Secrets to a happier life

February 7, 9:38 AMPhiladelphia Health ExaminerThomas Hartmann

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Imagine that someone had made a project of determining what octogenarians (people in their 80s) -- happy octogenarians -- had in common. Wouldn’t you like to know?

That’s exactly what Harvard University researchers have done. In the book Aging Well: Suprising Guideposts to a Happier Life, study director George E. Vaillant, M.D. and his colleagues have followed the lives of a randomly selected group of men and women over the course for over 50 years.

Some of the results are surprising, and some are just common sense. For example, the role of lifestyle is more important than that of genetics in determining longevity.

Maintaining strong social relationships, be they with children, one’s spouse, or just close friends, ranks very high. The same goes for exercise and refraining from smoking.

The study also found that those who maintained hope and a sense of humor are happier -- those who can make lemonade out of life’s lemons.

Perhaps surprising to some, but not to others, belief in God or churchgoing was not particularly associated with happy aging except as it related to the intimacy of “two or three being gathered together” and listening for the inner life.

Of faith, hope, and love, only hope and love seem to have survived the secular age.