What is Happiness?

What Does Happiness Mean

We explain what happiness is, the goals to achieve it and some of its characteristics. In addition, its factors and various meanings.

Happiness is an emotional state that is generated by reaching a desired goal.

What is Happiness?

Happiness is recognized as a moment of joy and fulfillment . The word happiness comes from the Latin word "felicitas", which derives from the word "felix" and means "fertile" or "fertile."

Happiness is an emotional state that is generally generated in a person when he or she reaches a desired goal .

In general terms, happiness is understood as a positive state of mind, linked to the subjective aspects of the individual and, therefore, manifested in very different ways, according to personality and character . Being subjective, it can be triggered by a myriad of causes, but in general terms it is linked to motivation and well-being.

See also: Life project

Goals for happiness

An example of a difficult goal is when we make it our goal to buy a home.

There are different kinds of goals to achieve happiness. Some of these can be easy, difficult, short-term, or long-term . An example of a difficult goal is when we set ourselves the goal of buying a house, which will be almost impossible for many; instead, an example of an easy goal could be wanting a certain current fashion item. This would be possible for the vast majority.

This is why many people believe that it is better to set easy and short goals: thus, happiness will be easier to achieve and can be obtained repeatedly, instead of feeling unhappy, the opposite of happiness, being anxious or frustrated about setting goals. difficult or impossible.

Characteristics of happiness

Happiness is a positive state of mind. It is subjective, therefore it is not a self-perceived fact . The same action can be understood in different ways by people with different personalities.

What may seem like a happy situation to one person may be the opposite to another. That is why happiness is thought of as a subjective and personal situation .

In general, happiness is considered positive, because it allows people to take advantage of objective conditions and benefits the attitude of starting different tasks, leading it to the intended term.

In addition, in a stage of happiness, people can carry out a certain persistent neutral activity, in an environment with already experienced and recognized variables.

The different elements of mental activity circulate in perfect harmony, while internal and external factors interact with the limbic system.

Happiness hormone

There are a series of neurotransmitters in the chemistry of the human brain linked to the feeling of well-being and fullness , if not joy and euphoria. Some call them the "hormones of happiness" and are known as endorphins .

Segregated by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus, they have an analgesic and well-being effect on the body, the effect of which is not too long-lasting . Endorphins are produced by certain and very specific stimuli: orgasm, falling in love , the consumption of chocolate or spice, sexual arousal or even pain (as a natural mitigating factor).

Happiness and love

Love drives happiness and supports you in difficult times.

According to many philosophies, love is a key ingredient for happiness . Various traditions have stories about it: the triumph in all areas of life except affection and the couple is capable of making the most successful man miserable, and even the opposite: it is capable of making poverty and poverty much more bearable. defeat, since human beings are gregarious beings and we tend to value the company of others.

In this sense, love is usually valued as a positive force, which drives man towards happiness and supports him in difficult times. It goes without saying that in real life love does not always behave in this way, as there are very different forms of love and not all of them are positive, happy, or desirable . Love can either lead to happiness, or take it away.

Happiness factors

Today it is known that the levels of happiness in people vary mainly due to three groups of factors, ordered from greatest to least importance:

  • Genetic factors
  • Factors associated with the achievement of goals and desires
  • Socio-environmental factors

Happiness in psychology

For psychology, it is the ability of a person to solve questions related to daily life.

The subconscious feeds the mood; For this reason, we must be well predisposed, not be pessimistic , admit our limitations and know that not everything depends on the good will that we have. So we can discern what to focus on, for being an achievable happiness and what not, for being an unattainable happiness.

Several psychologists tried to determine the level of happiness through different tests and have defined it as a quantity of partial comfort (self-perceived) that acts on people's attitudes and behavior .

People who are very happy present themselves to others with high optimism , which motivates them to go in search of new goals.

Happiness for philosophy

Philosophy believed that happiness was acquired by following nature as an example.

The question of what happiness was was essential when ethics emerged in Greece. The vast majority of philosophers found quite different answers , which gave Aristotle the reason: he said that we all agreed that we wanted to be happy, but that we did not know how we could be happy and that as soon as we tried to clarify it, the differences began and problems .

The philosophy was considering happiness in different ways, such as:

  • He believed that happiness had to do with balance and harmony, which was obtained through acts aimed at self-realization of the person.
  • He also believed that happiness was achieved by satisfying desires.
  • He founded that we obtained it through tranquility and serenity.
  • He supposed that this was achieved through non-violence.
  • It is also acquired following the example of the nature .
  • He even considered that happiness was obtained through harmony between people.

Although there are many philosophers who address the subject of happiness, Ortega y Gasset finds an unbeatable definition. He believes that this occurs when "our projected life", in reference to everything we want and seek to be, coincide with "our effective life", which is what we really are. Others emphasize that happiness is finding something that makes us feel completely pleased .

It can serve you: Hedonism

Happiness according to religion

Some religions agree that happiness is a state of peace that is achieved through communication and union with God . For their part, Buddhists believe that happiness is only obtained after releasing suffering and overcoming desires, this achieved thanks to mental training.

Phrases about happiness

Some famous phrases about happiness are the following:

  • "There is only happiness where there is virtue and serious effort, because life is not a game" - Aristotle.
  • "Happiness is not doing what you want but wanting what you do" - Jean Paul Sartre
  • "A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her" - Oscar Wilde.
  • "Human happiness is generally not achieved with big strokes of luck, which rarely happen, but with little things that happen every day" - Benjamin Franklin
  • "Someday anywhere, in any place you will inevitably find yourself, and that, only that, can be the happiest or the most bitter of your hours" -Pablo Neruda
  • "There is no medicine that cures what happiness does not cure" - Gabriel García Márquez
  • "The happiness you have derives from the love you give" - ​​Isabel Allende
  • "We seek happiness, but without knowing where, as drunks seek their home, knowing that they have one" - Voltaire
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