On October 1st, I launched a project that would analyze and report America’s emotional health on a regular basis. When I pulled the results, I wanted to focus on more than just a generalized “happiness” account. So I assessed the results by examining four categories: Happiness, Stress, Connection and Hope. The outcomes for all categories averaged in the upper half of positive for Happiness, Connection and Hope and mid-range for Stress. So what can we speculate from this correlation between emotional wellbeing and stress people experience in their everyday lives?
What stands out to me is that even though stress levels appear to be moderate among participants, emotional wellbeing levels remained on the higher side of the scale. This speaks to me about resiliency.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
When people experience stress, they can still be happy. If they’re taking care of their social, spiritual, physical and mental/emotional health, most people can withstand hardships in their life. In The Happiness Forecast, one of the questions in the survey asks participants to choose which factors have the biggest impact on how they feel the day they are completing the form: relationships, family, work, money, health and wellness, community, current events or other. The majority of people said relationships and family were most significant.
The question does not ask participants whether these factors positively or negatively impact how they feel, just which factors have the biggest impact. People may be dealing with financial pressures, relationship difficulties, professional demands, or uncertainty about the future while still finding enjoyment and satisfaction in their lives. On the other hand, these factors may be contributing to why happiness, connection and hope did not reach 4 out of 5 stars.
With Connection averaging in the positive half, we might speculate that social relationships are contributing to emotional well-being, especially since relationships was one of the factors reported to be most significant. Even when life is stressful, people who feel connected to family, friends, or their communities may have an important source of emotional support.
While Hope scores don’t average high on the rating, they’re still not bad. They’re over 3.5 out of 5, so that’s encouraging to me. Hope difference from Happiness because happiness focuses on the present while hope focuses on the future. The fact that both these categories rated in the positive could be indicative of positive psychological resilience in people.
News and social media frequently emphasize conflict, economic pressures, political division, and societal problems. Despite that, the results of this survey show that people still find it in themselves to push through.
In the “Add A Comment” section of the survey, several people offered things they do to help their emotional health. From meditation to simply going outdoors, people appear to be taking charge of their happiness in the midst of everyday stress (read some of those here). This gives me hope. It also keeps the wheels in my head turning.
Because the number of participants in this preliminary report were so small, I cannot conclude anything for certain. I can only speculate and keep trying to push for more participation. And I can only keep reporting. So I may have to get more creative in getting the questions answered.
You can add your voice by reporting your happiness today!
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