Not happy with life?
Half of Indians are not
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Mumbai, -- If you
sit back to evaluate your life and you don't feel too
cheery about it, you are not alone. Half of India seems
to have a low sense of well-being, according to a study
conducted by the humanities department of the Indian
Institute of Technology-Bombay. Well-being is a
self-assessment of one's life. The study showed that in
India, unlike in the West, well-being is not defined
only by individual wellness but by the growth of others
in people's lives, mainly their families. The seven-year
study on subjective well-being (SWB) included 2,600
people across socio-economic groups. More than
two-thirds were from the Mumbai metropolitan area.
"Many
people think happiness is just a pleasant experience,
but medical research shows that people who experience
good feelings, for example, are less likely to get sick,
want to meet new people and donate money," said Robert
Biswas-Diener, a US-based psychologist who is on the
editorial board of the Journal of Happiness Studies.