I Think I'm Happy, But I'm Not Sure Because I Haven't Done a Scientific Study Yet

Today I got my December issue of Oprah magazine. Yay! The cover is beautiful and it has Ellen DeGeneres on it, which if you watched Ellen's show you know all about her campaign to be on the cover of O.



I started flipping through, scanning and skimming (I admit I can hardly keep my attention through a whole article), and started to get annoyed halfway through. Then I had an A-Ha moment (picture the trademark symbol here--Oprah has practically trademarked A-Ha moments. Should I send a check?)

What is with our society's obsession with research?! Good God, people. Maybe you've had a similar experience. You're flipping through a magazine, and from makeup to relationships to kinds of underwear, someone has done a study so that you can say that science supports your need for Spanx or dark chocolate. Good Grief.

Here are just some of the research subjects in the December issue:

• You should sit up straight because "people who practice good posture have more confidence and conviction in their beliefs than those who slouch."
• People who care about seeking revenge "have fewer close friends, were more likely to be unemployed, and were less happy" than others.
• Happy marriages hinge on "positive illusions," not good communication, happy childhoods, and determination.

Even the advertisements want to appeal to your logic:

• Such-and-such creme has 2 times the anti-aging benefits as another.
• Pantene has pro-vitamin formulas so you can be sure your hair is healthy.
• Skechers Shape-ups promise everything from improving posture to firming your butt to finding your true love.
• Arm & Hammer toothpaste removes 5x more plaque than some other brand.

Good Lord, people. It's no wonder we are incapable of following our intuition. We can't pick out lipstick or buy a pair of jeans without scientific research helping us make our decisions. So why would we leave things like careers and families and relationships up to our hearts, right?

So many people that I meet wonder why they can't see, hear, talk to their loved ones, angels, spirit guides, etc. But we all can. The problem is that around the age of 5 when we start attending school, the scientific method drives our every decisions. From a very young age we are discouraged from listening to our heart, our inner compass, our intuition. We're made to believe that our hearts can be faulty and intuition isn't scientific.

Sure there's a place for science! But do we need it every day in everything that we do?