A recent study by the London School of Economics measured the relative value of different leisure activities, giving them the emotional equivalent of a raise in pay.
Their conclusion: dance is associated with the happiest people, and was worth £1,671 ($2,808.28) a year.
Swimming came next with a worth of £1,630
And visiting libraries came in third with a worth of £1,359
Other values of your search for happiness:
Taking part in team sports – £1,127
Arts and crafts – £1,020
Attending plays – £999
Individual sports – £828
Attending concerts – £742
Conversely, keeping fit through classes and gym exercise brought so much unhappiness, it was the equivalent of a pay cut of £1,318.
So, if you want to be happier, dance! As Snoopy said, “To live is to dance, to dance is to live.”
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Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels Light Bringer, More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I. Bertram is also the author of Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.” Connect with Pat on Google+. Like Pat on Facebook.
April 24, 2014 at 8:10 pm
Can we count writing as arts and craft (it’s been described as both for ages by all sorts of writers)? If so, I’m getting a pay raise of 2,379 pounds a year. Boy, I wouldn’t mind that kind of money! It’d raise me into a whole new tax bracket!
April 24, 2014 at 9:58 pm
I agree with you rami ungar but don’t tell the tax man.
April 25, 2014 at 6:06 am
Good idea. They’d find some way to make it difficult for us all.
April 24, 2014 at 10:07 pm
Haha so true to dance is to live to live is to dance Are we having fun yet?
April 24, 2014 at 10:13 pm
I have never liked taking part in team sports except cricket, tennis and squash. And I am not keen on watching sport on television. I can spend hours exploring an art gallery and I’ve been told that, once I go into a book shop, family and friends have to send in a search party to get me out.
If I have to have a sport nowadays it is fishing but that isn’t a team sport. So You Think you Can Dance has turned me off getting back to dancing as has the competition shows to do with cooking have turned me off learning new skills in the kitchen. I prefer to think of dance and cooking as forms of art and not who can score best on whatever day or night. Take art away and I have no interest in them.
I do attend plays when I can afford to do so. I have also started writing plays that are being staged locally in Australia. One I had great joy writing because it lampoons ‘Reality’ television.
I think I prefer Snoopy when he was flying his dog kennel and taking on the Red Baron. One of my fondest memories was taking a joy flight in a Tiger Moth biplane. Another fond memory was flying over the Snowy Mountains in a Piper Cherokee. It was summer at the time and we flew so low I could almost open the window, reach out and pick flowers off one of the mountains. Now that was exciting.
April 25, 2014 at 4:14 pm
I guess it’s a good thing I have no idea what So You Think You Can Dance is.
April 25, 2014 at 5:44 pm
Yes. A very good thing.