What is happiness?

They have been talking and writing about him since Antiquity. But thinkers and scientists cannot agree on what happiness is and how to achieve it. It was declared both the main goal and the meaning of existence, and a harmful illusion that prevents a person from approaching the truth.

Psychologists began to study happiness in earnest only a quarter of a century ago. Since then, the disparate studies have merged into the positive psychology movement. Thus arose the science of the good life, or, as it is often called, the science of happiness. And now we can talk about well-being, satisfaction, joy of life, based on experimental data and proven facts. Many of them force us to reconsider conventional wisdom.

Assessment of life in general

There is nothing more difficult than to define what happiness is. Some call happiness a short-term, but very intense state of bliss, others — a stable feeling of well-being. Others see happiness as having something important or as a special feeling that does not depend on objective grounds.

But if we consider that happiness is a life that brings satisfaction, then the facts are indisputable: the happiest are not those who experience blissful experiences, but those who have a positive attitude the most stable. Objective «reasons» for happiness can not always be found. Professor at the University of Bremen (Germany) Ursula Staudinger calls this the paradox of subjective well-being: we are often happy despite the fact that there is no reason for this.

Even the happiest people get sad sometimes, and the most miserable people experience delightful moments. Happiness does not arise from us or circumstances, it obeys its own logic, and perhaps that is why we tend to underestimate it. American psychologists asked study participants to assess the level of happiness of those who are deprived of fate (disabled, unemployed, mentally ill people, poor African Americans), and then compared the results with the real picture.

Most of the respondents believed that such people simply could not be happy, but in fact there were significantly more happy people among them than unhappy people. In virtually all countries and social groups, the average happiness score is well above zero. Even in the most inhospitable and difficult places to survive — in the African jungle, in the snows of Greenland and in the slums of Calcutta — the population is more likely to be happy than not.

Happiness depends on us, not circumstances

What determines how happy we are? American psychologists Sonya Lubomirsky and Ken Sheldon summarized everything that is known to science in this regard and presented it in the form of a circle divided into three parts of different sizes. The largest part of the circle — its half — is the influence of temperament, personality, heredity. Some feel happy from childhood, no matter what happens to them, while others find it difficult to feel that everything is fine with them.

The smallest part of the circle — about 10% — is the influence of external circumstances, including the place where we live, the level of income, the quality of education, belonging to a certain social circle. Therefore, from the point of view of psychologists, it is pointless to leave somewhere in pursuit of happiness.

The remaining 40% is how we build our own lives: what goals we strive for, what people we communicate with, what activities we choose, what lifestyle we lead. Happiness depends on ourselves much more than we used to think.

There is little happiness in money

Numerous studies prove that it is not money that makes us happy. But why is this myth so popular? In fact, money brings happiness, but a little and not for long. As a comparison of different countries and people of different incomes in the same countries shows, for the poor, happiness is directly related to material well-being, and with an increase in income, this feeling increases for them.

But when the basic necessities of life are met—there is a home, health care, a person does not starve, can afford rest, and provide a good education for children—a further increase in income does not make people happier. In general, as Sholom Aleichem wisely remarked, it is not so good with money as it is bad without money.

People for whom money is especially important feel more unhappy than those who treat the material side of life philosophically.

Happiness is when you are understood

This idea, formulated in the film «Let’s Live Until Monday», is confirmed by research by psychologists. One of the surest foundations for happiness is close, warm, and deep relationships: familial, romantic, friendships. Married and married, including partners who are in a civil marriage, are happier than single, divorced and widowed. But the most unfortunate of all are those who have parted, although they are formally married.

The very fact of registering a marriage does not lead to a steady increase in the feeling of satisfaction with life compared to the previous period — the point is in the relationship itself, and not in the stamp. The value of communicating with others is one of the main theses of the science of happiness. Positive psychology leaders Ed Diener and Martin Seligman found that students who score high on tests of happiness have only one thing in common: close relationships in their lives.

Happiness depends on culture?

A significant role is also played by the extent to which we consider happiness obligatory, necessary, and whether we consider its absence almost a personal shame. This is due to the peculiarities of the culture, society and ideology in which we live, with the influence of fashion. Western civilization is often criticized for introducing a fashion for happiness, because of which people who experience failures and hardships are simply afraid to admit them.

In some countries, people feel happier than they should be, based on objective parameters, while in others, on the contrary, the majority of the population feels unhappy people. The former include, for example, China, with a high level of mutual support, a habit of hard living, and low expectations, and Latin American countries, where positive emotions are traditionally cultivated.

The second is rich Japan, where it is difficult to maintain a positive perception of life due to the strong pressure of social norms and requirements. This also includes almost all countries of Eastern Europe and the former USSR, where people’s sense of self is affected by instability and the destruction of their usual way of life.

Russia in the 1990s and early 2000s was among the outsiders in terms of happiness, yielding, according to polls, even to such more economically disadvantaged countries as Uzbekistan and Bangladesh. This is partly due to the fact that in our culture it is not customary to demonstrate happiness and well-being. However, the positive dynamics is noticeable: today 77% of Russians say that they feel happy.

Being happy is good for your health

The experience of happiness is wonderful in itself. But happy people turn out to be more successful professionally, they are more appreciated by managers and clients, they are less likely to be out of work, less likely to change jobs. In general, they are healthier, miss fewer days of work due to illness.

According to the research of psychologists Lubomirsky, King and Diener, happiness, as well as positive emotions, a sense of satisfaction, a sense of well-being and hope, reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, colds. In the same living conditions, happy people live longer, have better immunity and recover faster after major surgery. They are more altruistic, socially active, perceive others more benevolently, solve creative problems better.

Happiness, as science now knows, does not make us selfish. On the contrary, self-obsession and inattention to others are much more characteristic of those who are unhappy.

Happiness can grow

Everyone has an individual range of happiness: although life events affect the feeling of happiness, after a certain time its level returns to the starting point. But not everyone: there are persistent shifts in the individual level of happiness, usually upwards. Therefore, by knowing and applying ways to increase happiness, we can actually become happier.

Happiness is possible. It is influenced by many factors, but to a greater extent it does not depend on external circumstances, but on how we build our lives. Ed Diener and Martin Seligman compare true happiness to symphonic music, where the sound is created by many instruments, but none of them alone is enough. Everyone has their own path to happiness, there is no universal key that will open this door.