Be Happy & Healthy – The Success Formula

When a child is born, every mother will wish their children a Happy and Healthy life. What is the success formula to be happy and healthy? The Grant Study by Harvard University on Adult Development may give you the answer.

This is the longest research run in adult development since 1938 with 4 generations of researchers. 268 Harvard sophomores were studied from their age of 19 till the end of their lives. President John K. Kennedy was among the original recruits. In the 1970s, 456 Boston inner-city residents were included in the study. Their mental and physical health, world war II experience, work, relationships, aging and retirement were studied. The data are collected through questionnaires in every two years, medical and psychiatric examinations in every five years, interviews with researchees and their wives in every 10 years. As of now 60 researchees are still alive.

The areas to explore are:

• How important are our childhoods in predicting how we age?

• Is the die cast by mid-life, or can we still affect how we get old?

• Who retires, who enjoys it and why?

• Is life all basically downhill from here?

According to Prof. Robert Waldinger, the fourth research director of the Grant Study, Good Relationship is most critical to our health and happiness in life. Whether you are young parents, young, mid-age or retiring adults, nurture a LOVE-filled environment will be the key to success for you and your love ones.

Written by Maria Leung

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