Money Can't Buy You Happiness But A Good Marriage Might.

Hi,

Many couples that I see in therapy, complain that one of the partners, usually the husband, is working long hours at the office. One of the partners, usually the wife, is complaining that she is lonely, and feeling very disconnected. When she wants to go in to therapy with her husband, many times he can not even available to make the appointments because he is traveling on business or gets home too late. Neither partner evaluates whether the additional income is worth the toll it takes on their marriage. Why not read the summary of this article by smartmarriage.com that was written in the New York Times this week. If we could only put as much effort into our marriage as we do into our careers, we would be a much happier society. If you want to read the whole article, it is paste the website on the bottom.

Keep working on your marriage. The rewards will be there.

Regards,
Beverly



This was summarized by SmartMarriage.Com.

Op-Ed Columnist
THE SANDRA BULLOCK TRADE
By DAVID BROOKS
The New York Times
March 29, 2010


> Marital happiness is far more important than anything else in determining
> personal well-being. If you have a successful marriage, it doesn¹t matter how
> many professional setbacks you endure, you will be reasonably happy. If you
> have an unsuccessful marriage, it doesn¹t matter how many career triumphs you
> record, you will remain significantly unfulfilled.
>
> This isn¹t just sermonizing. This is the age of research, so there¹s data to
> back this up. Over the past few decades, teams of researchers have been
> studying happiness. Their work, which seemed flimsy at first, has developed an
> impressive rigor, and one of the key findings is that, just as the old sages
> predicted, worldly success has shallow roots while interpersonal bonds
> permeate through and through. . . .

> If the relationship between money and well-being is complicated, the
> correspondence between personal relationships and happiness is not. The daily
> activities most associated with happiness are sex, socializing after work and
> having dinner with others. The daily activity most injurious to happiness is
> commuting. According to one study, joining a group that meets even just once a
> month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income. According to
> another, being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than
> $100,000 a year. . . .

> . . . . In short, modern societies have developed vast institutions oriented
> around the things that are easy to count, not around the things that matter
> most. They have an affinity for material concerns and a primordial fear of
> moral and social ones.

For the full editorial: http://tinyurl.com/yktabn9