Comments on: What is Happiness?

By: West Los Angeles Chiropractor

West Los Angeles Chiropractor — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:11:14 +0000

A fantastic read....very literate and informative. Many thanks....where is your RSS button ?

By: Jerome

Jerome — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:59:00 +0000

Hi,
I would suggest to ask the question "why human being search for happiness?" this would probably help to define happiness.
Do animals search for happiness?
We have basics self-needs to satify to remain alive in our environment (safety, strength, curiosity).
We have social-needs to satisfy to adapt ourself to our social environment.
We have spiritual-needs to understand ourself in the universe.
Happiness is balanced answers to those biological needs, that drive us to be a human being (or God).

By: Jeremy (PsyBlog author)

Jeremy (PsyBlog author) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 17:14:00 +0000

Thanks for your comments everyone.

Jonathan, I don't think I'd agree that definition 2 is a subset of 1. In fact I would argue that 1 might well be a subset of, or intersect with 2!

I say that because avoiding pain and seeking pleasure might be one way to achieve satisfaction with life. But I don't think achieving satisfaction with life necessarily means your pleasure/pain account is always tipped towards pleasure.

I'd agree with you, though, that they are not dichotomous.

By: ponderosa47

ponderosa47 — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:08:00 +0000

For me happiness happens when sadness kept at bay. It is an active process which requires continual introspection. Also, many confuse happiness with ecstasy which is a fleeting and difficult state to achieve. If this is true, it would explain why most think they have so little "happiness" in what is actually a wonderful life.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 13:52:00 +0000

about the 2definition,i think the key distinct is the pleasure and the satisfaction.the pleasure is about what you feel,and the satisfaction is about what you do.

By: Will

Will — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 01:12:00 +0000

I'm in with Grue on this one. I've always thought that there is the fleeting, emotional feeling of happiness, as in, "I just got a free cupcake," and the larger, satisfying kind of happiness (or what I would usually call "contentment"), as in, "I've got a wonderful relationship with my soul mate." Lack of one can damper the other but they are largely independent. By the same token an emotional sadness ("My steak is overdone") is independent of dissatisfaction with life ("I'll never have the job I want").

Achieving inner peace through the use of religion, meditation, etc. can, I think, increase contentment - as Denk suggested, you can either try to change the world to fit your desires or change your desires to fit the world. Changing the world to fit your desires gives you more of the fleeting type of happiness; changing your desires, more of the second.

By: Grue

Grue — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:59:00 +0000

Why can't there be two separate definitions? Both definitions seem important and sensical, and most common words in the dictionary have several definitions.

By: Denk

Denk — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:48:00 +0000

Also, gratitude is an effective way of closing the gap. There are two ways to experience happiness - use your mind to change your perceptions of reality in order to see that it does fit your requirements about reality, or, stop having requirements about reality. Not to diminish gratitude as a fantastic practice for menatl health and happiness at all but I prefer the latter because it is permanent. If you can remove the shoulds and shouldn'ts from your mind then everything becomes acceptable. Its tantamount to removing desire like the Buddha taught. Essentially Buddhism's idea of removing desire to end suffering is the same as removing the gap bewteen what you want and what actually happens to end suffering.

By: Denk

Denk — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Hi,

I think happiness is determined by closing the gap between reality as it appears to you and your ideas about how reality should be. I read on your blog that people who rate their happiness at about 7 or 8 out of 10 are generally the people who have become successful in their careers. My opinion is that they have closed this gap so that they live there expectations of life (that we all seem to have about how successful we should be) and therefore experience less dissonance. The people who scored 9 or 10 on that study weren't necessarily successful in a career way. My opinion is that these people have closed the gap internally instead of externally, maybe with a radical form of acceptance such as a spiritual practice like Zen. Personally I'm into a process which has similarites with cognitive therapy called The Work which was discovered by an American woman called Byron Katie. It has proved to be an effective way of closing this gap and relieving suffering by questioning your thoughts with an elegant system of questions. Check out her website www dot thework dot com

Loving your blog btw...

Peace out.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:40:00 +0000

I would contend that the question you have posed is actually a false dichotomy. If you are not satisfied with your life, your capacity to achieve #1 is limited. You'll always feel that nagging that you should be doing something else. Ispo facto, your pleasure is not maximized and your pain is not minimized.

Essentially, I would argue that #2 is simply a component of #1 and not, in and of itself, a separate definition of happiness.

Thanks for the fantastic blog.