Article

Little Missed Sunshine

February 15, 2011 Published in the March 2011 issue of Seattle Met

THE LACK OF UV RAYS in these pre-spring equinox days isn’t doing much for our collective seasonal affective disorder. But just how bummed are we in Rain City? Sustainable Seattle aims to find out. In January the environmental nonprof launched the Happiness Survey, a means to gauge what it calls our Happiness Index. The 135 questions and possible responses are as probing (“How often is someone who shows you love and affection available to you when you need it?”) as they are likely to induce an existential crisis (“If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing”). The organization releases resulting averages every week on its website. Visit sustainableseattle.org, take the questionnaire, and see if you’re mopier than your fellow Seattleites, 73 percent of whom—per recent results—demonstrated “average” psychological well-being.

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