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How do you become happy? Happiness is one of the most important goals in everyone's life, yet we find it surprisingly difficult to find our personal happiness. To be happy, it helps to know what you need to be happy, what happiness actually is and how each person can find it for themselves.<\/p>\n
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Happiness is a fleeting state. For decades, philosophers, theologians and psychologists have been trying to define the state of happiness. In the 1990s, a whole new branch of psychology was developed for this purpose: positive psychology.<\/p>\n
Happiness is more than just a good mood, happiness is a state of well-being that encompasses a good life, a life with meaning and deep satisfaction.<\/p>\n
When a person is truly happy, it has a positive effect on their health. Feelings of well-being and contentment influence cardiovascular health, reduce inflammation and balance blood pressure.<\/p>\n
Finding happiness is a worldwide pursuit. People from all over the world consider contentment more important than other desirable personal outcomes, such as getting rich and going to heaven. So, how does one become happy?<\/p>\n
Happiness does not mean dancing from one joy to the next. In fact, the path to complete contentment includes hard times. Man by nature takes everything positive for granted, only when the positive is taken away from him does he learn to appreciate it.<\/p>\n
Money is not directly responsible for happiness, but it does free us from the worries about the basics of life, such as food and clothing.
\nIn addition to providing for our basic needs, heredity, life circumstances and social life are responsible for the feeling of happiness. At least they can be, because the most important thing is the inner attitude towards these very circumstances and the expression of our feelings.<\/p>\n
Research shows that a large part of satisfaction is within each person's own control. Regularly indulging in small pleasures, engaging in challenging activities, setting and achieving goals, maintaining close social ties and finding meaning beyond oneself all increase life satisfaction.<\/p>\n
Positive psychology examines what gives meaning and purpose to human life; how human beings can flourish beyond the survival instinct.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, psychology has focused on dysfunction (people with mental illness or other problems) and its treatment. In contrast, positive psychology is a field that studies how normal people can become happier and more fulfilled.<\/p>\n
However, positive psychology works hand in hand with abnormal psychology. Positive psychology is based on three maxims:<\/p>\n
The good in life is as real as the bad
\nThe good in life is more than the absence of problems
\nA good life requires its own explanation and is more than a theory of disorder<\/p>\n
In positive psychology, the focus is on deeper meaning, not just fleeting satisfaction and warm feelings. Martin Seligman, often considered the godfather of positive psychology, has described three paths to happiness: the Pleasant Life (Hollywood's view of happiness), the Good Life (focusing on personal strengths) and the Meaningful Life (focused on a higher purpose).<\/p>\n
Being a happy person is largely a matter of genetics, Seligman explains. What we should strive for is flourishing, not mere pleasure. Studies suggest that pursuing a good and meaningful life predicts higher life satisfaction overall.<\/p>\n
Love and friendship are deep emotions, and they are part of finding personal happiness. There are many types of love, but most people seek expression in a romantic relationship with a compatible partner. For many, romantic relationships are the most meaningful aspect of life, promising deep fulfilment. The need for human connection seems innate, but the ability to form healthy, loving relationships must be learned.<\/p>\n
There is much evidence to suggest that the ability to develop a stable relationship begins in infancy, in a child's earliest experiences with an attachment figure. Such relationships are not fated, but they do seem to establish deeply rooted patterns of relating to others. Failed relationships occur for many reasons, and the failure of a relationship is often a source of psychological anguish. Most people have to work consciously to learn the skills needed to keep relationships going and flourishing.<\/p>\n