Research out of Stanford University suggests that younger folks (under 25) tend to 
associate happiness with excitement, while those over 50 tend to associate it with calm and serenity, connectedness with others and with the moment. Further, when younger folks practice loving-kindness meditation, they tend to feel more connected to others and to the moment and they also experience happiness in calmness and serenity.
The research design included surveying 12 million blogs for association of the word "happy" with high-arousal or low-arousal words. This result was confirmed both in a survey of adults aged 18-78 and in an experiment in which participants listened to either exciting or a peaceful version of the song "Such Great Heights" and reported how happy they felt. Younger subjects reported feeling happier when listening to the exciting version. Older subjects reported greater happiness when listening to the peaceful version.
Finally, after practicing a loving-kindness meditation for six minutes, younger participants tended to report feeling more connected and in-the-moment than they younger subjects who did not meditate. On the other hand, older subjects who did not meditate were just as connected and in-the-moment as those who did, suggesting that these qualities naturally increase with age. Younger subjects who participated in the meditation defined happiness more as peacefulness than did their peers who did not meditate. In this, they gained a perspective more like that which they would naturally acquire later in life.
Given that we know most folks are not very good at prediciting how much certain experiences will affect their happiness, perhaps one benefit of meditation for younger adults would be an increase in the ability to choose goals that would promote happiness throughout life.
photos: arinsaed by Haeroldus Laudeus, Stillness by h.koppdelaney
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