Happiness

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The smiley, often called a Smiley face, is a symbol frequently used to express happiness.

Happiness is the quality or state of being happy, of wellbeing without distress. Exact definitions of happiness vary; for example, some contend that it is possible to think you are happy, but not in fact be happy. Secularists teach that happiness is the object or goal of life.[1] However, the Bible teaches that serving God is the primary purpose of why we were created.[2]

In the United States, the right of all citizens to "the pursuit of happiness" is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.

In Bhutan, royal government makes a statement of Gross National Happiness, which is important to both the King and our Bhutanese people.

Bible verses on happiness. Religion and happiness

The Bible is the best-selling book of all time.[3]

Between 5 to 7 billion Bibles have been published.

See also: Bible and Joy

Bible verses on happiness:

The beauty of seeking both joy and happiness in Christ. The difference between joy and happiness is substantial

In happiness study, Harvard University agrees with the Bible

See also: Bible reading and human flourishing

Harvard Univesity study: In happiness study, Harvard University agrees With the Bible, Benedictine University

In addition, There is a significant amount of historical and scientific evidence that Bible reading has greatly increased human flourishing such as people's physical health, psychological well-being, character and virtue, and social connections (See: Bible reading and human flourishing).

Religion and happiness

SPIRE Model of Happiness and happiness research

The SPIRE Model of Happiness

Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar SPIRE Model of Happines is comprised of the following five elements:[4]

  • S: spiritual wellbeing
  • P: physical wellbeing
  • I: intellectual wellbeing
  • R: relational wellbeing
  • E: emotional wellbeing

Happiness is multi-dimensional under the Spire Model of Happiness. When one fully cultivates each of the five SPIRE elements, one reaches one's highest potential level of happiness.

Videos:

How to increase happiness

See also: Gratitude and Empathy and Friendship and Social influence and Social intelligence and Social networking and Toxic personality traits and Faith and Religion and Goal setting and Journaling and Self-care and Passion (psychology) and Meaning and Adventurousness and Comfort zone

Having an active religious life and being around happy friends increases people's happiness.[5]

Christian friends at Gateway Camp

To increase happiness: cultivate gratitude; be more empathetic/kind; spend time with friends and family; have an active religious life and engage in spiritual practices; spend more time with happy people; set goals and work towards them; smile more; practice journaling; do what you love and have a passion for; practice self-care and self-compassion; practice mindfulness and meditation (See: Christian meditative prayer); engage in regular exercise, spend time in nature such as nature walks; help others; prioritize sleep; cut toxic people out of your life; cut down commute time to work and have more meaningful/adventurous experiences.[6]

Source: How to increase happiness
Source: How to increase happiness

Articles:

Empathy and happiness

See also: Empathy

The five components of emotional intelligence are: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.[7]

Research indicates that empathy and happiness are positively correlated. Individuals who exhibit higher levels of empathy generally report greater levels of happiness and well-being.[8]

Source: Is empathy positively correlated to happiness?



Articles:

Adventures and happiness

See also: Adventurousness and Comfort zone and Motivation and Self-motivation and Comfort zone and Personal development and Learning and Accelerated learning and Cognitive flexibility and Mental toughness and Psychological resilience and Antifragility and Social influence and Social intelligence and Social networking and Intellectual curiosity and Purpose and Meaningfulness and Self-awareness and Journaling and Metacognition

Adventurous people are open to new experiences, willing to take risks, and enjoy pushing themselves beyond their comfort zones. They are curious, resilient, and have a positive attitude towards the unknown.

Pursuing adventures is frequently positively correlated with increased happiness and well-being. New experiences and challenges often leads to increased dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin, boosting mood and fostering psychological/physical resilience.[9]

Source: Adventures positively correlated to happiness

Articles:

Happiness and health

The five components of emotional intelligence are: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.[10]

See also: Happiness and health and Emotional intelligence and Self-regulation and Emotion

According to medical science, having an excessive amount of unhappiness in one's overall emotional life can have adverse effects on and individual.[11] See also: Happiness and health

Emotional intelligence (EI) "refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions."[12]

The five components of emotional intelligence are: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.[13]

People with emotional intelligence can prevent an excessive amount/duration of negative emotional states such as unhappiness.

While it is not wise to have happiness/pleasure as an end goal (See: Hedonism and Paradox of Hedonism), for the sake of one's health, one should exercise emotional intelligence.

