How Does Happiness Work?

What is happiness?

In the following, I will present my opinion on what happiness is and how you can improve it. I base my opinion on my personal experiences and the research I have read. There are many different definitions of happiness out there, and I don’t claim that my approach is the perfect one. I am open to changing my opinion on the topic once I come across more convincing ideas.

When I talk about happiness, I am referring to an emotional state of well-being. This is also the definition most researchers use when writing papers on the topic. Feelings like joy, love, or hope are all positive emotions that make us feel good. These emotions are, however, very subjective. A child, for example, can be absolutely ecstatic when it gets a birthday cake, but an adult would probably just feel mildly joyful (also depending on his diet plan).

From my point of view, it is safe to say that the feeling of well-being or pleasure is the goal of every action we take in our lives. The reason we sacrifice something pleasurable, like sleep for example, when we want to finish an important project is the expectation of an even more pleasurable or relieving feeling once we are done. Of course, avoiding pain propels and motivates us, but at the end of the day, I believe that everyone just wants to be happy and satisfied in their lives.

Now the pursuit of happiness seems to be our driving force. The question is, however, how we go about pursuing happiness. Especially in our modern day and age, there are more options than ever to indulge in pleasurable activities. Should we try to seek out positive emotions and avoid negative ones like envy, anger, or fear as much as we can? I think the answer is a bit more complex than that. In what follows, I will explain how we can find happiness in our lives without getting lost in the process.

Let’s first look at the concepts of happiness and pleasure in more detail.

The happiness formula:

To clarify the concept of happiness, let’s take a look at the happiness formula presented by the psychologist Martin Seligman in his book “Authentic Happiness”. In this formula, he summarizes everything that contributes to one’s happiness:

The happiness formula:

H = S + C + V

H: Stands for your enduring level of happiness. It describes your average level of positive emotions throughout your life and, not just how you feel in the moment.

S: Stands for your set range. Your happiness level is to 50% influenced by your parents’ happiness levels. It’s your biological happiness baseline, to which you tend to return after happy and sad events.

C: Stands for your circumstances. It includes all the external factors that influence your wellbeing, like wealth, social relationships, the country you live in, and so on.

V: Stands for factors under your voluntary control. This includes your behavior and the way you think.

Our circumstances:

We can’t change much about our set happiness range. But we can improve our enduring level of happiness by focusing on our circumstances and factors under our voluntary control. The problem with our circumstances, however, is that they are often hard to change. Moving to a different country or doubling your income is not easily achieved. According to research, external circumstances in general do not appear to make a significant difference when you live in a wealthy and democratic society. In my article about happiness and money, I go into greater detail about the research on the relationship between income and happiness. The results might surprise you.

Just because the impact of life circumstances seems to be lower than most people might expect doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to change our living conditions. We should change external factors that have a significant negative impact on our well-being. Getting out of toxic relationships or socializing more when we are feeling lonely can help a lot. However, hoping to increase your enduring level of happiness by earning a lot of money or buying fancy things will most likely not yield the expected results.

Pleasures and virtues:

That leaves us for now with factors under our voluntary control as the most effective approach for increasing our enduring level of happiness.

Now, what voluntary actions should we take to create more positive emotions? Before I answer, I should clarify that not all behaviors elicit positive emotions in the same way. The main difference, which comes up in most literature, is the difference between Hedonia (pleasures) and Eudaimonia (virtues). Aristotle was the first to differentiate the two.

Hedonias, also known as pleasures, are experiences that directly cause positive emotions. Examples are taking a hot shower, eating ice cream, or enjoying a cold drink on a hot day. Eudaimonias or virtues, on the other hand, are activities that are less pleasurable in the moment but produce positive emotions that last much longer. Playing football, engaging in an interesting conversation, reading a riveting book, or becoming absorbed in one’s work are all examples of virtue-driven activities.

Pleasures are good and necessary. But to rely on them as the main source of positive emotions is unsustainable. The problem with pleasures is that we get used to them very quickly. As a result, we get less and less satisfaction the more we indulge in them. Overindulging in pleasures can also lead to addiction. Even though we don’t get the positive emotions we used to, we crave those pleasurable activities even more.

