Since 1938, Harvard University has been conducting a long-term study on the topic: What are the basic elements of a happy (and long) life? Each of us certainly has an opinion about this. Doesn't the key to happiness lie in what is lacking the most right now? Then in many cases it would be the dear money. Or a lack of romantic love? Who would not also like to achieve something in their career, to realize themselves, to develop their own talents?
The study results are clear: none of these things are essential for physical and mental well-being. The key to happiness is social fitness.
People need people to survive. This is true not only for the division of labor, but even more so for our social relationships. For most of us, intense interaction with others is a gratifying experience that provides satisfaction.
What we easily overlook: The capacity for such exchanges, the cultivation of social relationships, is not something that happens by everyone. Once we have established a friendship, this does not ensure that it will be maintained on its own. Social relations are a living system.
In other words, just as one steels one's body, just as one does something good for one's soul, social fitness is a third area of life through which happiness can be actively influenced. You just have to know how. But I'm sure most of us can think of something right away.
If not, it might help to look up the study's website for inspiration. https://www.adultdevelopmentstudy.org
Or get much more details reading the book by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz.
But if you want to do something active that doesn't just affect you personally, you can dedicate yourself to improving living conditions with Prosperland. As a practical exercise that strengthens, because to the awareness of the importance comes the tool to practice and successfully use social fitness.
Theory and practice once again come together beautifully.
