For decades, academics and scientists have studied happiness. What makes people happy, and how does this emotion affect our long-term physical and mental health?
Brave Little State explored a question about happiness from a listener in a recent episode: "Are Vermonters happy? And are they happier than people in other New England states?" Vermont Edition aired the episode and followed it with a conversation with Catherine Sanderson, a psychology professor at Amherst College in Massachusetts. She's the author of several books, including "The Positive Shift: Mastering Mindset to Improve Happiness, Health and Longevity."
We also asked our audience about what makes them happy. Here are some of the answers we received in our inbox, through our phone lines, and on Instagram.
- Happiness is all perspective. After a life threatening health emergency this winter, I was bedridden for 4 months. Happiness to me now is being able to walk my dogs again and do simple things like going to the grocery store by myself. I never thought carrying groceries would make me so happy but realizing how fragile life and health can be will change your perspective on happiness!
- Years ago, someone gifted me the book, 14,000 Things to Be Happy About by Barbara Kipfer. It's a simple book with a list of little things that make you happy like licking an ice cream cone, picking a flower, petting a kitten, sitting by a wood fire and the list goes on. I recently purchased a newer version to give to my daughter. It made me happy.
- Quiet days at home with a cup of tea, a good book, snuggling with my dogs on the couch.
- Trusted safe connection.
- Riding my bike on Union Village Road in Norwich.
- Catzzzzzz.
- Being present with my children.
- Being treated normally as a trans person.
- Community, gardening, spicy margs, trashy TV, sunshine, this podcast! Reading, my bed
- Biodiversity.
- A healthy work/life balance.
- Using my body and doing activities in nature with friends.
- Seeing wildflowers on a walk.
- Doing art! I do a craft called needlepoint that my late mother loved.
- Snowy Vermont winters.
- Skiing down a mountain on a frigid bluebird day.
- Mountain biking, hiking, camping and skiing! Teaching my children to love these things.
- Exploring makers and farmers at markets.
- The smell of hay, helping others, a rain that doesn’t cause flooding.
- Connecting to our landscape and our sense of place.
- Sunny days at Vermont swimming holes.
- Vermont summers. There’s no place I’d rather be.
- The crickets at night.
- My little bit of garden heaven. Watching things that I planted blossom is just the best.
- The Mad River Valley
- My family, curly haired doggos and almond croissants.
- The wellbeing of my loved ones and of course my wellbeing too!
- Everything! Being alive, nature, creemees, rain, trees, life!!
- Seeing my dad just living his daily life and being able to enjoy my 8-year-old sister, me and my stepmom. He had a life-saving liver transplant in the midst of the pandemic, when they weren't really doing surgeries at all. He was in Stage 4 liver failure after Wilson's disease. And so just being able to see him enjoy life again, and being able to go for walks, and being healthy.
- I'm a middle school science teacher, and there's nothing that brings more joy or happiness to my soul than seeing my middle schoolers build a model solar car. And when the car goes down the line and finishes, their faces — to see them jump up in the air because their car made it down the line — it brings me beyond happy to see them succeed in that way.
- I spent a few months in Buddhist monasteries in Thailand, and in one of the monasteries I came across this statement: "Boundless joy in knowing there is no happiness."
- Happiness is being able to provide comfort and stability for my family. Seeing them grow in knowledge and ability as good and kind humans and getting experience joy through them and with them is an amazing feeling.
- I find that going for a walk or even sitting in the woods and contemplating psychology and hidden knowledge of the human condition in the old Norse mythologies brings a great deal of happiness, or at the very least, some comfort in knowing that what I am going through is as old and prevalent as human history. The other activity that brings me great happiness is helping other people either during their unhappiness or in my own — just something about that human connection and spirit that brings us up out of our darkest places.
And here's what our colleagues at Vermont Public's Colchester offices told us:
- When I come in and someone else has already made the coffee.
- Biking on the rail trails in Vermont with my wife.
- Chappell Roan, and summer fruit.
- My family's very old dog who will still cock her head when you ask her a question.
- My two puppies, Delilah and Charlie.
- My kitten, good food, love, my husband, sunshine, feeling good, feeling like I made a difference, looking at the people I love.
- My mom.
- Broadway. My favorite musical is "Moulin Rouge." I've seen it 21 times now.
- Hearing other people laugh.
- A beautiful, sunny day and a great book.
- Finding a bolt of fabric at Goodwill that's $5 and there's yards and yards and yards of it, and you can make yourself weird outfits and wear them to work.
- Listening to music, like my favorite band Deep Purple.
- Every morning I wake up and I look at my dog, and he just looks so sweet when he's asleep. And we've taught him how to hug.
- This weather!
- Wrightsville Beach in Montpelier.
- I feel like I've recently realized that all the things that they say will make you happy, like getting up early and exercising, it's actually true. And I'm kind of bummed about it. I don't want them to be right.
Broadcast live on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
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