The Pursuit of Happiness

What is positive psychology? 

Let’s take a moment and close our eyes to imagine all the happy moments in the last 1 year. Now, do the same for the upsetting and terrible days. Did the memories of negative moments out-weight the positive ones?

Although, it is possible that an individual may experience more negativity than positivity, we as humans are hardwired to focus more on the negatives in ourselves and surroundings. This is due to the Negativity Bias and hence, to counter this, positive psychology emphasizes on human strength, virtues and positive emotions, which ultimately contributes to the flourishing of self.

What are the benefits of channeling our emotions towards a more positive dimension?

The importance of positive emotions is highlighted by the Broaden-and-Build Theory proposed by Barbara Fredrickson (2001) in the article, “The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology, The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions.” According to her paper, positive emotions broaden people’s thought-action and motivate them to engage and explore the world around them. Hence, openness, encourages them to broaden their viewpoint, learn, and grow in physical, social, intellectual and psychological aspects (Fredrickson, 2001).

• Research as evidence 

A research was conducted to verify whether Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoire. (Fredrickson, & Branigan, 2005).

Findings suggest:

• Positive memories are short lived. They produce a broadening effect for thought and actions.
• Negative emotions produce a narrowing effect. Thus, restricting openness and positive engagement.

Types of Happiness and it’s Influence on well-being.

Seligman categorized Happiness by 3 components:  

The Pleasant Life is when happiness stems from life circumstances and personal qualities.

The engaged life which focused on active involvement.

The meaningful life that derives from connectedness to a greater whole.

Hedonic (pleasant life) or eudemonic happiness (engaged & meaningful).

It is the awareness of positive emotions that will drive one to obtain their true signature strengths.

This is because it leads to the re-crafting of the type of perceived ‘happiness’ that connects a person to a lasting satisfied life.

Eudaimonia, is a journey often filled with challenges, but through the endeavor we will realize that we have achieved results of great personal value and self- discipline; tolerance levels, pushed breaking points and type of experiences that lead to subjective positive emotion.

Hedonic happiness is often associated with a pursuit of maximum positive emotion and a minimum of negative emotions, it is a short-lived feeling of pleasure.

Undeniably, when we want to feel happy we turn towards the pleasure-giving life which has a square wave set (short term). This is termed as Hedonic adaptation. It says that people have a happiness baseline. While 60% of happiness is already predetermined by genes, 40% of happiness lies in our hands and usually, we engage in fleeting happiness. For example: when I feel extremely low or frustrated, I go out partying, to the cinemas or indulging in rich foods which will not necessarily be have a lasting impact tomorrow. Thus, I am again left unsatisfied.

In a positive light, these can act as instant mood boosters. But to combat this adaptation, positive psychology makes us aware that a life with lasting positive emotions arises from the pursuit of engagement or meaningful life or a pleasure driven life within the combination of either engagement or meaningfulness (TED, 2004).

Previously, when we imagined the happy moments, what did you think of? Could you categories the type of happiness and its impact as hedonic or eudaimonia?

Writer’s Point of View

In a Pursuit of Happiness, one seeks to feel long-lasting fulfilment (eudaimonia), but yet steers towards happiness gained through instant gratification (hedonic). Often, failing to realize that they are fleeting.

For lasting effects of happiness, we need to inculcate strategies that could help us accumulate positive emotions. For example, focusing to find meaning in our activities, purpose or engagement in life may work better than pursuing solely pleasure for satisfaction.

• Reach out to others: Contribute. Support. Volunteer. We often find a lasting feeling of happiness when we contribute to something that matters to us. For example, helping in an animal shelter or a charity organisation for orphans, the poor, awareness for women empowerment or even distributing food for those in need.
• Seek reason for current pursuits; life meanings or even current tasks. For example, contemplating on present task being used for procrastination, may help you realise what your end goal is. This may help inculcate motivation for carrying previously disregarded responsibility. E.g., academics.
• Find something you love doing, pursue it to your fullest. Many of us have talents or maybe, just something you enjoy doing. It could be art, music, traveling, religious involvement, literature, interests in varied cultures and so on.
• Anything that would make you feel: gratitude, autonomy, joy, positive relations, achievement, purpose and/or self- acceptance and growth. In this era, we are always going to be busy. Schedule sometime specifically for yourself. Self-growth starts here.  

Conclusion

In summary, although hedonic happiness is largely appealing to the general public, eudemonic happiness is considered to be the better aim, as it would give us the achieved living of life.

The above concepts and research illustrated:

• We ought to be aware about the emotions we feel and the effects of it.
• Broad-minded thinking allows a person to step back and view a situation in multi-angles before solving it.
• To build on interests and resources to find meaning and engagement with daily interactions.
• The mind experiences and accumulates moments of positive emotions. This leads people on the pathway to growth.
• Through this arises resilience, which in turn, boosts wellbeing and enhances life satisfaction and also, leads to better physical health and productivity.

Take away note from author

Let us not focus on having an enjoyable life, rather a meaningful life. With this, will come enjoyment and a lasting sense of achievement.

Reference:

Fredrickson, B., & Branigan, C. (2005). Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought‐action repertoires. Cognition & Emotion, 19(3), 313-332. doi:10.1080/02699930441000238

Fredrickson, B. (2001). The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology: The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions. Retrieved 8 July 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3122271/

Pennock, S. (2020). The Hedonic Treadmill – Are We Forever Chasing Rainbows?. Retrieved 8 July 2020, from https://positivepsychology.com/hedonic-treadmill/

Schueller, S., & Seligman, M. (2010). Pursuit of pleasure, engagement, and meaning: Relationships to subjective and objective measures of well-being. The Journal Of Positive Psychology, 5(4), 253-263. doi:10.1080/17439761003794130

TED. (2004). The new era of positive psychology [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_the_new_era_of_positive_psychology