Is Happiness Linked to Good Health?
“A healthy mind in a healthy body” (Mens sana in corpore sano). It is a well-known saying, and it points to the importance of taking care of our physical health. But good health alone is not enough to bring happiness. What should we add to this formula?
In 1946, the World Health Organization defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease.” Some might say that this definition describes an ideal that is impossible to achieve, but it does point to the fact that our sense of health and happiness depends on a variety of factors.
Studies show that we can influence our physical health by changing our mood, for better or worse. The reverse does not always work, meaning that improving our physical condition does not guarantee an increase in happiness. For example, someone might spend hours at the gym, maintain a healthy diet, and do all kinds of activities for their health, yet still feel distressed.
Clearly, if someone is suffering from an illness, they must first take care of it. At the same time, we should not reduce the purpose of our existence to maintaining good health. After all, we do not live in order to be healthy. Health is simply a means that enables us to develop and grow internally. The greater goal is to be happy, and the body should be maintained so that it does not interfere.
Today, we have reached a stage of development in which people are not particularly happy. The ego has reached very high levels, everyone has countless demands, yet life seems to be shrinking, closing in on us. Likewise, there are fewer opportunities to be happy.
It is precisely in the most developed countries that we find the greatest despair. People do not lack material possessions, but they have no answers to the big questions: What am I living for? Why was I born into a world like this? What do I get out of it? Consciously or subconsciously, these questions give a person no rest.
A hundred or even fifty years ago, people still had goals ahead of them that shone from afar. Today, nothing really attracts us anymore. We have already seen everything, tasted everything, been everywhere. All the effort and running around hardly seem worthwhile. On the other hand, sitting around doing nothing does not provide much satisfaction either. That is the problem. Whatever you do, it will most likely end in some kind of gray feeling.
At the same time, medicine and science continue to advance, and life expectancy is increasing. The day is not far off when it may be possible to ensure many years of good health for everyone. The body will no longer constitute a limitation or restrict us in any significant way.
But then the question of happiness, of the meaning of our existence, will trouble us even more intensely.
Suppose we could receive a constant supply of substances that awakened feelings of excitement, enjoyment, pleasure, and joy within us. Would that make us happy?
Certainly not. Happiness results from using our very existence for a higher purpose, from feeling that we have something worth living for. Happiness is the satisfaction we experience from realizing ourselves and from the quality of the connection between us and our environment.
The future lies in realizing positive human connections. If we learn to build integral connections between us within groups and communities, relationships of help, support, and warmth, each person’s emotional resilience will grow stronger. We will discover a new meaning to our existence through mutual connection, up to the level of love.
The more we connect our hearts, the deeper we will penetrate into creation. We will discover the operating system of reality, the forces that govern us even now. Then we will be able to take part in that governance and discover that it is precisely in such spiritual development that the greatest happiness is found.
Wholeness and eternity lie ahead of us, nothing less. I wish us great success in reaching the heights of what we are capable of reaching.
Based on "New Life 231 – Happiness and Health" with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.