Love Lifted Me And It Can Lift You Too!

Happiest People Have THIS in Common...
When it comes to happiness, there is one thing that fills us with joy more than anything else: love.
Having a romantic relationship makes both men and women happier, and the stronger the relationship's commitment, the greater the happiness and sense of well-being of its partners, according to a new study from Cornell University and Pennsylvania State University that was published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.Interestingly, both husbands and wives have a far greater sense of well-being, compared to singles or cohabitators, even if the marriage is not a particularly happy one. Why? They likely benefit from the marriage's stability, commitment and social status. "Even when controlling for relationship happiness, being married is associated with higher self-esteem, greater life satisfaction, greater happiness and less distress, whereas people who are not in stable romantic relationships tend to report lower self-esteem, less life satisfaction, less happiness and more distress," study leader Claire Kamp Dush said in a news release announcing the study findings. The study found that people who cohabit are next on the scale of happiness, followed by those in steady relationships and then those in casual relationships. Those without partners report the lowest levels of well-being. "Some commitment appears to be good, but more commitment appears to be even better," Kamp Dush said. "In general, people appear to feel better about themselves and their lives when they move into a more committed relationship."But which comes first, the chicken or the egg? That is, are happier individuals more likely to enter into committed relationships or do committed relationships actually improve well-being? "Those most likely to move into more committed relationships were actually those who reported lower levels of well-being when first surveyed," Kamp Dush said. "Therefore, if they were using committed relationships as a strategy to improve their well-being, it appeared to work."Kamp Dush and co-author Paul Amato of Penn State came to these conclusions by analyzing data from the study of Marital Instability Over the Life Course that included telephone interviews with 691 individuals in 1992 and 1997. Well-being was assessed with measures of self-esteem, life satisfaction, general happiness and distress symptoms. Studying romantic relationships--which range from casual dating to marriage--is important, Kamp Dush noted, because such relationships have the potential to affect people's mental health, physical health, sexuality and financial status.