Dear LWS students,
We know pictures on Instagram don’t accurately describe our life. Real life is tedious and even gloomy sometimes. When I was listening to a podcast one tedious morning, the podcast anchor said it was the United Nations International Day of Happiness. At first, I sarcastically thought to myself, “What a strange day!” But the podcast continued with a fascinating interview with Professor Laurie Santos, a psychology professor at Yale University.
We often think that happiness is a big thing that we can achieve. But Prof. Santos thinks happiness is more like a leaky tire, something that we need to pump up full of air every once in a while. If all the happiness leaks out, your tire will go totally flat. But how can we pump it up?
We often think that our circumstances make us happy. We think it comes from our money, our grades, our job or a particular relationship. Prof. Santos points out that happiness is a lot simpler than that. Happiness comes from our social connections, such as doing nice things for others or finding ways to be more present. But that’s difficult to do during the pandemic.
Her advice is to find social connections in other ways. You can call someone you haven’t talked to in a while, instead of just sending an Instagram DM or a WhatsApp message. You can take a walk with a friend on campus. She emphasizes that such simple acts can really bump up our well-being, in some cases much more than we expect.
Prof. Santos’ final point is the causal arrow of happiness. We think that if we get rich, all good things will happen and we will become happier. She argues that the causal arrow points in the opposite direction, with happy people more likely to get a job. Being happy, being cheerful, and being in a good mood are correlated with getting a higher salary later in life. All the things we want—getting jobs, making more money, and coming up with creative ideas—are the sorts of things that come from better mental health, not the reverse.
So, if you see a friend looking gloomy, go and cheer them up. Share your contagious smile. Let’s pump up our leaky tires together.
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About Prof. Jae Woon LEE
Prof LEE joined Lee Woo Sing College in 2018. Born in Seoul and educated there as well as in Canada and Singapore, he teaches aviation law and competition law at the Faculty of Law. His hobby is Taekwondo (3rd degree black belt). If you would like to know more about Prof Lee, please visit https://www.law.cuhk.edu.hk/app/people/prof-jae-woon-lee/.