[The late David Lykken, a professor at the University of Minnesota, concluded, based on 3 decades of research on twins, much of it identical twins raised apart] that 50% of our proclivity for happiness or for melancholy (our ’set point’) is determined by our genes.

“From person to person, the variation is really quite large,” says Jonathan Haidt, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. “Some people’s brains are set to see opportunities. Other people’s brains are set to see the world as full of danger.”

But genetics is not destiny.

“All the set point means is that in the same way some people have to work on maintaining their weight, you may have to work to achieve the same level of happiness as someone else. It may be harder, but it can be done. [Sonja Lyubomirsky, professor of Psyc at the U of California-Riverside and one of the originators of the happiness formula.] Liz Seymour

Sometimes I think we can be about as happy as we determine to be — and it might be hard work, which seems like an oxymoron.

I’m not sure what percentage could be attributed to genetics and what part to environment, the experiences we go through. Some experiences would be very difficult to rise above, no matter what our genetic base might be. One without the other is too simplistic. I think we can learn to deal with our set point in ways that increase our happiness and learn to stay away from behaviors, people or places that pull us down or are toxic to our happiness. This isn’t always possible, but at least we can attribute some of it to that, not all of it to ourselves.

There was a long period of time when I had an underlying sense of grief, when I was miscarrying, but during that time I experienced a lot of happiness. Partly it was because I made sure of it, or else I knew I would have been sunk.

I don’t discount anyone’s sense of grief. I honored it in myself, while at the same time that I brought happiness consciously into my days.

I never thought of my brain (or ‘a’ brain) as being the seat of the issues. Instead I reached out to a higher sense of consciousness that isn’t brain oriented. I still do. What hope would there particularly be if I pinned my sense of happiness or melancholy to my brain. It’s up to me to change my thoughts. (I realize some find solace with medications that work to change the brain chemicals to make it easier to change thoughts. I just choose to work it out another way.)

Anyway, just some random thoughts. I’ve never thought of my thoughts as being in the brain or originating in the brain, but in consciousness. That might seem semantics, and maybe it is, but I see this distinction made by other authors and researchers, so I’m not alone in it.

How about you? Do you find you have a certain base of happiness you work with? Can you work around it or with it to increase your joys? Or do you just accept what is, is. (Sometimes that’s a solution too.)

More to follow.
Karin

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