I found some interesting research on the happiest places in the United Kingdom. A team of researchers representing the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester did a study of personal well-being based on geographical areas.
They found that the happiest place in Britain is the county of Powys in Wales - ironically also the most sparsely populated county in Wales. Would that be because there is no need there to keep up with the Joneses, or because the Joneses live too far away to cause unhappiness?
The researchers also found that it was not so much the physical location as the personal circumstances that make people happy. I could associate with that, especially as an immigrant. I have seen many instances of where people moved to another country, only to move back to their country of birth later on because they just could not associate with local custom and practice, and always pined for the familiar circumstances that they had left behind in their search for greener pastures.
This research seems to confirm that people are happier if they had lived in the same area for many years. Unemployed people also seem to be happier among other unemployed people, because they have a basis for comparison that makes them look and feel good. "If the Joneses are also unemployed, it is OK for us to be unemployed, because then we are the same".
Where an area is more socially cohesive it increases your chances of having good quality interpersonal relationships and a good social network. I experienced this when I moved from Johannesburg to Cape Town. I had heard of social cliques in Cape Town, but that is not the kind of thing that would really bother me - I have never been part of the herd. Even so, it became clear to me while living in Cape Town that I was an outsider, because I was not born and bred in the area. I spoke the same languages that most of the people in the city spoke (English and Afrikaans). I had the same qualifications than my colleagues and I worked alongside them every day, but that does not guarantee acceptance. There were people that ignored these artificial barriers and we became good friends, but these people also do not fit any mould.
Did any of the cliques and my exclusion make me unhappy? Of course not. For me, happiness does not have anything to do with where you live. It has everything to do with how you see yourself and whether you love yourself.
Of course happiness has a counterpart, namely sadness. Wherever there is happiness, there will be sadness. Maybe happiness is not something to strive for. Maybe something in the middle, like contentment, is what we should strive for.
When either happiness or sadness then comes along, we will be in the fortunate position where we can just be. We will recognise the happiness, and we will recognise the sadness that inevitably goes with it. We will not respond to either happiness or sadness, but simply accept that they are there, like sunrise and sunset. We will be neither elated nor defeated. We will simply be.
That sounds like a good idea to me.
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Elsabe Smit is the author of the soul-touching collection of short stories, A Tapestry of Life and of the blog http://www.mypurpleblog.com , Spiritual interpretations of everyday life. Elsabe is running an interesting survey with a free gift on the blog.
Elsabe Smit works internationally as a professional transition coach, spiritual teacher, writer and public speaker.
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