I know when you read the title, it sounds pretty philosophical. Frankly, I am not going to lie, it is intellectual, but the idea behind writing this piece is to understand the term that we all seek and work for but may not fully understand what it means. And, sure, I am referring to HAPPINESS.
When we think about our future, no matter what our ambitions are, I believe we would all agree that the ultimate goal is to be happy. In the end, all we want is contentment, but what exactly is satisfaction?
It is a very subjective concept, and it is unique to each individual. Kringelbach and Berridge correctly stated that it is incredibly impossible to define, let alone measure, happiness.
Happiness as a notion has long been a topic of debate and discussion in ancient Greek philosophy. As a result, the concept of Hedonism came to be very important in the study of happiness.
The hedonic treadmill (also known as hedonic adaptation) is a theory that states that humans continuously return to their baseline level of happiness no matter what happens to them.
This means that, while there may be an initial spike in happiness or melancholy, the sense of happiness or sadness induced by an event begins to fade with time, and habituation takes over. As a result, we eventually return to our baseline of contentment.
So, in layman’s terms, Hedonic enjoyment is a condition in which an individual feels relaxed, has a sense of distance from their troubles, and can be said to be ‘happy’ (Ryan & Deci, 2001). And so, it is a two-sided concept, i.e., the absence of trouble and the feeling of pleasure.
As a result, if we were to describe happiness hedonically, we would say that- Happiness is the outcome of the pursuit of pleasure over pain (Ryan & Deci, 2001). But that’s not all. Cheerfulness is not only linked with Hedonism but also with eudaimonia.
According to Deci and Ryan (2006: 2), eudaimonia is about individual happiness; it maintains that “well-being is not so much an outcome or end state as it is a process of fulfilling or realizing one’s daimon or true nature—that is, of fulfilling one’s virtuous potentials and living as one was inherently intended to live.” And so, Eudaimonia is the sense of having a well-lived life.
And so to conclude, it is a combination of two feelings, firstly the feeling of pleasure and secondly the feeling of satisfaction. However, that’s not it, and some researchers believe that our happiness also depends on our overall emotional state.
As a result, various theories in positive psychology have been developed based on these fundamental concepts. Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worthwhile to live, emphasizing both individual and societal well-being.
It investigates positive subjective experiences, positive personal characteristics, and positive institutions that help in improving quality of life. As a result of this investigation, many unique philosophies centered on happiness have emerged. Seligman, for example, proposed the Authentic Happiness theory in 2002.
This theory is based on the idea that authentic happiness results from living according to their “signature strengths,” which develop as people become aware of and own their strengths. Csikszentmihalyi, on the other hand, set the ‘flow’ theory.
Flow is defined as “the state of engagement, optimal happiness, and peak experience that occurs when an individual is absorbed in a challenging and intrinsically motivating venture.
And so, though all these theories might give us a better understanding of how we feel, the ultimate conclusion is that happiness is subjective. And it differs from person to person. But in the end, it solely depends on yourself.
And so, if I have to sum it up in one line, I can do that by merely quoting a beautiful line from the Pursuit of Happiness, which says that happiness is associated with things that make happy people happy.
