What’s Gross National Happiness?
Once upon a time in a country far, far away, lived a most unusual king who proclaimed that Gross National Happiness was more important than Gross National Product. See http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/
In this tiny, isolated, and landlocked Himalayan Kingdom tucked in between India and China, the 4th king of Bhutan oriented its national policy and development plans towards Happiness (or GNH). Even before this declaration in 1972, the country’s 1729 legal code declared tha
t “if the Government cannot create happiness for its people, there is no purpose for the Government to exist.”
Any reminders here of Thomas Jefferson’s “pursuit of happiness” in our Declaration of Independence?
But unlike us here in the United States, Bhutan actually began to create an indicator that measured both the quality of life and social progress.
In the 104 page “short guide” to the 2012 GNH index, (guide link) they surveyed folks, looking for the indicators of those people identified as HAPPY to see where they enjoyed satisfaction.
AND the second part of the analysis scrutinized the domains in which the NOT-YET-HAPPY folks lacked sufficiency. (Notice they did not say UN-HAPPY?)
B
hutan is basically a Buddhist country with only about 700,000 people, mostly farmers. It was an opportunity to learn at least as much about what happiness is NOT, as what it is. And it seemed to be more about creating a work/life balance rather than acquiring things.
So…
1. It was certainly more feasible for them to survey their relatively fewer folks than for us to survey ours!
2. And the more spiritual focus of Buddhism throughout the country was stronger than what seems to be our more materialist focus here.
Their widely used description of happiness acknowledges Buddhist tenets that abiding happiness cannot exist while others suffer, and
- comes only from serving others,
- living in harmony with nature,
- and realizing their innate wisdom and the gifts of their own minds.
If people everywhere basically want the same things: love, comfort, food, safety, security, then we could all rate ourselves for our own Gross Happiness.
The old adage that “Money can’t buy happiness” may be more true than false. But the issue of “sufficiency” still needs to be addressed with the not-yet-happy folks. And since we usually realize that having more “stuff” doesn’t seem to equate with more happiness, we could focus on what does in our own lives!
Bhutan’s domains were: psychological wellbeing, health, education, culture, time use, good governance, living standards, ecological diversity and resilience, community vitality.
40% of the people of Bhutan achieved GNH; and the not-yet-happy had sufficiency in 56% of the domains.
What would you MEASURE for your happiness?
Where would you rate your happiness LEVEL?
What would you wish to IMPROVE
in order to be “happier?”
I’d love to compare notes with you!
Please leave your comments and I’ll respond to you!