Find your happy

Turns out, happiness is a combination of heredity, habits, and hard work.

No doubt about it, the pursuit of happiness is serious business. And it sometimes requires difficult choices.

In her book The How of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky reports on the elements of happiness - what creates it and what keeps it around. Her research included thousands of men and women. In brief, she found that 60 percent of happiness is determined by genetics and life circumstances. But 40 percent is fully up to us. We can be happier by doing the things that contribute to our happiness. That means we need to figure out what makes us happy. Generally, it will be people and experiences rather than money and things.

I work for a company that creates health risk assessments. This year, we looked at a year's worth of de-identified data for the purpose of identifying habits associated with happiness. Know what we found? Be active, eat lots of fruits and veggies, sleep 7-8 hours a day, and have social support.

Several years back (2004), physchologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi presented a TEDtalk in which he proposed "flow" as the secret to happiness. Flow is achieved when you are completely engrossed in activity. You lose track of time. Nothing else matters at that moment. Generally, flow happens when you are engaged in something creative or active, like painting or rock climbing. But it could just as easily happen when cooking, talking with a friend, or playing chess. When it doesn't happen is when you're passive - like when watching television or social media.

So what makes me happy? Talking with family and friends. And learning more of God's love. Focusing on this one thing has brought me more joy than anything else.

I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure. - Psalm 16:8-9

What makes you happy?