Two studies on the power of thought. The first found that counselling is 32 times more effective than money at increasing happiness (there has been a bit of discussion about this in the blogosphere) – some of the responses are quite possibly evil I think. The second study found that thinking of a loved one can reduce your pain.
Psychological Therapy and Money
This study was conducted by Christopher Boyce and Alex Wood.
This research found that, to boost wellbeing as much as a four month course of psychotherapy (costing about 800 British pounds) people would need to receive a pay rise of 25,000 British pounds. That is: psychotherapy is 32 times as effective as money in raising wellbeing.
Some interpretations of this I find quite scary. Try this sentence for instance, “The research has obvious implications for large compensation awards in law courts but also has wider implications for general public health.” Can’t you just see companies arguing for a lowering of the compensation pay out – and that people should be directed to counselling instead? Which companies then have less incentive to change their behaviour. This shows how even good research can be used in quite nasty ways in my view.
It does show the remarkable effectiveness of psychotherapy and that we are not nearly as materially driven as the economic model of persons assumes.
Thinking of Your Boyfriend and Pain
This study, conducted at UCLA is a very small (only 25 people), so the results may be questionable. Female students were given painful heat and asked about their response when seeing a picture of a stranger, a chair and their boyfriend. Later they held a ball, the hand of a stranger and their boyfriend’s hand. Holding their boyfriends hand and even looking at a picture of their boyfriend reduced the pain these people felt.
This suggests that getting through stressful times will be easier with the presence of loved ones – and even a reminder of them, like a photo, will help. Which chimes well with common experiences.
How we think can make a big difference to how we experience our lives.
Would you like to feel less stressed?
Could you do with more joy in your life?
The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.
Tags: money, psychotherapy, wellbeing
