The Science of Happiness

 “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” - Abraham Lincoln.

    So how can we make up our minds to be happy? Do we even want to be happy all the time? I recently took a free online course from UCLA Berkeley about the science of happiness and this age old question. 

    Here I will share some of the highlights of the course and my thoughts. When you think of the Science of Happiness, it’s really a paradoxical question because you’re trying to take measurements on the philosophical idea. But I think you’ll see that although difficult, scientists have been finding new and innovative ways to study this intangible response.        

    First up, what is happiness? Unfortunately this is really a philosophical question and pretty much everyone has a difference of opinion. And like philosophy, people have been wondering about this since ancient times. You have the Dalai Lama, who says, “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion, if you want to be happy, practice compassion.” He talks about the idea that happiness is synonymous with kindness, or that you get back what you receive. 

    Aristotle, by contrast, believed that happiness is found by reflecting on your accomplishments at the end of life. He also believed something that I find quite interesting, which is the principle of moderation in terms of happiness. And by that I mean, he thought that every emotion is good in the right context. For example, fear, when aimed at the right situation, can stop you from doing dangerous things. Or anger, when directed at the right person at the right time, can potentially help with activism.

A little bit later in history, the overall theory in Europe was that happiness was about sensory pleasures, meaning that if you ate your favorite meal, or sat by a warm fire, that’s what makes you happy.

Now, something else that is interesting, is that in history, when people have thought about happiness, all the way back to the Greeks, it was believed that happiness was unchangeable. It was like a gift from the gods. You were either happy, or you weren’t, and nothing can be done about it. Happiness was believed to be good, but it wasn’t expected, and it wasn’t something people strived for.

That began to change in the 17th century, however, when philosopher John Locke brought up the notion that maybe happiness wasn’t fixed, that you could change your happiness, and that it could be expected. He said that “Business of man is to be happy.” 

    After that new idea, people started to think differently over time about happiness, and now we are led to scientists putting resources into figuring out what makes us happy, and how we can be happier.

Another big question is, are happiness and meaningfulness the same thing, and can you have one without the other? This is, as you might imagine, another controversial topic. Ray Baumeister, a professor of psychology, thinks that there are some key differences:

1. Happy people satisfy their wants and needs, but this is irrelevant to meaningfulness.

2. Happiness is fleeting, and focused on the present, while meaningfulness lasts longer, and requires thinking about the past, present, and future.

3. Self expression is not important to happiness, but it is to meaning.

4. Meaningfulness is derived from giving, while happiness comes from getting.

There are actually two types of happiness identified currently. Eudaimonic happiness, which is about meaningful pursuits, and hedonic happiness which is about pleasure, and reaching goals. Many benefits have been found from eudaimonic happiness, but social psychologist, Elizabeth Dunn, thinks the distinction is unclear, unlike others. 

    Professor of Psychology Sonja Lyubormirsky also follows this. She says “When you feel happy and you take out the meaning part of happiness, it’s not really happiness.” While there are other scientists who contradict this.

    Now what can you do to be happier? Well, to be pessimistic, according to philosopher John Stuart Mill, “Ask yourself if you are happy and you cease to be so.” And a few scientific studies have found truth in this. So it seems that the best way to be happy is to do things that generate happiness like exercise, gratitude practices and social connections without focusing on happiness. Because when we look in terms of the broader scope, happiness is almost really defined as a fleeting feeling. If happiness was our baseline, could we even call it happiness?
I also learned while earning the Girl Scout Science of Happiness badge, that colors can have a small impact on your mood as well. So if you are redecorating, it might be worth looking up the emotions each color typically brings about.

Well, there you have it, an intro to the science and philosophy of happiness. I hope I’ve sparked your interest in what I believe to be a fascinating and rapidly growing area of study.