Engage and Be Happy

The Wall Street Journal just highlighted a recent study that said American were no happier today than they were 40 years ago.

Even in this age of enlightenment and our obsession with self-help and self improvement, this is not a tremendous surprise. What is surprising is the role television plays in determining our mood.

Americans spend between 15% and 17% of our waking hours watching TV. This need to "zone out" or relax actually is contributing to both our and our children's malaise. Activities that allow for us to mentally engaged like exercising or socializing are most likely to make us happier.


People are always shocked when I tell them we have no TV in our house. We simply opted out because we were tired of fighting over which bad program which child was allowed to watch. And yet, both my husband and I can HAPPILY say, it is NOT missed.

In fact, all of us are reading books more (one of the activities the WS Journal says leads to more happiness!) and interacting more with each other (another one).

Hmm. Who knows if our children will end up any happier, but it made me happy to think we may be on the right path!