Yahoo News People with a belief in ‘oneness’ tend to be happier, new research shows
There’s one personality trait which is linked to happiness – a belief in ‘oneness’, which leads people to be more hopeful and think of their lives more positively.
Oneness is a feeling that everything in the world is interconnected and interdependent, the researchers say.
The findings were based on two large-scale surveys involving nearly 75,000 people in Germany.
Researchers from the University of Mannheim found that people who reported high scores for oneness (by agreeing with questions like, ‘I believe that everything in the world is based on a common principle’), reported higher life satisfaction.
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Lead author Laura Marie Edinger-Schons said, ‘The results of this study reveal a significant positive effect of oneness beliefs on life satisfaction, even controlling for religious beliefs.
She said, ‘”The feeling of being at one with a divine principle, life, the world, other people or even activities has been discussed in various religious traditions but also in a wide variety of scientific research from different disciplines.
Edinger-Schons said, ‘I recognised that in various philosophical and religious texts, a central idea is the idea of oneness.
‘In my free time, I enjoy surfing, Capoeira, meditation and yoga, and all of these have been said to lead to experiences that can be described as being at one with life or nature or just experiencing a state of flow through being immersed in the activity. I was wondering whether the larger belief in oneness is something that is independent of religious beliefs and how it affects satisfaction with life.’