So, when you want to maximize the positive emotions you get from pleasurable activities, try to space them out and don’t overdo them. Trying to feel happy by doing everything that feels good will most likely lead to addiction and depression. I will talk more about that in the next part.

Eudaimonias or virtuous activities are, in my opinion, much more sustainable when it comes to producing positive emotions. When you are completely absorbed in something, you lose track of time and use your talents and virtues for something meaningful. You might not feel many positive emotions in the moment, but when you stop, you will most likely feel great about it. You will feel the desire to do it again. Virtues activities trigger habituation much slower and produce more authentic and longer-lasting feelings of positivity. Focusing on flow states and virtuous activities is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to experience more positive emotions and sustain them.

Negative emotions:

Until now, I focused a lot on positive emotions and less on the negative aspects of our experience. I believe there is a tendency to dismiss negative emotions as something to be avoided as much as possible. From my point of view, however, this might be the wrong approach.

First of all, it is commonly believed that negative and positive emotions are two opposite poles and therefore mutually exclusive. The more we go towards positivity, the less we experience negativity and vice versa. From that standpoint, it would make sense to maximize positive feelings and avoid negative ones. There are, however, studies that show that the relationship is not bipolar. A study by Jeff T. Larsen, A. Peter McGraw, and John T. Cacioppo demonstrates that people can feel happy and sad at the same time. One example they give is college graduation day. On the one hand, the graduates feel good about accomplishing a major milestone but also sad because an exciting chapter has come to an end.

In this case, the negative and positive aspects of graduation go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other. Like graduation day, many activities in life include a variety of positive and negative emotions. Reaching the point of graduation in the first place is, for example, not a process of pure enjoyment and happiness. There are many challenging and stressful situations that have to be overcome. This is the primary distinction between pleasure-driven and virtue-driven activities. Pleasures satisfy our needs and give us a good feeling, but as soon as we stop eating ice cream or turn off the hot shower, the feeling is gone.

Virtue-driven activities provide us with longer-lasting feelings of accomplishment and fulfilment, but they are not always positive. When we play football, for example, we constrain ourselves, we have the potential to fail, we must exert effort, and we may experience stress or anxiety during the game. These characteristics do not always trigger happy feelings, but they are an integral part of activities that we find worthwhile and engaging.

In our modern day and age, we have far more possibilities to indulge in pleasurable activities that give us an instant reward without us having to put in the effort or feel any negative emotions. The amount of shortcuts to quick satisfaction is growing. The more shortcuts we take, the fewer opportunities we have to challenge ourselves and engage in virtuous activities. Also, the more we indulge in pleasures, the faster we become accustomed to them, reducing the positive feelings we experience.

In my opinion, it is important that we accept life’s adversities and embrace them as an opportunity to broaden our ability to experience engagement and flow. It won’t always be fun, but it will have a longer-lasting impact on our well-being and life satisfaction.

Changing the way we think about problems or adversities can give you a more positive outlook on life in general. When you want to learn more about how you can deal with your pessimistic or self-defeating thoughts, you might like my other article on the topic.

Is happiness the goal?

As I said before, I think everybody is striving for happiness in one form or another. A state of well-being does not only feel good but also comes with a host of additional benefits. When we are happy, we are more effective, more resilient, more open, and, in general, a more worthwhile person to be around.

Achieving this state of happiness, however, is not a one-time thing. We can not expect to live happily ever after once we get what we want. Happiness is not a state of bliss where everything is perfect. Life will always be full of problems and adversities, which is a good thing. After all, a life without problems would be pretty boring.

From my point of view, happiness is more like a process. We have to pick the problems that engage us, things where we want to make a difference, and then use our strengths and our knowledge to contribute in the best way we can. Of course, treating yourself and indulging in pleasures in moderation is perfectly normal and healthy every now and then. But I think that at the end of the day, it is important that we always have some kind of activity that engages us. Happiness will come along the way.