BY SAKUNI WEERASINGHE
A quick Google search will lead you to dozens of articles suggesting that chasing happiness is a double-edged sword. In the presence of mediating factors like social media, the pursuit of happiness can quickly turn into a competition. Chasing happiness in everyday moments turns into a sprint to “get there” faster.
This happens primarily when happiness is thought of as an end goal. We work tirelessly at jobs we pretty much hate, hang out with people with whom we have to force conversations, and compromise our health trying to achieve that #Instabody because we believe we will find happiness when we have money, connections, and an appearance that gets 10,000 likes.
So what exactly is happiness anyway? Constructing a clear-cut definition of happiness proves to be a difficult task, especially one that is amenable to scientific study. However, positive psychology, a field of study concerned with exploring happiness and its tenets, has explored three distinct elements that capture the essence of happiness. These elements are a pleasant life, a good life, and a meaningful life (1).
- The pleasant life involves experiencing simple pleasures on the daily, such as eating chocolate ice cream, listening to your favourite vinyl record, or playing with your labrador.
- The good life is achieved by utilising our skills and talents and engaging in tasks that enrich our lives. This involves being in a flow state of mind, in which the individual is completely absorbed in what they are engaging in. This could mean being completely absorbed in creating a signature dish if you are a chef, or being fully immersed in solving Sudoku puzzles on a Sunday afternoon.
- The meaningful life entails experiencing a sense of fulfilment by using our skills for a greater purpose, to enrich the lives of others, or to contribute something useful and positive to the world.
- Savouring moments
- Engaging in achieving goals that you find fulfilling
- Give back
- Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new Positive Psychology to realise your potential for lasting fulfillment. London: Nicholas Brealey
- Lyubomirsky, S. (2001). Why are some people happier than others? The role of cognitive and motivational processes in wellbeing. American Psychologist, 56(3), 239-249