If you answered yes to the question, you are most likely to be in good health if you are happy about your life. On the Dr. Oz show yesterday, he decided to track down the happiest and unhappiest towns in America to find out what we can learn from the people who live there.
The happiest city was Sunnyvale, California and the unhappiest was Hazard, Kentucky.
They took a working mother from each city and swapped places to see if they would be happier. In Sunnyvale, there is a strong sense of community and has lots of opportunity. There were gourmet food choices and plenty of unique shops.
However, Hazard was a poor community, where they had to pinch every penny to make ends meet. You could see on their faces that they had a hard life. It's a coal miner town with exhausting work hours and no quality time. There were alot of abandoned buildings that left you feeling down. One huge factor is that they are still allowed to smoke inside the restaurants in Hazard. This made the Sunnyvale mom feel very sick to her stomach.
The result of the swap was that the Hazard mom thinks that happiness comes from within and how you were raised; not where you live, or the type of weather. When asked what she thought of the switch, she said she liked Sunnyvale but would not trade places and loves where she lives. The Sunnyvale mom also thinks happiness is all in your attitude and beliefs. She said she could live in Hazard, but it would take alot of getting used to.
Sonja Lyubomirsky, a happiness researcher, shed some light on this subject that where you live does contribute to your happiness, but not as much as you think it would. She developed a pie chart theory of what determines happiness and found out that only 10% of happiness stems from circumstances such as where you live, how beautiful, healthy or wealthy you are; while 50% of happiness is genetic, and 40% is intentional actions such as how we behave, what is in our power to control or change, and how we think in our daily lives.
So basically, happiness comes from within. Come on get happy and practice these five tips for a happier life and take the Oxford Happiness questionnaire and see how you score.
Please share what makes you happy.
Today's Inspiration:
To achieve great things you have first to believe it. -Arsene Wenger
For more info: gbd19@hotmail.com
Photo credit: Psychology Today
Comments
I live in Hazard, Ky. I am very happy. The bad part is you sent a money grubber to Hazard. I am very upset about this. Maybe Dr. Oz himself should crawl down off of the fame oprah gave him and do some research himself!!!
That show was a joke. Send your newspaper to Hazard and do a real story.
I've traveled all over the world during my 24 years in the military, and there's no place that makes me happier than the hills of Perry County Kentucky. As for Oprah and Dr. Oz, they can kiss my hillbilly butt.
Really, Let's face it. Hazard is probably not the most glamourous place in the world to live, but neither would any place in California. I really wish that people would find somewhere else to stereotype and leave us alone. Happiness does not come from your surroundings, but from the inside. It wouldn't matter if you were Bill Gates and and lived in the most extravagant city in the world, if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus and have him to fill the void that is in each of us, then you won't ever find true happiness.
These Gallup Polls are not definitive. I am from Hazard, Kentucky and have to say that these results were ludicrous. Until you have lived here and experienced the mountains, met the people, and walked in our shoes, all you have is a poll that means squat, a town that does need help from the government as far as education is concerned AND an article that is further contributing to the stereotypes we have worked so hard to get rid of. Send a team to the area and interview those who have educations, who have normal, healthy lives (as the majority of us do) and who take pride in living in the heart of the coal fields. Washington needs to help us before it hurts us with all of the EPA regulations ont he rise.
If you're interested in a new approach to boost your happiness based on the latest positive psychology research, check out our iPhone app (www.LiveHappyApp.com): Live Happy; it's based on the work of his guest Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of "The How of Happiness" and provides a unique method to create a personalized program to increase your happiness.
You can also learn more about the iPhone app on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/LiveHappy)
I do believe that one's surroundings play a small part in who they grow up to become. I'm 24, I have faith in a higher power, I'm optimistic, inquisitive, and I'm still trying to finding out who I am. I have traveled to several places... different states, and experienced quite a few things. But with exposure to a new surrounding, I can be grateful for the things that I've learned along the way. But as any other person that is relieved to come home to a familiar place, I will always have a special preference for my hometown of Sunnyvale, CA.
I believe if you look back into the history of MEDIA, Appalachia has been a whipping post for a very long time, beginning with Lil Abner.I was not around when Lil Abner came out in print,but I'm sure there was some national ecomonic crisis.Everyone needed to feel better, so the media pointed at people who they PERCEIVED to be worse off.From then on,the media has engaged in cruel mental abuse upon persons of a region.When you tell a child its stupid enough times, the child believes it.It becomes self perpertuating.When high school students leave the region to compete in school competitions, they get a negative reception as soon as their hometown origins are disclosed.How do you think, Dr. Oz, people of Appalachia can overcome the esteem issues that stem from this abuse?When you're told you are a loser enough times, you become a loser.You give up.Dr.Oz,you who hold yourself out to be a healer of minds and souls,but you're show is abusive.Hope you and your "happy" viewers feel better now.
If California is so special, why is the Los Angeles area such a dump?And why is the state so BROKE?People talk about the destruction of mountains from coal mining,how about the mountains of California? Stripped to the nub with zero lot line cheap fire trap houses that slide off in a rain storm.Houses as far as the eye can see.Unbelieveable,no sign of nature.The beaches are crowded with ugly zero lot line houses too...There is pavement on the beaches!!!!My gosh,thats supposed to be special?UGGGG You couldn't pay me enough to live there. I don't see why any multi-millionaire movie star would consider buying a home there when they can afford to live somewhere else and fly into work.You can find ugly and unhappy anywhere, but as "unhappy" as Appalachia is supposed to be, I kissed the ground when I got home from California.
Come on, lighten up. The Dukes of Hazard were pretty happy as I recall. No one wants to be on the bottom of any list. Dr. Oz didn't say anyone from Hazard was unhappy, the research poll did. Furthermore, he invited us to learn more about Hazard and Sunnyvale and meet a person from each place. He took us to both places to see what it's like so we can draw our own conclusions. Neither woman wanted to trade places. The great thing about this country is that neither one has too.
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