Life Satisfaction Factors

Being happy at the moment isn’t ultimate happiness. That is, it isn’t an end goal. It is a fleeting emotion. So riding the happy train as some sort of ultimate goal doesn’t seem to work. And maybe that is why toxic positivity stings so much. It is so false.

So what do we mean? When we refer to Happiness? What is this true happiness, anyway? Well, Mood is not Life Satisfaction. I love the mood happiness. And it can come at the strangest moments. Just sitting outside and enjoying a fine day. There it is. I don’t have to do a thing. And there are ways to encourage happiness for me. Listen to some awesome tunes. Do some art. We all have our ways. But it is a mood and we can’t live in it.

Life satisfaction is what I mean when I think about happiness to the point of being content or happy about my life. Happiness is a mood at the moment, in your life. And we can encourage it to be welcome more often, yes. But it is not Life Satisfaction. Life satisfaction is about being happy About Your Life.

At certain posts in our lives this can massively dip with chronic illness. Due to massive changes. The impact of the chronic illnesses itself. The impact over time. The life compromises we make over time. They affect how we think about ourselves and our lives. Leading to adjustment periods.

Life satisfaction has to do with are we:

• Are we satisfied with who we are as a person? (self-esteem) (see Chronic pain and self-esteem)
• Do we have a good sense of self-identity and value who we are? (See Chronic Illness and Self-Identity)
• Do we feel like we contribute to society, or our family, or our personal lives in a way we value? (productive in a way that we value)
• Do we feel like we contribute a positive experience to those around us- family, friends, co-workers? (positive social relationships) (See Epidemic of Loneliness)
• Do we fear the future? Or look forward to it? Prepared for it? (sense of control) (See: The fragile perception of control and the effect on well-being)
• How is our overall mental, physical, and mental well-being?
• How is our quality of life?

Those are the factors that I would think add to our overall life satisfaction.

Life satisfaction factors vary in our lives. It is important to know it fluctuates. There are times it will be lower, for many reasons, than other parts of our lives. When we want to improve life satisfaction we have to look at improving more of these factors in our lives. Some of which can be difficult with chronic pain and illness. Some of which we have to work hard at improving. Some get hit hard for us. And other factors have to pick up the slack.

I would say we take a hard look at our life satisfaction often with chronic illnesses. Definitely when we make hard choices. Or when the chronic illnesses gets worse and we have to make compromises for it. When we change work. Or don’t work. And any number of other facets of our lives we had to adjust, they cause us to re-think and adjust. Sometimes that adjustment period can be brutal. Or has been for me in the past. And sometimes it can ease us into new things: hobbies, new social situations, new friends and so forth.

What does science have to say about how we can improve life satisfaction?

1. Have close friends– “Having more close friendships was associated with a 19 percent greater life satisfaction and a 23 percent greater sense of optimism. – Richburg 1998” ¹Having a healthy social life. Even liking your neighbours “Positive feelings about neighbours have been found to be associated with a 16 percent greater life satisfaction and a 25 percent lower likelihood of experiencing feelings of loneliness. – Prezza et al. 2001”²
2. The story we tell ourselves– The meaning we create from life comes from the story we tell ourselves about our lives. “People who wrote about the history of their lives were 11 percent more likely to feel happy with their lives and 17 percent more likely to feel optimistic about the future. – Yamada 2000”³ Are you into your family history or genealogy? “People who were interested in their family and ethnic histories were 6 percent more likely to feel satisfied with their lives. – Mowrer and McCarver 2002” ⁴
3. Goals– people who have goals are 20% more satisfied with life. “People who could identify a goal they were pursuing were 19 percent more likely to feel satisfied with their lives and 26 percent more likely to feel positive about themselves. – Krueger 1998”⁵ And if you’re passionate about something, well, scores across all factors are higher on psychological indicators. And this doesn’t mean something massive and major- “Life satisfaction is 22 percent more likely for those with a steady stream of minor accomplishments than those who express interest only in major accomplishments. – Orlick 1998”⁶
4. Nope not the money– money doesn’t increase life satisfaction. “Among participants in one study, those whose values were the most materialistic rated their lives as the least satisfying. – Ryan and Dziurawiec 2001” ⁷Meaning is more important than wealth- “Those with a modest income who felt there was meaning in their lives were twice as likely to experience life satisfaction as were those who were wealthier but who felt that their lives lacked a sense of meaning. – Debats 1999”⁸
5. Growth– Change over time is a good thing. “People over forty who could identify at least one change in their viewpoints or behavior in recent months were 8 percent more likely to feel hopeful about the future and 5 percent more likely to say they were generally in a good mood. – Grossbaum and Bates 2002”⁹ Continuing to read and learn is a good thing- “People over the age of fifty who said they continued to learn about topics that interested them were 18 percent more likely to feel satisfied with their lives and 43 percent more likely to feel vital. – Helterbran 1999”¹⁰

I want more life satisfaction in my life having a disabled life that has changed so very much. It is difficult when I have become limited in my choices, at least choices have changed, ways of doing things have changed, and life looks different. Having to have made sacrifices. Having to have made compromises. Having to give up my career. We feel the lack in our lives keenly sometimes. So we have to work a little more on life satisfaction but, for me, it is important to strive for. And often we do without realizing it strive for many of these facets. I think when I consciously think about them, I can even look at new areas I need to work on. It has helped me adjust.

The main points I get from this that benefit us are:

1. A healthy social life
2. Goal setting
3. Constant Growth
4. The story we tell ourselves

I often focus on constant growth in my life as an ultimate goal. That and thinking about the story I tell myself. The story I told myself during my depression about pain and myself was so skewed. I will write a post about that, in fact. Because how we think about ourselves creates the meaning we put onto the world. And that story is important. Just as important is how we can re-write that story.

I wouldn’t say any of this is easy when you look at those factors and say ‘I want to increase my life satisfaction’. Only that, those are the areas if we see improvement our life satisfaction goes up. But like all things with a chronic illnesses it can be difficult to see forward momentum. Nevertheless, some of the things we do to cope and mange pain and illness can give us a necessary boost.

Like taking courses and learning new things- reading about new things- learning and doing new hobbies. And if we become passionate about a goal or hobby even better. And if we socialize in a virtual group or in person group about that hobby even Better. So there are things we do to distract and cope with pain and illness that likewise increase life satisfaction if we look for them.

I like writing. So I blog. I write fiction. I socialize online about blogging. I socialize online about writing. I joined an in-person writing group in the city. It is a goal to finish one of the books I am currently writing. Blogging and writing give me a sense of purpose. Meaning.

When I have more energy I also like to take courses. I haven’t in a bit because of fatigue levels but I hope to soon. I can pace myself so it isn’t so bad. It is all self-learning. And I take anything I desire. Usually coding. Or Linux. Or Coaching courses for fun. That is just about growth or interest more specifically. I do recommend this. It is quite fun. Any you can do any topic you want. I definitely do the self-learning courses though because I need to do extreme pacing. It is important that I am able to break it up at my pace.

But how we think about life satisfaction and how we reflect on those factors and how we live to improve it, is entirely up to us. It can depend on what we value most in our lives, to what we see as important, and what factors we want to improve most. In the end, we all create different life stories. And focus on different life satisfaction factors even.

1-10 Source “100 Simple Secrets of the Best Half of Life: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It” David Niven PhD, 2005

See also

Reprint from brainlessblogger.net

Benefits of Self-Compassion