Habitually Happy people crave intellectual stimulation and mental challenges, they are invariably curious, creative and inventive.
These are important sources of happiness.
A recent study published in Psychological Science discussed in New York Times reports:
"people who spend more of their day having deep discussions and less time engaging in small talk seem to be happier, said Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona who published a study on the subject."
Is this a surprise? The First Law of Happiness: Our Focus Determines Our Feelings - When we focus our attention on subjects we find interesting, exciting and challenging we feel energized and elated.
If we continually focus our minds and time on inconsequential things, our feelings and our lives rapidly become inconsequential. Too much small talk stifles our mental stimulation and happiness.
Our time and attention are limited. Focusing on inconsequential subjects takes time attention away from important items that can be challenging and satisfying.
This is a reprise of an earlier posting here quoting Victor Frankl:
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” (Frankl, 1997)"
Too much small talk stifles mental stimulation and happiness!
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