We all know happiness is a fickle mistress. But do we know how to make her loyal and be around for the long haul?
We conducted a Happiness Survey last August to ask, listen and learn from our friends and family. And boy, did they share!
276 respondents from 8 countries opened up their hearts and minds to answer a range of questions. Your responses have helped us delve a little deeper into the subject, although we are very far from a magic bullet solution.
But thank you for starting this journey of discovery with us! May the Gods of Happiness smile upon us!
Key Highlights
Here are some key highlights from our survey.
Almost 80% of respondents belong to 35 -55 age group. Women participated more than men in this survey. Most of you are working professionals.
Two-thirds of you are married. Singletonhood seems to be the next popular (far second) choice.
About 50% of you live in nuclear families. But most of you seem to be spending a lot of time on others than self, but you seem to accept it and even enjoy it.
Almost 70% of you identify yourselves as comfortably off, which is probably an attitude as well as a state of being.
About 60% of you identify yourselves as “mostly happy” on an average, with a practical outlook that nobody can be happy all the time. Some of you are actively unhappy.
About 50% of you have stated that you are very busy, with hardly any time to catch up on things that are important to you.
60% of you identify fitness and wellness as a key area of improvement.
Your Top 3 wish list activities to do if you have time to yourselves are working on your fitness, binge watch shows and working on your hobby.
While half of you are rocking it, staying calm, cool and energetic through your seemingly roller coaster lives, the other half shows sign of stress (and distress) in varying degrees.
Joining a new school, moving to a new city, and parents fighting/divorcing were the Top 3 causes of distress in childhood for you.
Low self-esteem, pressure to score high marks, and worry about the future became the Top 3 causes of distress in adolescence.
Financial distress, low self-esteem, and relationship failure became the Top 3 causes of distress in early adulthood.
Currently, you have identified financial distress, problems in relationship/marriage, and bad boss/work stress as the Top 3 causes of distress.
Going for walks/exercise, getting TLC from spouse/partner, reading, sleeping and doing something creative are your Top 5 “pick me up” activities.
One-third of you feel you don’t have anyone to reach out to when feeling down. Another one-third say they always reach out. The last one-third feels it’s not anybody’s business.
Having a heart-to-heart discussion, taking them out, and doing something fun together are your Top 3 activities to help a loved one/friend who is down.
That got us thinking…
Does mental health count in your overall sense of well-being? Do you take care of it?
No, we’re not (only) talking about big stuff like schizophrenia or psychosis, but the more common cold varieties of mental health such as stress, anxiety, and minor depression. Or even the chronic varieties of bipolar disorder, major depression or OCD.
So how much time and resources do you spend on taking care of your mental health? Or do we all think mental health issue is something that happens to other people, not us?
Write to us what you think.
Is there help beyond self-help and family-help?
A lot of us are still dependent upon our friends and family to help us out of our blues. And as the survey brought out, we are more than willing to reach out to our friends and family and try and help them.
Having a community to depend on is extremely important. Critical to the human survival even. But is individual good intent alone enough? Do some cases need qualified help as well?
We know mental health is a big taboo even now. Write to us about your experiences of seeking help. The good and the bad.
How can we help each other?
Happiness and mental health are confusing areas. There is a lot of noise and a lot of social prejudices associated with them. And it is true, we don’t know exactly what to do.
So can we help each other? Can we talk, listen and share insights and info?
We are going to start with writing about our thoughts, knowledge and insights on Happiness and Mental Health on this blog. Since we are artists, we would also try and do some art.
We invite you to share as well. Here, in the comments section or to our email: bluewhistlingthrush@gmail.com.
You may find our other related posts interesting:
Blue Whistling Thrush 
Interesting revelations! Contrary to the results, I don’t remember moving to a new city or changing schools gave me any stress. I have enjoyed my school journey across 5 cities. Looking back, I cherish the privilege to have studied in 5 different schools, knowing so many different people from different cultures.
For some people, conflict is a major cause of distress. It can suck life out of their otherwise jovial nature. This is what I realised recently when a relative had a fight with her friend. She was so stressed she went into hiding for 2-3 weeks. Some people want to avoid conflict because they dread the consequences. Some others seem to thrive in conflict. It is natural to them.
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Thanks, that’s an interesting perspective!
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