Would you rather be rich (financially) or healthy and happy?

Rev. Dr. Launa Virgo has written a two-part article at Examiner.com, “Does wealth equal happiness? How joy in life affects your health.”

In Part One, Virgo shares the results of a Gallup world poll conducted in 140 countries that found “wealth was not a determining factor” with respect to happiness. She also refers to the “Happy Planet Index” (HPI) published by the New Economics Foundation.

In Part Two, Virgo focuses on “how happiness impacts a healthy life.” Here are some excerpts…

“True health is not the absence of disease, but a balance of life’s forces.”

Quoting Alexis Carrel, she writes what when envy, hate and fear are habitual, they “are capable of starting organic changes and genuine disease.”

Virgo writes, “Illness can be a way of adding interest to a bland, meaningless existence.”

“Challenges are ordinary and so is emotional pain.”

“Those who judge circumstances as good or bad find themselves always at the mercy of their own perception. Those who accept that life happens around and with a person, but not to a person, enables that individual to pass through challenges without being taken down by them.”

“The American consumer culture would lead you to believe that happiness is just a purchase away and all of life’s ills are solved with a pill.  As it turns out, Americans have become the world’s leading pill consumers.”

Concluding her list of  “some pathways to happiness,” Virgo writes, “Talking about things that are bothering you will help relieve stress.  Counselors and support groups offer non-judgmental help.”

See the web site for HappyPlanetIndex.org

.