Concerning happiness, according to Torrence Memorial hospital:

“ Healthy Facts About Happiness

- Happiness improves your cardiac health.

- Happy people are more likely to eat healthily and be more physically active.

- Happiness strengthens your immune system.

- Happy people are more productive and likely to succeed.

- Being happy helps reduce your stress levels.

- Happy people have fewer aches and pains.

- Happiness helps combat disease and disability.

- Happiness lengthens our lives.[14]

”

Articles on happiness and health

Happiness and success in one's endeavors

Research indicates that happiness is more apt to lead to success in one's endeavors.[15]

Loss of friendships and growing unhappiness, loneliness, social isolation in the United States

Loneliness has been linked to many physical and mental health problems.[16]

See also: Friendship and Loneliness

NeverTrumper David B. Brooks[17] in his 2023 book entitled How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen wrote about loneliness:

“ I’ve been writing as if we live in a healthy cultural environment, in a society in which people are enmeshed in thick communities and webs of friendship, trust, and belonging. We don’t live in such a society. We live in an environment in which political animosities, technological dehumanization, and social breakdown undermine connection, strain friendships, erase intimacy, and foster distrust. We’re living in the middle of some sort of vast emotional, relational, and spiritual crisis. It is as if people across society have lost the ability to see and understand one another, thus producing a culture that can be brutalizing and isolating.

The percentage of Americans who said they have no close friends quadrupled between 1990 and 2020. In one survey, 54 percent of Americans reported that no one knows them well. The number of American adults without a romantic partner increased by a third. More to the point, 36 percent of Americans reported that they felt lonely frequently or almost all of the time, including 61 percent of young adults and 51 percent of young mothers. People were spending much more time alone.

In 2013, Americans spent an average of six and a half hours per week with friends. By 2019, they were spending only four hours per week with friends, a 38 percent drop. By 2021, as the Covid-19 pandemic was easing, they were spending only two hours and forty-five minutes per week with friends, a 58 percent decline. The General Social Survey asks Americans to rate their happiness levels. Between 1990 and 2018, the share of Americans who put themselves in the lowest happiness category increased by more than 50 percent...

The effects of this are ruinous and self-reinforcing. Social disconnection warps the mind. When people feel unseen, they tend to shut down socially. People who are lonely and unseen become suspicious. They start to take offense where none is intended. They become afraid of the very thing they need most, which is intimate contact with other humans. They are buffeted by waves of self-loathing and self-doubt. After all, it feels shameful to realize that you are apparently unworthy of other people’s attention. Many people harden into their solitude. They create self-delusional worlds. “Loneliness obfuscates,” the interdisciplinary scientist Giovanni Frazzetto writes in his book Together, Closer. “It becomes a deceiving filter through which we see ourselves, others, and the world. It makes us more vulnerable to rejection, and it heightens our general level of vigilance and insecurity in social situations.” We see ourselves as others see us, and when we feel invisible, well, we have a tendency to fall to pieces...

Sadness, lack of recognition, and loneliness turn into bitterness. When people believe that their identity is unrecognized, it feels like injustice—because it is. People who have been treated unjustly often lash out, seek ways to humiliate those who they feel have humiliated them. Loneliness thus leads to meanness. As the saying goes, pain that is not transformed gets transmitted. The data I just cited about social isolation and sadness is, no surprise, accompanied by other sorts of data about rising hostility and callousness. In 2021, hate-crime reports surged to their highest levels in twelve years. In 2000, roughly two-thirds of Americans gave to charity; by 2021, fewer than half did. One restaurant owner recently told me that he has to ban somebody from his place for rude behavior almost every week these days. That didn’t use to happen. A friend of mine who is a nurse says her number one problem is retaining staff. Her nurses want to quit because the patients have become so abusive, even violent. As the columnist Peggy Noonan put it, “People are proud of their bitterness now.” The social breakdown manifests as a crisis of distrust. Two generations ago, roughly 60 percent of Americans said that “most people can be trusted.” By 2014, according the General Social Survey, only 30.3 percent did, and only 19 percent of millennials. High-trust societies have what Francis Fukuyama calls “spontaneous sociability,” meaning that people are quick to get together and work together. Low-trust societies do not have this. Low-trust societies fall apart. Distrust sows distrust. It creates a feeling that the only person you can count on is yourself. Distrustful people assume that others are out to get them, they exaggerate threats, they fall for conspiracy theories that explain the danger they feel.[18]

