QUESTIONS ON HAPPINESS

Happiness is defined differently depending on who you ask. Some people define happiness as a positive emotional experience. Others define happiness as having two parts called hedonia (pleasure) and eudaimonia (thriving). Outside of the scientific world, most of us define happiness as a mixture of positive emotional experiences and a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life.

What does it mean to be happy?
If we've defined happiness as both positive emotions and meaning in our lives, happiness is a state where we might experience personal positive emotions like contentment, ease, or joy. But we also experience prosocial positive emotions that give us a greater sense of meaning—emotions like connectedness, gratitude, and compassion.

Where does happiness come from?
Although we often think happiness comes from the things that happen to us, science suggests that happiness largely comes from our brains. That's why changing the way we think can increase our happiness even if we make no changes to our lives. For example, when we focus on positive words (by memorizing them) it activates regions of your brain associated with these words. So, if I think of the word "adventure," it will likely activate my memories of adventure and the positive emotions associated with adventure.
This not only feels good in the moment, but it can also make it easier to generate these emotions and thoughts in the future. That's because when any region of the brain is activated, it gets stronger. So, memorizing or focusing on positive words can make positive concepts, memories, and feelings easier to access in your brain.

How do you define happiness?
Although scientists have their ideas about what happiness is, there are also differences between people in how they define happiness. Regular folks like us define happiness a bit differently than the scientists. Happiness is a bit more about the actions we take in our daily lives. Here are some of the most common examples of what people said their happiness is:

Family, friends, and relationships
Sun, nature, and being outdoors
Doing things, you enjoy
Thought processes like gratitude and self-compassion
Exercise
Financial security and safety
Purposeful work
Accomplishing, creating, or achieving something

How to create happiness
Now that we know what happiness is, how do we create it? Well, there are lots of different happiness skills we can build. When we focus on building the skills we struggle with most, we can more usually more effectively boost our happiness.

Once you know what skills to build, use happiness-boosting activities that build these skills. For example, you could practice positive reappraisal, learn how to capitalize on your strengths, or manifest experiences in your life that give you more meaning.