A Harvard researcher describes how a tale told by his grandmother is fixed with him for life in which she narrated the secret of her happy life, according to a report in the The Washington Post.
Robert Waldinger, a psychiatrist by profession, recently delivered a TedTalk in which he described what it means to be happy in the real sense.
Waldinger said that his grandmother once visited a doctor. While interacting with her, the doctor lifted her purse and moved it to another chair. Since the bag was very heavy, the doctor told her that she might be very rich. In an affirmative tone, Waldinger's grandmother said to the doctor, 'Yes, I am.'
Waldinger describes his grandmother as a modest woman who lived a normal life. She never went out on long tours, never had a lavish meal or shopped at big stores. But she was happy and considered herself to be rich because she had a loving husband, children and her grandchildren whom she loved the most.
Waldinger said that his grandmother knew the secret to happy life - A healthy relationship with your family - which the researchers had been studying since a long time.
Waldinger had studied relationships throughout his career. He described how his study on relationships led him to the conclusion that intimacy between two people in a relationship is of utmost importance. Those who maintain inmate, close relationships are often the happiest, concluded Waldinger, by adding that, people should understand that the key to happiness comes from within the family.
“What we’d really like is a quick fix, something we can get that’ll make our lives good and keep them that way,” Waldinger said in his TedTalk.