”

Happiness and labor productivity

See also: Labor productivity

According to the U.S. Labor Bureau of Statistics, labor productivity is a "measure of economic performance that compares the amount of output with the amount of labor used to produce that output."[19] The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development states concerning labor productivity: "Labour productivity is a key precondition for high growth of output, employment and wages and central to long-term growth in living standards."[20]

Fast Company's article Research shows happiness is the new performance indicator. This is how managers can support it indicates: "The Saïd Business School study Does Happiness Improve Worker Productivity? found that happiness can have a significant impact on productivity. Results showed that happier workers were 12% more productive than their unhappy counterparts."[21]

The symbiotic relationship between creativity and happiness

See also: Creativity

There is a symbiotic relationship between creativity and happiness (In other words, being happier make you more creative. In addition, being more creative makes one happier.).[22][23][24][25][26]

Psychology: Happiness vs. joy

See also: Joy

According to Cynthia Vinney, PhD:

“ “Joy is a deep primary emotion individuals experience when they feel truly connected in relationships, are in alignment with their values, and/or have a sense of meaning and purpose,” Lindsey Rae Ackerman, LMFT, vice president of Clinical Services at Clear Behavioral Health, explains.

A complex emotion, joy signals pleasure but can also come with “a combination of grief and gratitude,” says Daniel Boscaljon, PhD, cofounder of Alchemy of Love. “Joy is the ability to affirm the goodness of life even in the midst of sorrow.”

Research has mixed definitions of happiness, but according to Ackerman, it's “an emotional state that can occur through momentary experiences and is often dependent on external factors such as an achievement or gaining material satisfaction.”

“Happiness often occurs spontaneously, in a moment arising through a convergence of time and place,” Boscaljon adds.

Joy and happiness may be synonyms, but they are different experiences. “The two are fairly distinct, according to most researchers,” says Matt Sosnowsky, LCSW, founder and director of Philadelphia Talk Therapy.

Happiness is temporary and ephemeral, whereas joy is more enduring.

Sosnowsky adds that happiness can come from things in a “here and now” state like eating an ice cream cone or spending meaningful time with a loved one. He explains that joy, in comparison, comes from a sustained internal and external relationship that creates fulfillment.2 Think of things like being a part of a community, raising a child, or engaging in a personal hobby you're passionate about.

“If happiness is the emotion we experience during lunch with a good friend, joy is the aggregate satisfaction we feel from all of our meaningful relationships,” Sosnowsky says.[27]

”

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The parodox of hedonism

See also: Hedonism

Hedonism is a philosophy which emphasizes the pursuit of personal pleasure above all other considerations, or as the sole consideration in life.

The paradox of hedonism is that focusing on pleasure seeking often has counterproductive results. For example, gluttony and obesity is a causal factor for many illnesses.

According to the Journal of Public Economics, "The “Hedonistic Paradox” states that homo economicus, or someone who seeks happiness for him- or herself, will not find it, but the person who helps others will.[28]

Unfortunately for hedonists, focusing on pleasure-seeking does not deliver the optimal pleasure and happiness in the long run or even in the short run and instead just delivers emptiness.[29]

World Happiness Report: Happiness Indexes for countries for years 2023 and 2024

See also: Jeffrey Sachs

World Happiness Report, Gallup poll: Happiness Index 2024

In 2024, the United States hit its lowest ranking ever on a global happiness list.[30]

Global happiness index 2024.png

World Happiness Report: World Happiness Index map of 2023

According to the World Happiness Index website:

“ World Happiness Report 2023 use data from the Gallup World Poll surveys from 2020 to 2022. They are based on answers to the main life evaluation question asked in the poll. This is called the Cantril ladder: it asks respondents to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10 and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale. The rankings are from nationally representative samples for the years 2020-2022. The number of people and countries surveyed varies year to year, but by and large more than 100,000 people in 130 countries participate in the Gallup World Poll each year. They are based entirely on the survey scores, using the Gallup weights to make the estimates representative. The sub-bars in the alternate version of Figure 2.1 show the estimated extent to which each of the six factors (levels of GDP, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom, and corruption) is estimated to contribute to making life evaluations higher in each country than in Dystopia. Dystopia is a hypothetical country with values equal to the world’s lowest national averages for each of the six factors (see FAQs: What is Dystopia?). The sub-bars have no impact on the total score reported for each country but are just a way of explaining the implications of the model estimated in Table 2.1. People often ask why some countries rank higher than others—the sub-bars (including the residuals, which show what is not explained) attempt to answer that question.[31] ”



