Dec 02 - On Happiness
By Shameem Guilliano
I recently watched some documentaries during a Netflix binge on the idea of happiness. One of them was Happy (2011) by director Roko Belic and the other was I Am (2011) by director Tom Shadyac. The one that struck me the most was Happy, a documentary about what people from around the world consider to be their own happiness. The contrast of seeing a large family in Louisiana, USA, find their happiness in having very little material goods and seeing a young, suited up adult on the streets of New York answering the question “What will make you feel successful and happy?” with “Right now? Money” made me wonder what people in Gibraltar consider to be happiness, and how they think they achieve it.
Personally, I consider myself to be a neutral person with regards to happiness. Good things happen and bad things happen and I manage to stay consistent; I think it’s quite easy for humans to spring back to their genetic set point/range, which is described in Happy as being the inherited point of happiness you always return to after good or bad experiences. This set point is said to consist of 50% of our overall happiness, with income, social status, age and where you live consisting of only 10% of your overall happiness. So where does the remaining 40% of your happiness come from if this is indeed the case?
I have friends who spend their money on travelling and are still wearing the same clothes they wore 5 years ago without feeling the need to buy new stuff, but rather feeling the need to see more places. These people are the happiest people I know, who spend their lives smiling from ear to ear and being grateful for everything they have. I know Gibraltarians who never leave Gibraltar and are as happy as the travellers because what matters to them most is their family and having them close at all times. I also have friends who live in London but would rather move back to Gibraltar where they feel they would be happier. We seem to be developing a new generation of happiness seekers, where the young people of Gibraltar are keen to explore the world, go to University, meet new people, and decide whether they want to come back to Gibraltar at all. Our young adults are trying more things than ever in order to find that happiness. Are we being picky and ungrateful? Maybe, but I would never accept unhappiness as being normal.
I found it hard to adjust to life back in Gib after 4 years at University, with a BA and MA in a subject I loved but no job prospects I soon spent 6 months unemployed and broke while everyone around me seemingly had their lives sorted, which wasn’t the case. There were more people like me who were pushed back into a way of life they wanted to escape by going to Uni. I fell back into the same monotonous routines and only found happiness by distracting myself with things I enjoyed doing. Eventually I found work and I was happy to have something to invest my time and energy into everyday, but there’s still something missing. I think part of our 20’s is finding out what that missing 40% is and grabbing it with both hands once we find it. I’m not sure what that missing piece is for me; maybe I need to travel more or spend more time with my family, who knows, but after watching Happy I wondered how our happiness in Gibraltar compares to the rest of the world and whether the average Gibraltarian considers themselves as being happy, and where they think that happiness stems from. Is it our close-knit families? The glorious sunshine? Our Mediterranean diets? Or being blissfully unaware of the possibilities that await us in other countries?
Where do we as Gibraltarians find that remaining 40%?
