Have the Swiss found the secret to happiness?

I’m going to be honest. My first few days in Switzerland sucked. It was raining, barely over the freezing mark, I was paying a lot of money for a crummy room with a crappy heater and the internet didn’t work.

But then spring arrived a week later and life was good.

There are still a number of things to get used to like the fact that none of their gyms open before 7 a.m., all the shops close at 6:30 p.m. and nothing is open on Sunday. The first week here I never made the cut off and had no groceries in my fridge. It was extremely frustrating...and I was hungry.

 But now I’m catching on and I think I get it. It’s forced down time.

Because things close early, you have to leave work on time in order to complete all your errands before the stores lock their doors. So by 6:30 p.m. you’re done and you have your whole night ahead of you to relax, hang out with friends or hit the gym. There are no excuses not to relax as there is nothing else to do except relaxing things. In my case, it’s even more extreme as I’m still in my crummy place with no internet so I can’t even do work at home.

Forced down time. Could this be the secret to sustained happiness?  Survey after survey, Switzerland is shown to be the place where people are the happiest. It's an expensive country to live, the weather isn't as fabulous as Florida and they work hard and have less vacation than some other countries.  Yet, they still say they are happy.  Could it be because of the early closing of shops and the lack of anything open on Sunday has instilled the habit of work/life balance?  Could it be forced down time can lead one down the path to happiness?

Forced down time. Maybe the Swiss are onto something.