“We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” wrote Thomas Jefferson, one of the founders of the United States, for the US Declaration of Independence of 1776. It is “the pursuit of happiness” that clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania in the US Judith Coche helps people with, and she was in Cairo recently doing exactly that. At a workshop at the Alef Bookstore in Maadi held in January Coche helped people address the question in a session entitled “How to be Happier in 2017. The Psychology of Happiness: Egypt 2017”. The event was held in co-operation with the Egyptian Association for Group Therapies and Processes (EAGT). Coche, also a practising psychologist in addition to her medical training, said that “clinical psychology is accustomed to fixing what is wrong, like depression, anxiety, border line personality disorders, schizophrenia and other difficult things to repair. So when I got my PhD I was told that my job as a clinician was repairing damage and fixing what was wrong. Psychology is about fixing what is wrong, but it also needs to be about making things right,” she said. As a result, she became interested in social psychology as well as clinical psychology, deciding with her colleague Martin Seligman to look more carefully at what makes people happy inside rather than just trying to fix things when something goes wrong. “What we are concerned with is helping people live happy and fulfilling lives as well as treating unhappiness, and the way we are interested in it is through solid research,” Coche said. They had learnt a tremendous amount over the past ten years, including by studying the ways in which people were resilient, she said. This can help them bounce back after a crisis, helping them to live more positive lives. Such people also commonly have a sense of humour and are able to figure out what they are going to do and then do it. Such things could help teach others to lead a better life, and such lessons are available as people depend on other people and get satisfaction through human relationships, Coche commented. She quoted US psychologist Helen Fisher as saying that “the greatest human need is to love, not to be loved, but to love. We need to reach out to others.” Coche started her workshop in Cairo by asking the participants why they had come. Then she asked them some other questions. “How many people think that money is important for happiness,” she asked. “It is important to have a modest amount of money, but after you have satisfied your basic requirements money is not what makes people happy,” she said. More important was grit and endurance, for example in dealing with a problem like the declining value of the Egyptian pound. “How we work and what we do is very important for happiness. If we do something that gives us meaning, it also gives us happiness,” Coche said. She summarised the responses of the participants to a survey she had carried out, saying that “most people said they were happy between six to 12 hours per day, but a number said they were only happy for a maximum of three hours a day. A lot of people love to be alone, but this is not what makes them happiest. The things that often rob people of their happiness include being unhappy in love, or lonely, isolated or stressed and being unable to do many things in a short time,” she said. “What the research tells us is that we need to be engaged with other people. We have to make connections. If we remain socially or emotionally isolated, it is hard to be happy,” she added. “You should set yourself up every morning as someone who will have a good day. You should decide what you should do to be happy, but it should also be possible to do it,” Coche advised. “For example, if you set a goal to walk on the beach in Alexandria, but you don't live near the sea, this won't work as you are setting yourself up for failure. However, believing that you are up to achieving a goal can make you happy and give you self-confidence.” “One of the ways you develop the ability to reach your goals is through positive emotions like happiness, fluffiness or just good humour. The second is to engage and to reach out to someone. The third is the quality of relationships, because relationships are the foundation of happiness. The fourth is meaning – finding something you believe in. A person must follow his heart in terms of what he likes doing for the rest of his life, if he is looking for a job, for example,” Coche said. Lubna Amr, a participant at the workshop and a dentist by profession, said it had helped her see things differently. “It was eye-opening. In just a short lecture, Dr Coche gave us some ideas that we can apply in our daily lives by helping us to be happy right where we are,” she said. The reading list Coche had given out was particularly important. “I love reading and since the lecture I have been reading even more,” Amr said, adding that she had been helped to see “the cup half full.” “She made me realise that I really do love my job as a dentist and that working in the clinic makes me happy. I thought about this when she asked us how many hours a day we are happy. When I used to rush to the clinic and work for long hours I would think it was just routine, but after the session I discovered that I really enjoyed it to the extent that I can work when I am tired and not care even if I am working long hours.” Coche described happy people to those present at the workshop. “One of the things we know is that happy people have what we call ‘a lucky seven'. They are either born with it or they build it up. First, you see the glass as half full. The second is you savour life. When we savour life, we look for ways to enjoy it. The third thing is that people who are happy have a sense of spirituality which is not the same as being religious. It means having a sense of the importance of life and the fact that it doesn't only revolve around you.” “The fourth is connecting with other people. The fifth is that happy people pursue goals, and they like to succeed. The sixth thing is that they are helpful. And the seventh is that they are grateful,” Coche said. “The research tells us that we can make ourselves happier if we construct moments of pleasure in our days, and if we can make time for them. Happiness is a collection of happy moments. If you begin to see yourself as someone who expects to feel happy, you can engineer it. Moreover, other people matter, and those you love matter most. Happiness results from when you touch someone you love, both physically and emotionally,” she concluded.
