Do you feel loved? A Love and Happiness Data Story
Post written by Alice Vo Edwards and Laura Musikanski
Do you feel loved?
This is one of the questions in the Happiness Index. This month we look at data from November, 2017 for 968 people answering the question between November 1 and 30th on a five point scale. An answer of one means "I never feel loved l" and an answer of 5 means "I feel loved very often or always."
The most frequent and the average answer is "I feel loved sometimes" (290 people). 266 people responded that "I feel loved often," and 244 responded "I feel loved often or always." Only 5% said that they never feel loved.
So how about you? Do you feel loved never, rarely, sometimes, often, or very often or always. Your answer might be partly contingent on your age.
Some ideas, based on the book, The Five Languages of Love:
Some ideas, based on the book, The Five Languages of Love:
- Listen attentively without offering advice.
- Doing something nice for them.
- Give a small gift periodically out of the blue.
- Taking time to hug or cuddle if they want that.
- Tell them good things about them.
Then ask for their feedback on your idea. Listen! Revise your idea based on their feedback, and ask again for their feedback. Do this until they say you do understand them.
Set the intention to spend a little time each day demonstrating love, and do it. Pick up when you lapse. Everybody does. It's no big deal as long as you pick back up.
Love & Age Takeaway: If you have a young person in your life, take some time to reflect on how you can interact with that person so they feel that they are loved.
The overwhelming majority of things that made people happy can be summarized in one word: Connection.
The things that made people happy involved their connections with other people primarily (family, love, friends, people, relationships), but also included our surroundings (nature) and animals.
One outlier was that food made the #4 spot in November for "in one word, what makes you happy?" It would be interesting to know if those that answered "food" think of food in context with connecting with others -- is this about eating Hagen Daz alone at home, or Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family? Yet another example of how everything I learn just leaves me with more questions!
Also interesting to me that this data supports the national focus on building community and connections with others as being the top thing that can be done to prevent suicide. If you know of someone who might be lonely this holiday season, maybe invite them to dinner and give them a little food and connection at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment