Does Thinking Make you Happier?

Does Thinking Make you Happier?

             In order to know if thinking is helping to make us happier we need to define what happiness is and what constitutes a good life.  P.M. Forni defines it like this, " The good life is a life nurtured by a healthy sense of self-worth, brightened by a positive outlook, warmed by a loving family and loyal friends, grounded in congenial and challenging work and made meaningful by an involvement in something larger than ourselves.  We also know for sure that happiness is a by-product of the good life and the good life is a by-product of good thinking." Thus is seems that Forni has given us a logical proof that thinking makes you happier.  So how do we make more room in our busy lives for thinking?  I believe that creating time and space for thinking is a habit that we need to be teaching ourselves and our children how to do.  First we must commit to making this a priority in our lives. 

 Forni gives us some helpful starting points....

• Think first- Before saying or doing anything, you stop and think about the best ways at your disposal and about the likely consequences of your actions.          (Hit the pause button and think first)
• Make paying attention your default mode of being in the world.       (I believe that this is linked to the practice of mindfulness)
• Reduce substantially the time you devote to trivial distractions.     (This takes time away from more meaningful experiences in your life)
• Invest time in serious, uninterrupted introspection and reflection.   (Reflection is another skill that is not often taught but is very useful and important to leading the thinking life) 

Is Technology helping us to Think and Lead a Good Life?

  I recently listened to a great podcast about how technology is being used to distract people away from leading the good life and having meaningful experiences and it is creating more of the "trivial distractions" that Forni speaks about in his book. 

 Please take some time to listen to the following podcast from , On Point, in which they speak about how to create a more ethical high-tech economy that is actually making people's lives better - instead of just bringing us the trivial distractions that keep us from living a good life....

On Point- Building A More Ethical High-Tech Economy