Spirituality, Therapy, and the Good Life

Yesterday I read Karen Hansen’s article, Voluntary Simplicity Brings Greater Happiness, Sustainability based on a recently published paper by ecopsychologist, Tim Kasser entitled, Ecological Challenges, Materialistic Values, and Social Change

Coincidentally, I had just finished Cecile Andrews book, Slow is Beautiful: New Visions of Community, Leisure and Joie de Vivre . As a therapist, I am deeply committed to learning as much as I can about what contributes to our happiness as well as what increases our suffering.

There’s so much pertinent information in Andrews book that I am limiting myself to the following points, otherwise I’d be writing for days.

The greatest indicator of a nation’s health, as measured by longevity, is the distribution of wealth. The larger the gap, the lower the life expectancy. (In his book, “Gross National Happiness” by Arthur C Brooks, Brooks reports that, “Income inequality in the United States is rising, according to most responsible estimates. For example, in 1973, the average family in the top quintile earned about ten times what the average bottom-quintile family earned. By 2003, this differential had grown to fifteen times.”

The consumer society fosters division, destruction and competition. It’s essential that we recognize that the premise of the ‘pursuit of happiness’ is being used to manipulate Americans into living consumer life styles leading to behaviors that are destroying the planet and promoting war. Understanding what truly makes us happy will lead to healthier, more meaningful and more sustainable ways of life.

Researchers agree that after essential needs are met, more money does not lead to happiness. “If you’re poor, more money makes you happier. After that? Nothing,” observes Cecile. She also cites the research of David G Myers who reports that today Americans are literally twice as rich as we were in 1957, however, the number of people who say they are very happy has been reduced from 35% in 1957 to 32%. During the same time period violent crimes have quadrupled, teen suicides have tripled, and the divorce rate has doubled.

Tim Kasser points out that simply desiring more money than we have leads to unhappiness. Kasser shares on the website, zephyr.com that, “From my perspective, the most important thing to learn about happiness is that the research shows it doesn’t come from money, from possessions, from fame, and from image — those are all empty pursuits that only bring temporary shots of superficial happiness. Happiness comes from pursuing the interests that you have, from building good relationships with your friends and family, and from contributing to the broader world.” Materialism on the other hand is associated with low scores for both self-actualization and vitality along with high scores for insecurity, anxiety and depression.

Andrews cites the work of additional researchers including Robert E Lane , Robert Putnam, Martin Seligman, Richard Davidson, Barry Schwartz, Peter Whybrow , Richard Layard, Daniel Nettle
, and Bruce O’Hara.

John de Graaf, founder of the Take Back Your Time movement, points out that Americans are working 20% longer today than they did in 1970 and work almost 350 hours more than western Europeans.

Andrews suggests that the psychic numbing that is so prevalent in the United States is “a result of the fact that we do indeed feel guilty because we know we have so much more than the rest of the world. We know we’re damaging the planet for our own gratification. How could we not be profoundly depressed over the state of our soul. Lifton says that the numbing can protect us from going mad when the grief and the threat to our sanity are too great. But there are side effects: Our overall ability to feel also shuts down – including the ability to feel joy.”

We require joy, choice, authenticity, play, and laughter in order to truly experience joie de vivre, a keen enjoyment of living according to Webster’s Dictionary, and an experience all too rare today in the United States.

Cecile stresses that feeling part of a community is essential to our well-being and defines it as “about caring for people, feeling safe, feeling accepted, feeling like you belong.”

She calls for the growth of the slow counterculture where we “try to work less, spend less and rush less. We spend more time with family, friends, and community – or pursuing our passions. We watch less television, avoid malls.”

In The State of the World Report, 2010 Andrews and Wanda Urbanska write, “In the United States, the Slow movement has become a part of the simplicity movement, encouraging people to live deeply by exploring and reclaiming the ancient vision of leisure. People are beginning to find ways to take back their time in order to walk more, talk with their neighbors, and spend more time in local neighborhoods.”

Andrews quotes David Orr who points out, “The plain fact is the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperatley need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”

As I take yet another step closer to living a life that more closely incorporates my values, Slow is Beautiful is certainly one of the books that has inspired me. I’ll be writing about other books in the future.