Map: World Happines Index of 2023[32][33]

Criticism of the World Happiness Report in terms of its methodology

Journal articles and happiness

Hapiness quotes

  • “Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” - Aeschylus
  • “Whoever is happy will make others happy too.” - Anne Frank
  • “Happiness is a thing to be practiced, like the violin.” - John Lubbock
  • “Misery might love company, but so does joy. And joy throws much better parties.” - Billy Ivey
  • “It’s not about being happy all the time, or being sure of all your choices. It’s about knowing that life is precious, even when it’s tough.” - Topher Kearby
  • "They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for." - Tom Bodett
  • "God gives happiness to those who can give it to others. In spite of their sincerity, religious people so far have wanted to receive it only for themselves, thus not giving it to others." - Sun Myung Moon

Book

  • Happier, No Matter What: Cultivating Hope, Resilience, and Purpose in Hard Times by Tal Ben-Shahar. The Experiment (May 11, 2021)

See also

External links

  • Happiness, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Video:

References

  1. ↑ https://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/aristotle/
  2. ↑ “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Matt. 16:24
  3. ↑ The Bible is the best selling book of all time, Guinness Book of Word Record
  4. ↑ The SPIRE Model of Happiness: How to Enhance Your Wellbeing
  5. ↑ *Are religious people happier? The science is pretty clear, Desert News, 2024 How to Be Happy Again: 14 Tips by Meaghan Rice PsyD., LPC
  6. ↑ Is empathy and positively correlated to happiness?
  7. ↑ Domains of Emotional Intelligence, MBA Knowledge Base
  8. ↑
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ Domains of Emotional Intelligence, MBA Knowledge Base
  11. ↑
  12. ↑ Emotional intelligence
  13. ↑ Domains of Emotional Intelligence, MBA Knowledge Base
  14. ↑ The Importance of Happiness
  15. ↑ The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?, Psychological Bulletin Copyright 2005 by the American Psychological Association, 2005, Vol. 131, No. 6, 803– 855
  16. ↑ Multiple references:
    • Gammon, Katherine (March 2, 2012). "Why loneliness can be deadly". Live Science website.
    • Booth, Robert (October 12, 2014). "Number of severely lonely men over 50 set to rise to 1m in 15 years", The Guardian.
  17. ↑ https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/03/29/david_brooks_on_signal_chat_democrats_should_talk_about_nothing_but_trumps_incompetence.html
  18. ↑ Brooks, David. How to Know a Person (p. 97-101). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
  19. ↑ Productivity 101, U.S. Labor Bureau of Statistics
  20. ↑ How does Russia compare?, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
  21. ↑ Research shows happiness is the new performance indicator. This is how managers can support it
  22. ↑ The Symbiotic Relationship: Creativity and Happiness
  23. ↑ The Unexpected Link Between Creativity and Happiness, Ideascale website
  24. ↑ Does Happiness Affect Your Creativity?
  25. ↑ Being Creative Makes You Happier: The Positive Effect of Creativity on Subjective Well-Being, Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jul; 18(14): 7244. Published online 2021 Jul 6. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18147244
  26. ↑ Studies Show Why Creativity and Happiness are Linked
  27. ↑ Experts Reveal the One Key Difference Between Joy and Happiness by Cynthia Vinney, PhD
  28. ↑ The Hedonistic Paradox: Is Homo Economicus Happier?, Journal of Public Economics. Volume 92, Issues 1–2, February 2008, Pages 1-33
  29. ↑ Clear Voices 2014 - Alister McGrath - C. S. Lewis’s Vision of the Christianity
  30. ↑ https://dailypoliticalnewswire.com/poll-reveals-how-unhappy-americans-were-under-biden/
  31. ↑ World Happiness Report 2023
  32. ↑ A color coded map of the world levels of happiness as measured by the World Happiness Index (2023)
  33. ↑ World Happiness Report 2023
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