Come On, Get Happy

By: Catie Allard
Posted In: News

Cheryl Lemenager spent her winter break re-reading every childhood book that was still in her Lynn, Mass., home. She did it because it made her happy. Lemenager said it has taken her 21 years to get here, but she’s happy. One might wonder how being a triple major and being happy can occur simultaneously. But for Lemenager, a junior at Salve Regina, it’s about making time to do what she loves. Writing poetry, spending time with her best friend, jamming out on a keyboard, or sitting by the ocean for hours on end are just a few that make Lemenager’s list. After spending a semester abroad in China last spring, Lemenager, who is heavily involved on campus, realized the value of making time for herself.

“There are little things you can do to just let your soul that’s inside peak out,” Lemenager said. “My soul sings, even on bad days.”

Recent national attention has been given to the often elusive subject of happiness. In February, CBS News and “60 Minutes,” highlighted a survey done by Leicester University in England on international happiness. The survey ranked Denmark as the happiest place on Earth, while the United States ranked 23rd. A study released in August 2007 by MTV and the Associated Press found that 65 percent of 13-24-year-old Americans were generally happy regarding their current state and direction in life.

Lemenager thinks happiness comes through experience and self-knowledge. But it is not something a person comes to understand all at once. It took trial and error for Lemenager to realize that overanalyzing herself was not the way to live. While she enjoys critical thinking and analyzing, she said she learned to just let herself be.

“I just exist, and I love just existing,” Lemenager said. “It’s happiness in a peanut.”

Lemenager said that she realizes how happy she is when she is most miserable. “My best friend gives me that little reminder to keep me in line, reminding me what’s important to me and why I’m valued as a person,” Lemenager said.

Dr. Paula J. Martasian, associate professor of psychology at Salve Regina University, may teach a course on happiness, but she said she is no expert. A self-proclaimed life-long learner, Martasian starts every class in her happiness course with an invitation to her students to share something important to them. Martasian said the point is for them to share something that has brought them happiness, whether it is a song or poem that inspires them, a letter from a loved one, or even a YouTube video. The course called Optimal Human Functioning focuses on the area of happiness.

“It’s very much – Here’s the research – now how are you going to incorporate it to change your lives?” Martasian said.

According to Martasian, positive psychology is an area of the discipline brought to the forefront by Martin Seligman, the former president of the American Psychological Association. Positive psychology research emphasizes that a person has the ability to live a meaningful life through who they choose to spend their time with and how they choose to spend their time. After spending a summer reading about the subject, Martasian expressed her enthusiasm for it during a meeting with the psychology department. The department chair encouraged Martasian to run a special topics course on happiness.

This spring is the third time the course on happiness has been offered. It focuses on reading and discussing “Flow” by Csikszentmihalyi, “Authentic Happiness” by Martin Seligman, “The Art of Happiness” by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler and “The Celebration of Life” by Norman Cousins. The course is open to all students and encourages real life application. This semester there are 27 students enrolled.

“The students resonate with it, they identify with the text and with action,” Martasian said.

Martasian said many of these authors emphasize the same basic principles. According to several, happiness comes from mental attitude and learning how to respond to events. Being thankful and having an attitude of gratitude, as well as developing an optimistic interpretation of events, are some of the examples she gave.

Martasian emphasized the concept of flow and explained that one just knows when it is achieved. Flow is an idea that involves skills and challenge, feedback and goals. Martasian gave the example of one of her students experiencing flow while skiing. The student enjoyed skiing; he felt challenged but he also possessed the necessary skills to excel, or meet his goals. The feeling, in this case the sense of accomplishment the student felt, was flow. Martasian explained that it involves being actively engaged with goals, if the skills are above out of reach to achieve a goal, one will feel frustrated and unhappy.

“Being actively engaged with goals and feedback develops a sustained happiness and a strong sense of self and happiness,” she said.

Martasian explained that research shows there are no benefits to negative thoughts because they have been proven in the long term to alter a person’s brain chemistry to be prone to this negativity. Negative emotions such as fear and anxiety are red flags that one should give attention to, but spending an extended amount of time dwelling on them can be detrimental.

The founder of Gateway Resources in Newport, R.I., Linda Strahan, has had years of study and training in the areas of literature, theology, parish ministry, and neuro-linguistics. Strahan who holds a doctorate in literary theory, has also studied sacred psychology under the direction of the fields’ founder, Jean Houston.

At Gateway Resources, Strahan combines the techniques of neuro-linguistic programming, with sacred and clinical psychology to help her patients lead happier lives.

Strahan explained that the main assertion of neuro-linguistic programming is that one’s beliefs and experiences are actually stored in their body. Through the use of various meditative and hypnotic procedures, Strahan attempts to uncover these core and unrealized beliefs that may be at the center of one’s turmoil.

Strahan said that these core values cannot be overridden by simply talking through issues and new ideas like most therapists might suggest. Because of this, the goal of neuro-linguistic programming can be to change how a person makes a decision by recreating their vital and vivid memories. By making the negative memories less significant, the person can have a new set of resources to refer to when making decisions. In a way, neuro-linguistic programming can recreate history Strahan said.

Strahan’s patients vary from 20 year-olds to those in their 60’s who for the most part are dealing with some kind of relational, communication, or adjustment issues. Strahan said she thinks that the majority of unhappiness comes from being financially or professionally insecure and isolated.

Half Danish, Strahan felt the “60 Minutes” piece on happiness in Denmark hit the nail on the head. “I think that everything they said about doing what you love to do, knowing basic needs will be met, and being connected to people will take the edge off of everything we do in life,” Strahan said, “So much of what we suffer as pain is because we are isolated.”

Strahan also emphasized positive thinking as a key to growing happily. “If you stop the movie in the disaster – you remember the disaster,” Strahan said. “If you stop it where it’s all worked out – then you remember that.”