How to Live a Psychologically Rich Life

What is a Psychologically Rich Life?

We talk a lot about happiness and how to achieve it on this site, but if there is one thing I have learned in my exploration of happiness, it’s that achieving happiness is extremely subjective. What works for one person won’t necessarily work for someone else. But, the journey of finding what works can be more fun, bring more joy and lead to greater self-discovery than finding the right happiness habits on day one. 

So, I always love finding a new theory or way of looking at the pursuit of happiness, and this week I discovered the work of University of Virginia psychologist, Shigehiro Oishi, who defines happiness and wellbeing as a ‘psychologically rich life.’  

According to Oishi, a psychologically rich life is characterised by variety, depth, and interest. It is a life without boredom, and full of novel experiences. As someone who gets bored far too easily, this kind of happiness appeals to me! 

What’s interesting about this theory is that ‘novel’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘pleasant’ experiences. In fact, the research shows that experiencing things that push our limits or push us out of our comfort zone can be extremely beneficial to our mental health, often resulting in great feelings of accomplishment, gratitude or personal growth.  

Recent research into understanding good stress verses bad stress back up this idea. For example, University of Rochester psychologists found that re-evaluating how you perceive stress can positively impact your mental health, general wellbeing, and success. Their study, which was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, found that training students to treat their stress response as a useful tool helped them to reduce anxiety. The shift in perception also helped them get better marks on tests, procrastinate less, stay enrolled in classes, and respond to academic challenges in a healthier way. The study builds on his earlier research on optimising stress responses. 

Psychologist Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman agrees. “The psychologically rich life is full of complex mental engagement, a wide range of intense and deep emotions, and diverse, novel, surprising and interesting experiences. Sometimes the experiences are pleasant, sometimes they are meaningful, and sometimes they are neither pleasant nor meaningful. However, they are rarely boring or monotonous,” says Kaufman, who describes himself as a cognitive scientist and humanistic psychologist exploring the mind, creativity, and the depths of human potential. 

“Recent research on psychological richness has found that it is related to, but partially distinct from, both happy and meaningful lives. Psychological richness is much more strongly correlated with curiosity, openness to experience and experiencing both positive and negative emotions more intensely,” says Kaufman in a recent article the Scientific American. 

Dr Kaufman talks about the psychologically rich life as including: 

• Deep emotions 
• Diverse experiences 
• Novel experiences 
• Surprising experiences, and 
• Interesting experiences. 

So how do you know if you’re living a psychologically rich life or just a ho-hum, comfortable life? Well, Oishi has a simple test for that. 

Take the Test! Are you living a Psychologically Rich Life? 

In their research, Oishi’s team poses questions to measure a person’s level of psychological richness, or propensity toward novel experiences. So, if you’re up for it, it’s time to do some soul-searching and see how you rate the below statements. Grab a pen and paper and write down the answers on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) and see how you go. What you do with your final score is up to you. 

• I have had a lot of novel experiences. 
• My life has been full of unique, unusual experiences. 
• My life consists of rich, intense moments. 
• I experience a full range of emotions via first-hand experiences such as travel and attending concerts. 

• I have a lot of personal stories to tell others. 
• On my deathbed, I am likely to say ‘‘I had an interesting life.” 
• On my deathbed, I am likely to say ‘‘I have seen and learned a lot.” 

How to Live a more Psychologically Rich Life 

If your above answers leave a little to be desired, there is so much you can do to get your life back on track. Here are three ways to challenge yourself that are also proven to positively impact your mental health. 

1. Travel somewhere new: People dreaming of travel post-COVID-19 now have some scientific data to support their wanderlust. A new study shows frequent travellers are happier with their lives than people who don’t travel at all. 

2. Do an online course: A study found that participants in online psychology courses saw increases in well-being from their baseline measures. If these classes have long-term benefits, they could become reliable public health interventions. 

3. Find Your Purpose or Pleasure: (Psychology Today). Some argue that a sense of purpose is the key to healthy aging; others maintain that fun is more important. Research bolsters the idea that purpose is highly beneficial as we age, but some research also points to pleasure as essential for healthy mood. Creatively combining pleasure and purpose in these 7 ways might yield the best results. 

If none of those ideas takes your fancy, then take a look at this fab article I found called “30 fun things to do if your summer holiday has been cancelled” for some inspiration for fun things to do.   

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