I don’t read the papers much, but I came across an article in the Sacramento Bee several years ago that fairly begged to be disbelieved. Here’s an excerpt:
In a Journal of Medical Ethics article titled “A Proposal to Classify Happiness as a Psychiatric Disorder,” Liverpool University psychologist Richard P. Bentall argues that the so called syndrome of happiness is a diagnosable mood disturbance that should be included in standard taxonomies of mental illness such as the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Happiness, as Bentall states in his abstract, is “statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system.” (In this regard, as Bentall later notes, happiness resembles other psychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia.)
The author of the Bee article, Maggie Scarf, a New Republic contributing editor, related Dr. Bentall’s suggestion “that the term ‘happiness’ be removed from future editions of the major diagnostic manuals, to be replaced by the formal description ‘major affective disorder, pleasant type.’”
When I read the article aloud to a friend, she promptly doubled over with major affective disorder, pleasant type. “That’s such amazing cock a doo!” she howled. “It’s so carefully reasoned – yet it’s completely incredible!”
The Practice of Happiness
It is nutty-cakes. And yet, is there anything actually wrong with using scientific methods to study happiness? After all, it’s what the spiritual explorers of all ages have done – studying happiness in the laboratory of their own bodies, hearts, and minds and keeping tidy notes of what works and what doesn’t.
For most of us, in any case, happiness isn’t a “diagnosable mood disturbance” – it’s the answer we’re seeking. And if we can get a bit more with the help of scientific orderliness and method, all the better.
Because the world’s spiritual traditions have made a specialty of studying happiness, what they say is particularly worth hearing in these times of pandemic unhappiness.
After all, their approach is practical. They tell us, for instance, that we’ve been given five instruments through which we can experience happiness: body, heart, will, mind, and soul. And they explain that, as we grow toward adulthood, we pass through five six-year stages, during which each of these “tools,” in the order listed, becomes the developmental focus.
Happiness, they say, increases as we learn to use the tools “expansively.” (More about “expansion” later.) Thus, the most important time in our lives for learning to find happiness is when we’re growing up, and passing through the six-year stages of growth.
From birth to age 6, the infant learns to use its body and senses. And from 6 to 12, feelings come to the fore – these are the years when children are especially receptive to learning through the arts – the “media of feeling” – including stories, music, theater, painting, and dance.
From age 12 to 18, teenagers embrace challenges to their will power, in preparation for independence as adults. And around age 18, young people become fascinated with the life of the mind, engaging in endless discussions of politics, science, the arts, and philosophy. Finally, at about age 24, many people experience landmark life events that may precede a spiritual awakening.
As each tool takes center stage, the others don’t simply fade away. Thus, while a toddler may be mainly concerned with developing its awareness of the body and senses, it will also express its feelings – usually with the volume turned up. Nor do the stages begin precisely on one’s 6th, 12th, 18th, and 24th birthdays; the transitions are gradual.
Why did nature invent this particular system? In his insightful book, Education for Life, J. Donald Walters explains how each tool prepares the child for the one that follows. Thus, feeling comes before will power, because feeling is the faculty that enables us to tell right from wrong. Before we can use our will power appropriately, with sensitive awareness of others, we first need to develop our ability to sensitively feel their realities. Walters laments the ruinous consequences of cramming children’s minds with facts at the expense of their capacity to feel, as is customary in schools today.
There’s another way to look at it: each stage fulfills the preceding one. Thus, feeling motivates us to action, and will power gives us the energy to act on those feelings. Will power, in turn, finds its fulfillment in wisdom, which tells us which actions will give us happiness; and wisdom is fulfilled in spirit. In Self-realization, we unite our consciousness with the source of all wisdom and joy.
The history of education reveals that in ancient Greece and Rome, and throughout the Middle Ages and Enlightenment, the six-year stages were recognized as natural phases of a child’s life. Thus, appropriate teaching methods were devised for each stage, and schools were divided into the rough equivalents of our modern elementary school (ages 6-12), junior and senior high (12-18), and college (18-24).
Expanding Awareness Equals Joy
As I hinted above, the spiritual teachings of all ages tell us that happiness comes by using our five human tools “expansively.” Like most abstractions, “expansion” is most easily understood with examples. At the risk of repetition, let’s look at what happens when we begin an exercise program, as we did in the last chapter.
After the first two or three weeks, we feel happier and more alive. Why? Because the exercising body is generating more energy, which spills over to nourish our feelings, will, and mind, expanding their range and force. Expanding our awareness through one “tool,” in this case the body, influences the others. Good actions spread their effects – as do “bad” ones.
The world’s spiritual researchers realized that the single desire that drives all creatures is a relentless urge to experience greater happiness, and to avoid suffering.
Albert Einstein, ever a perceptive observer of human nature, put it like this:
Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their development. Feeling and longing are the motive force behind all human endeavor and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may present themselves. (From an essay, Cosmic Religious Feeling.)
People tend to “specialize” in one or perhaps two of the “tools of expansion.” Thus, some people go more by feeling, while others tend to “lead” with their willpower or mind. The spiritual teachings advise us to “go with our strengths,” and work to correct any weaknesses.
