The Top 10 Insights from the "Science of a Meaningful Life" in 2016

By Kira M. Newman, Tom Jacobs, Mariah Flynn, Summer Allen, Jill Suttie, Jason Marsh, Jeremy Adam Smith, Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas At the start of 2016, Barbara Ehrenreich published an essay in The New York Times that took aim at the science of gratitude, criticizing it for focusing solely on benefits to oneself rather than to others. "This holiday gratitude is all about you," she writes, "and how you can feel better." Nearly a year later, we can see what a false dichotomy this is. In our fifth annual Top 10 Insights from the Science of a Meaningful Life list, practices that involve thinking of other people, such as keeping a gratitude journal or performing acts of kindness, were found to bring strong personal benefits, like a healthier heart or a better sex life. And practices that seem to focus on the self, such as mindfulness and self-compassion, were linked to benefits for others, whether by fostering moral behavior or making you a better parent. Of course, we have argued since our founding in 2001 that our own individual well-being is intertwined with that of other people. Selfishness, greed, and hate may have seemed pervasive in 2016, but here we present evidence that compassion, generosity, and empathy are bedrocks of human behavior, essential to a meaningful life--and worth promoting and fighting for. How did we come up with this list? We polled 350 researchers, asking them to name the findings from the science of a meaningful life that they considered most pro...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news