Editor’s note: This commentary is by Deb Markowitz, who is a vice president at Ceres, a sustainability nonprofit. She is the former Vermont secretary of state and secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources.
Every holiday season I’m reminded of a “graduation” speech that was given to the eighth graders at the Main Street Middle School many years ago. As I recall, Eli Rosenberg, the teacher who was chosen by the students to give the address, spoke about the need to live more lightly on the planet. He gave the students the simple advice to “create more and consume less.” What’s interesting about this advice is that it turns out that “creating more and consuming less” is not just a good way to reduce your personal environmental impact, but it’s also a key to happiness.
Lori Santos, a Yale psychology professor studies the science behind happiness. She finds that life satisfaction and the sense of personal wellbeing depends more upon the quality of our relationships and the richness of our experiences than the stuff we own. According to her research, once we have enough money to pay for the necessities of life, more money won’t “buy happiness.”
Santos explains that the things we think will make us happier, like a bigger house or fancy car, will indeed give us a boost of happiness when they’re new. But this happiness is short-lived. Over a brief period of time, we get used to the new thing. It becomes routine. She calls this phenomenon “hedonistic adaptation,” and she describes how it can lead to an endless cycle of consumerism that pushes many to go into debt from buying more and more things in the endless search for happiness.
Santos’ research includes several happiness recommendations. First, it’s better to spend our money on experiences, rather than things. This is because experiences are generally short-lived, so our brains don’t get used to them. And we get a “happiness bump” every time we relive the experience through our memories. (That’s why vacation photos and old family videos are so wonderful!)
Second, avoid comparisons and practice gratefulness. Research shows that when we compare ourselves to others we generally wind up less happy. That’s because our mind will generally pick a reference point that involves someone who’s doing better than us or who has the bigger or better thing. In contrast, when we consciously take time to appreciate the things we have it contributes to a general sense of well-being.
This advice is particularly important for people who spend a lot of time on social media platforms. Our lives will always pale in comparison to the highly curated versions of our friend’s lives that are posted and “liked” on Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.
Finally, connect with people you care about. Research shows that happy people tend to prioritize time in their lives for family and friends and that even social connection with a stranger can add to our overall happiness.
This research is good to bear in mind as we head into the holiday season. Last year, U.S. consumers spent over $1 trillion in holiday retail sales. Fourteen percent of Americans sold possessions to help fund this spending, and 22% went into debt. The environmental footprint of our holiday spending is also meaningful. Making and shipping the stuff we buy contributes to global climate change, tropical deforestation, and the depletion of precious water resources, and we throw out on average 25% more trash during the holidays.
The holiday season can be much more than the season of shopping, consumption, stress, and waste. By keeping in mind Eli’s advice to “create more and consume less” we create lasting memories that will make us happy and contribute to the wellbeing of the planet.
