This is the equation for happiness:
What does all that jibberish mean? Basically that expectations determine happiness. That is why looking over the garden hedge at the grass on the other side (the lawn that you can’t have because to belongs to someone else) is a sure way to be unhappy. And why appreciating the small things in life, like clean water, clean air, clean food and the birds in the trees keeps a smile in your heart.
If you want to know how happy a person is, don’t ask their salary, ask how it compares to others or to their own salary in the past. The gap – whether positive or negative – influences expectations and that really matters. Unless you’ve got a bit of enlightenment and can withdraw your expectations from the common consumption patterns and look at the big picture …
The equation, published in PNAS Journal, could be used to look at mood disorders and happiness on a mass scale.
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