MINDFUL LIVING

OUR EVOLUTION HAS PREPARED US TO ENJOY OUR LIVES — AS LONG AS WE CAN FIND A POSITIVE PURPOSE.

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF HAPPINESS Our evolution has prepared us to enjoy our lives — as long as we can find a positive purpose.

In many ways, life in the Unites States has never been better. The stock market is up; unemployment, down. Crime is near all-time lows. Infectious diseases that killed thousands are routinely cured, or being vaccinated into extinction. By historical standards, we’re well-fed, housed, educated and paid.

But these fortunate circumstances are not reflected in how we feel.

Anxiety and depression have become

commonplace. An American Psychiatric Association poll in 2017 found that nearly two-thirds of Americans were “extremely or somewhat anxious” and more than a third were more anxious overall than in the previous year. Depression, which often accompanies anxiety, is both an American and a global epidemic, with the World Health Organization reporting that it has recently become the world’s leading cause of disability.

TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTIONS ARE ROARING AHEAD, AND THEY ARE TRAMPLING US.

How can we reconcile so much misery — especially in the developed world — with increasing peace and prosperity?

NOT BUILT FOR COMFORT

In my book Spontaneous Happiness, I took an in-depth look and concluded that our mental distress is largely the result of an evolutionary mismatch between the circumstances in which we evolved, and the ones that surround us now. The last million years of human (and hominid) evolution were characterized by:

• unprocessed foods

• outdoor physical labor

• tight family and social groups

• a lack of “irresistible” attractions designed to cultivate addiction

Unfortunately, most of what we eat today is processed carbohydrates, we seldom venture outside to work or play, and family and social groups are atomized.

Perhaps worst of all, we’ve bent our considerable ingenuity to creating “instant payoff” technologies, from synthetic drugs to addictive video games, that suck more and more of us into a self-destructive vortex. We seek the next hit of dopamine, the neurochemical reward that tells us we are engaged in useful tasks — even if the task is actually useless, like reaching a video game’s next level.

Human evolution is slow. Physically and mentally, we’re virtually indistinguishable from our paleolithic ancestors. But technological revolutions are roaring ahead, and they are trampling us.

THE WAY FORWARD

The neurochemistry of happiness requires long stretches of anticipation and striving punctuated by brief, infrequent rewards. As psychiatrist W. Beran Wolfe wrote:

“…if you observe a really happy man, you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar stud that has rolled under the dressing-table.”

If we could attach a neurochemical monitor to our “really happy man,” we’d find the small, hard-won victories he achieves on the way to his ultimate goal give him an optimally spaced drip of dopamine — enough to keep him engaged, yet hungry for more accomplishment and success.

Having said that, I’ll also acknowledge that the human condition is varied, and sometimes physiology can go awry in a way that no amount of dinosaur-egg hunting can salve. Serious clinical anxiety or depression require professional management and, possibly, drug therapy.

I’ve also found that a proper foundation of nutrients can help support positive moods. In particular, I recommend:

• B vitamins, taken in the form of a quality B-complex supplement

• St. John’s wort — 300 mg of an extract standardized to 0.3 percent hypericin

• SAMe (S-Adenosyl-L-methionine) — 400 to 1,600 mg per day

• Fish oil — 1,000 to 2,000 mg per day

But beyond these measures, consciously doing what we can to replicate the environment in which we evolved is the best route to contentment and, on occasion anyway, true happiness.

Eat an unprocessed diet rich in fruits, vegetables and healthy animal protein, especially cold-water fish. Get frequent, gentle exercise, preferably outdoors. Work hard to maintain social groups of family and friends.

And most importantly, find an endeavor that gives your life meaning. Most of the happiness we feel in life is not related to short-term rewards or mindlessly consuming, but by making steady, incremental progress toward a worthwhile goal — one that helps us, our families, the community and the world.

If you are fortunate, you are in the midst of pursuing such a purpose.

If not, find one.

THE NEUROCHEMISTRY OF HAPPINESS REQUIRES LONG STRETCHES OF ANTICIPATION AND STRIVING PUNCTUATED BY BRIEF, INFREQUENT REWARDS.