It can be fascinating to watch runners with a view to identifying their primary “tool” from their running style. Some runners “lead with their hearts” – chest out, smiling and confident. Others lead with their minds, head thrust forward or lowered in thought, while others go more by willpower, bulling their way with their foreheads, as if to blast away obstacles.
In many natural processes, the “tools of happiness” tend to appear in the same order as in a child’s development. When we fall in love, for example, the first attraction is generally, though not invariably, physical. We see a person across the room whose appearance attracts us, and our feelings are aroused. We form a volition to act on those feelings, and we walk over and strike up a conversation. The mind probes for information: Is she married? Does he like children? And, if we’re wise, we’ll consult a higher guidance before entering this new life venture. We’ve passed through the five “tools” in order: body, feeling, will, mind, soul.
When I was running ultramarathons, I noticed how the tools also showed up in the same order. The first 1-2 hours were for the body, as I found a rhythm and my body began to generate a smooth flow of energy. The next hour was for the heart – happy conversations would spring up among the runners, and we’d go yakking and laughing down the trail. Later, as the body tired, willpower came to the fore – it was time to gather one’s forces and not waste them on distractions. Farther along, it became important to apply the mind to questions of logistics: How can I fuel my body and pace myself to make it to the next aid station? How can I deal with this blister? Finally, if I succeeded in using all of the tools well, I would enjoy a wonderful inner freedom. I became a very simple person, free from distractions, worries, and restless thoughts, living wholly in the moment.
More than we tend to realize, each of the tools is a world unto itself, with its own unique strengths and rewards. In my life, I’ve had the good fortune to enter two of these worlds as a complete newcomer: first, when I started a exercise program, and later when I spent several years working to open my heart.
In the first case, I was amazed to discover the world of the fit body. I had never been in shape. And now, at age 26, I could run barefoot on the beach for miles, probing with fingers of consciousness into the rich inner world of a body that glowed with health and energy. How fulfilling and expansive it was, to enter this spacious new world for the first time!
Later, as my heart began to open, I was delighted to discover the vast inner world of feeling. I became aware that there were issues in my life for which the heart held answers that were hidden to the rational mind. I learned to appreciate particularly the world of feeling in which women spend much of their lives. Standing in line at the supermarket or bank, I could enjoy watching women working together, absorbing my heart in their communion of feeling.
The System Is Rigged
It all sounds so simple and straightforward: use the tools expansively, and happiness will follow – rather like remembering to brush our teeth in the morning. But, in real life, cultivating expansive attitudes turns out to be a challenge. That’s because, as I mentioned in the Introduction, the opposite urge, contraction, is strong in us also.
Life places essentially the same choice continually before us: will we use our bodies wisely, or allow them to decay? Our hearts, to love, or to hate? Our minds, to be wise, or merely clever? Our spiritual instincts, to aspire inwardly, or to dabble in psychic trivialities. History – ours and the world’s – is the eternal struggle between these two forces in human nature.
Also, the theory is simple, but the details are not. We’ve been given the tools we need to achieve happiness and success – or so it seems. The trouble is, relying too exclusively on our purely human toolbox, we find ourselves sooner or later bumping against their built-in limitations.
The five tools of expansion embody wonderful expertise, yet their very specialization can trip us. When that happens, we can still find answers by looking beyond the tools. Happily, we can use those same instruments to tap into an awareness that is endlessly wise and loving, and that has our best interests at heart.
That’s what Fitness Intuition is about: using intuition to fine-tune our running on every level, for the highest success and joy.
But what of Professor Bentall? Researchers are discovering that, for athletes and others, happiness is good medicine. I’ll review some of this research in Chapter 6 (“Science of the Heart). For now, here’s an excerpt from a staff-authored article in the Times of London, “So what do we do to find happiness?”:
Has anyone found a causal link between happiness and health?
Nuns may hold the answer. Nuns make a great natural experiment, because they lead the same routine lives with similar diets and activities. None have married or had children. Yet there is huge variation in their health and longevity. In 1932, 180 novices in Milwaukee wrote short sketches of their lives. One wrote: “God started my life off well by bestowing upon me grace of inestimable value. The past year has been a very happy one.” She lived to 98 in wonderful health.
Another wrote a joyless and neutral sketch, ending: “With God’s grace, I intend to do my best for our Order.” She died after a stroke at the age of 59. Researchers who quantified positive feeling in all 180 sketches discovered that nearly all (90%) of the happiest quarter were still alive at 85. But of the least cheerful quarter, only a third survived to that age.
Another piece of the jigsaw fitted this year when a team from University College London tested the happiness levels of 216 middle-aged civil servants in a study of risk factors for coronary heart disease. People who had the most happy moments per day had the lowest rates of cortisol, a hormone that can be harmful if produced excessively, and of the chemical plasma fibrinogen, a predictor of heart disease. The happiest men (but not women) also had the lowest heart rates….
It’s difficult to resist the logic of the happiness doctors. Stay in your Eeyore-ish bubble of existentialist angst and have a life that’s short, sickly, friendless and self-obsessed. Or find a way to get happy, and long life, good health, job satisfaction and social success will be yours. You’d better start writing that gratitude letter now.1
1Downloaded from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ printFriendly/0,,1-100-1793873-531,00.html on October 15, 2005.
