" It is possible to define something so seemingly simple, yet obviously complex". Many people have a problem defining happiness. Psychologist Ed Diener defines it as a combination of life satisfaction and having more positive emotions than negative emotions.
Martin Seligman, one of the leading researchers in positive psychology describes happiness as having three parts: pleasure, engagement and meaning. Pleasure is the "feel good" part of happiness, engagement refers to living a "good life" of work, family, friends and hobbies. Meaning refers to using our strengths to contribute to a larger purpose. Seligman says that all three are important but engagement and meaning make the most difference to living a happy life.
Why should we be happy? Happy people are more likely to live longer and tend to be healthier, more successful and more socially engaged than less happy people.
Some of the reasons why we have happy and less happy people are:
- some people postpone their happiness by transferring it to their friends
- happy people have written goals and an action plan to achieve them.
- less happy people are mostly reactive, they are spontaneous in making decisions
- happy people make logical decisions after evaluating all the alternatives
- happy people know what they want out of life
- less happy people deal with life as it comes
- happy people are not confused about their identity, they know who they are, and what they want.
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