Happiness Depends on Safety and Freedom

In his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt speaks to the research of John Bowlby and Harry Harlow indicating that maximizing a child’s thriving and development depends almost totally on two things: feeling completely safe in the environment, while having the ability to explore and play to their heart’s desire, how, when, and with what they choose. Parents (most frequently the mother) are responsible for creating safety and promoting exploration, and when they conscientiously fulfill these essential childhood needs, you get exceptional children making great advances in life. This exceptionalism most often carries throughout the children’s entire lives.

Not surprisingly, in his best-selling book, DRIVE, Daniel Pink presents research that employees who are treated fairly, trained by his employer to possess mastery in his work, and with that mastery given autonomy in their job responsibilities, and finally are afforded meaningful, purposeful work, are highly productive, loyal and effective.

We can easily see that the safety and exploration needs of a child translate into the very same needs in adults, and when these needs are provided, the people, children and adults excel.

So maybe you want to ask yourself when in your life have you felt totally safe, and when have been able to immerse yourself in a project you became totally lost in it. Ask yourself if you feel absolutely safe now, enjoying yourself immensely. Maybe you want to ask your spouse, children or colleagues how they would answer those questions. The more you and they can get into these zones, feeling safe and free to immerse yourself in activities you love, the greater the chance you will find real happiness in life.

In my next blog I will cover in depth how feeling safe and free to explore to our heart’s content opens us to unassailable happiness – real joy – in life. The process is easy to understand. But to integrate it into our behavior requires an uncommon fixity of focus and a profound change of thinking and belief.

In my next article I’ll talk more about how feeling safe and freedom to explore opens us to real happiness. I will also help you learn how to feel safe making you more impervious to the doubts and fears that limit success and joy for so many of us.

Thanks for reading.

Tom Searcy