The Science of Happiness
comfortableNight4463
August 3rd, 2022
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Happiness vs. Antifragility
To live a good life is not to feel good all of the time—misfortunes and tragedies befall us, and to remain happy (in the “pleasure” sense) during these times would literally be mania.
A better solution is to become antifragile. To become antifragile is to become resilient to life’s hardships. Yet, becoming antifragile is not the key to happiness, either. Happiness is not equivalent to not being unhappy. If you are not unhappy, you are just “fine.”
The people most satisfied with their lives—a better measure of happiness, in my view—are not those who escape hardship. Rather, it is those who are capable of overcoming hardship to pursue something meaningful.
Finding Meaning
Having a meaningful goal—something to make your life worth living—is the most important aspect of living a good life. Without this, even if you become antifragile, you are not happy. You are just “fine.”
An Evolutionary Mismatch
For most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers. We lived in close-knit, familial tribes. We spent all of our time outdoors. We exercised daily not for fun or to stay fit, but out of necessity.
Most of this is no longer true, and is contributing to our epidemic of unhappiness.
We spend most of our time indoors. Our social communication is often lacking face-to-face connection. Finding time to exercise and eat healthily is seen as a luxury or a difficult chore.
The solutions to our global mental health problem are so obvious that they almost seem like cliches. Exercise more, eat healthy foods, spend more time with friends and family, spend time in nature, pursue a meaningful career. We know all of this already—why is it so difficult to implement?
Delayed Gratification
We have a constant internal battle between approach and avoidance motivations, between immediate and delayed gratification.
Delayed gratification can only be practiced in the most stable of environments, and even then it is exceedingly difficult to fight against our more primal drives for immediacy.
This same conflict governs all of our decision-making—including the highest-level goal of pursuing meaning.
No matter the meaningful goal identified, there is a necessary component of delayed gratification.
The Science of Happiness
Treating happiness as an interdisciplinary science does not only offer the benefits of understanding happiness through the lens of neuropsychology and evolutionary biology.
Philosophers and poets, anthropologists have documented cross-cultural norms and differences for expressing emotions and socially bonding. Artists and musicians of every generation look for new ways to inspire people, and scientists and engineers constantly seek to find new discoveries or inventions that will make our lives better.
We need all of these perspectives to have a true science of happiness, and we need to become masters of antifragility, delayed gratification, and the changes posed by our modern environment to master happiness ourselves."
Read the complete article available at Psychology Today!
Reflection:
What are your thoughts on happiness?
*I believe no one can be happy all the time. Life is full of problems. It's impossible to have a life devoid of problems. So, instead of wishing for a life without problems, we can strive for a life with good problems. I think true happiness comes from solving these problems and being able to stay happy despite the multiple problems we face on a day-to-day basis.
"Happiness is not something you achieve. It's not something you do or someplace you get to. Happiness is something you inhabit."-Mark Manson.*
#Happiness #Science #Antifragility
SirenOfSerenity
August 4th, 2022
Hi @comfortableNight4463, this is a very valuable contribution as well as reflection question!
What are your thoughts on happiness?
- My thoughts on happiness are basically represented by this quote below. It all begins on what thoughts you decide to focus on or magnify and how you think about them:
2 replies
@SirenOfSerenity This is a wonderful point of view. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
globalBraid3744
August 6th, 2022
@SirenOfSerenity
I love this quote, thank you for sharing!
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