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"Your hands. Take a good look at them. Oddly, experts say there&amp;#x27;s something about them that may predict your happiness and risk for depression... Blisstree recently reported on a subject that fascinated me. Our hands, they say--citing a recent post on EcoSalon by Amy DuFault--may be an indicator of our happiness, particularly whether we&amp;#x27;re likely to be depressed or not. &amp;quot;Our ancestors, women in particular, struggled with depression much less than we do today, because they were way too busy working with their hands on meaningful (and often essential) tasks typically known as women&amp;amp;#8217;s work, like knitting, sewing, cooking, and gardening,&amp;quot; writes Christine Egan. &amp;quot;And maybe the old-timey broads were onto something. They simply lacked the opportunity to sack out in front mindless reality TV, eat a bunch of junk food, waste time on the Web, or wallow in self-pity. Instead, they had things to do, fix, make, cook (and people to take care of) all the time--in order to just survive. When they finished all that, they got to sleep for a few hours. And then get up and do it all over again. In short, there was simply no time for women to become depressed...&amp;quot; So interesting, isn&amp;#x27;t it? While I find it hard to believe that there was zero depression in olden times, I do think there may be something to the keeping busy-happiness connection. When I&amp;#x27;m engrossed in my writing and my fingers are typing away, I do feel happier. And, like many people, my mental health is best when I have a full plate (which is why I tend to keep myself busy--a little too busy!). Tell me what you think of this! Are you happiest when your hands are busy--knitting, working, scrubbing the dishes, whatever? More reading: *Could this new show help you get happy? *3 morning mood boosters... *The weird thing that humming can do for your health... More Ways to Get Glamour Visit Shopglamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Follow us on Twitter Add us to your iGoogle homepage Photo: Thinkstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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