Jo Craven McGinty apologetically pointed out to her financially focused Wall Street Journal readers this week, “money isn’t everything”. She was discussed the global movement towards Gross Domestic Happiness that started in the 1970s in the Buddhist country of Bhutan.

The World Happiness Report ranks 158 countries based on how people report on their quality of life such as life expectancy, generosity, social support and their emotional well being including how they deal with stress.

Switzerland was the highest ranked country with Scandinavian countries filling up the bulk of the top ten rankings. The US came in 15th.

When I think about times of happiness for myself, I consider occasions when I give back to others. Certainly my work as a psychologist fuels that but even when I make charitable donations to my favorite causes, I find a deep sense of satisfaction and pleasure.

Certainly, happiness is a great strategy for building resilience as it produces positive stress hormones, recharges our batteries and passes good feelings onto other.

What gives you happiness?

© Richard Citrin, All rights reserved, 2015