According to the annual World Happiness Report, published by the University of Oxford, the United States ranks 24th out of 176 countries. This is the lowest ranking for the U.S. since tracking began in 2012. The number one country, for eight years in a row, is Finland, followed by Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden. The U.S. even lags behind Mexico.
Some of the reasons attributed to this country’s ranking include: working too much, worrying too much about what other people think, being externally focused and not living in the moment, and one of the most prominent reasons is that we tend to be so individualistic in our approach to life. Other countries are more community minded – working together to help each other, caring for the needs of each other, and sharing their resources.
As a behavioral health workforce manager was quoted as saying “When you give you get out of your head and out of your problems and you realize there things outside of you, bigger than you and your problems don’t seem so impactful.”
This information is interesting, but not surprising. We have known for thousands of years that whether we are looking at society, our marriages, or families – we are much stronger (and happier), when we work together. It is so common in our culture for people to not want to lean on anyone. They are fiercely independent; they can do it themselves; they don’t want to have to confer with anyone; and they want to do things their way.
Yet, over 2,000 years ago, Jesus told us what the key to life is. After the instruction to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, we are told to love our neighbor, our fellow human beings, as ourselves. This is a significant piece of being a team member, of living in community, and living interdependently. Perhaps, happiness is just around the corner