24 Jun What is happiness?
Happiness means different things to different people but for me, happiness is a term that covers a range of positive emotions. As humans, we experience a wide array of moods and feelings including “negative” ones (such as depression, frustration, anxiety etcetera) and “positive” ones (such as satisfaction, joy and happiness).
I think of happiness as something that encompasses all of the positive emotions from what I call the “low arousal” ones, such as contentment, calm and satisfaction through to the “high arousal” ones such as joy and excitement.
It’s important to note, that none of these emotions are necessarily better or worse than any others but that some people will definitely tend more towards some than others. Although not exclusively, “extroverts” tend to seek out and experience more of the high arousal positive emotions while “introverts” tend to seek out and experience more of the lower arousal positive emotions.
Happiness, then, is a positive state of wellbeing characterised by these positive emotions and happiness comes from practising a few simple disciplines on a daily basis. To find out more about the simple disciplines we teach at The Happiness Institute just click here or click here for courses.