. Rather than working together, many people are becoming increasingly tribal–throwing accusations at one another across a widening political chasm.

However, my remarkable patients teach me every day about the human capacity to overcome challenges. We are going to get through this tough time.

Having sung their virtues, let me also say that there are reasons to question goal lists such as the Big Five. Even when grounded in sound research, findings such as these can understate the complexity of human emotions and challenges. Sure, it is good advice to “consume fewer calories” if you want to lose weight, for example, but we all know it isn’t that easy.

In my case, when I lost Jack, I spent long hours alone, stopped exercising, stopped woodworking, stopped everything. Maybe stopping was necessary, I don’t know. I do know, however, that thinking about the Big Five has been a help to me as I have tried to keep living in the face of his loss, and my and Michelle’s cancers. I hope my attempts to write about Big Five-related topics will be a comfort to you as well.