Happiness

"Why are you always sad? Cheer up! The world is so beautiful!"

Welcome back to the weekly blog post folks. I hope you had a nice week. Without further ado, let's begin, shall we?

Last post, we explored some parts in our mind that makes us think negatively. Long story short, evolution as the culprit has made us value mistakes due to their consequences rather than optimistic thinking that will give us benefits, a.k.a The Negativity Bias. It is why sometimes people ruminate obsessively over minor mistakes rather than focusing on the greater good. Give it a read if you wish.

Continuing on with last topic on Social Studies, let's talk about happiness. 

Happiness is something we all strive to achieve... or do we?

According to our favourite website, Wikipedia, the meaning of happiness can be defined as:
In psychology, happiness can be defined as a mental or emotional state of well-being which can be defined by, among others positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.

Happiness is everywhere, whether you like it or you hate it. Either while you're playing a video game, listening to your favourite music, or even studying your preferred subjects. It is everywhere.

"Well that makes complete sense, Chua. But why are you talking about this then? You could've done this in the last blog post lol."

Good question dear reader. (tbh who actually reads this, why am I putting effort?)

Following back from the front, a lot of people strive to be happy, And from what I stated earlier, it doesn't seem hard to achieve that dream. But here comes the tricky part :

Your mind. Yep. The one, the only, grey matter in your head.

Several scientific studies have been done on the subject of happiness as to why do we, in general, feel happy. Retracing back from my previous blog The Negativity Bias, the bias plays quite a significant role when we want to feel positive, or happy, in this case. Feeling optimistic can lower your guard down, which... in the wrong circumstances can lead to dire consequences. And thus, negative thinking controls our mindset at the cost of being happy or positive.

But, some people are afraid to be happy.

"Nani?!" You might ask. Kinda impossible to be afraid of happiness, isn't it?

Sorry to burst your bubbles, but people like that do exists. Have you ever heard of the idiom, "What goes up must come down(1)"? People fear happiness due to how sudden they might lose it. In other words, anxiety about being sad again and not being able to return to that optimistic state.

Several reasons of happiness aversion can be found in a research in 2001 :
Scenario (a) believing that being happy will provoke bad things to happen
Scenario (b) happiness will make one a worse person
Scenario (c) expressing happiness is bad for one and people around said person
Scenario (d) pursuing happiness is bad for one and people around said person.

In 2009, a study on Japanese participants shows scenario (c), as it causes people to be more envious towards them, and thus creating more strains between friendships/relationships with others, as a result - more conflicts.

Scenario (a) and (b) can be explained with the Negativity Bias. In a nutshell, your brain, through evolution, thinks negatively more due to their more destructive nature (e.g death or serious injury) compared to positive thoughts. Having your head in the clouds has a chance to lead you to dangerous situations, since you'll fail to notice a threat. That's why your brain decides to go autopilot mode becomes paranoia of everything within a 10 m radius.

Scenario (d) is rather... interesting. A prominent(2) research done by researcher Iris Mauss, shows that making happiness a personal goal can have a counter-intuitive(3) result. The researchers found that people who valued happiness more reported being less happy than people who didn't place much importance on the goal. Quoting the lead research Iris Mauss, "Wanting to be happy can make you less happy. If you explicitly(4) and purposely focus on happiness, that appears to have a self-defeating quality."

Evolution plays quite a vital part when we talk about happiness. Happiness is great. But everything in life has its pros and cons.

Let's say you just achieved something you considered your life goal, like publishing a book, married the mate of your life, or getting promoted and you're having the time of your life. Then after that, you stopped pursuing any goals. This means that when you're happy, you lack the motivation to make more progress or to have more goals. 

Well, on the other end of the stick, if you're aren't easily pleased, then bingo bango bongo congratulations you just won the natural selection roulette. People who aren't easily pleased have a better fighting chance since the act of pursuing more and better goals gives motivation. They get further in lives than people who are easily happy. That's why people aren't content or satisfied with what they have, be it their grades, their relationships or their friends. In a world full of scarce(5) resources, being easily pleased (in this case, happy) is a major disadvantage.

There's also been a suggested theory that makes sense. There's a natural baseline for happiness. No matter how one is very happy or very sad, we would go back to this baseline where we are normal. Not happy, not sad either. Let's say, you reached your goal. Congratulations, you are overjoyed. But, after awhile, the joy fades, and you return back to your baseline, looking into other areas and trying to find more to accomplish. 

So, we can't exactly always have happiness within our grasp. That would be boring. Like any good drama or movie, there must always be a build up, then followed by a climax. Living the same mood over and over and over again would make life pretty dull. 

Sad moments are there to make us cherish(6) the times where we are happy. And when we are happy, it makes us remember how strong, how persistent we were when facing doubt, mistakes, paranoia, anxiety, and depression during tough times. It helps us grow into a better person with a clearer vision in life,  and having the mindset of "every cloud has a silver lining"(7). Overly optimistic isn't great, but it's better than downright feeling depressed and hopeless.

We have to find a balance between being grateful in life, but also try to aim higher without setting the bar to high for ourselves. Knowing your limits is the key.

Next time you're being sad, know that there are many psychological factors that make the world seems like it's out to get you. Don't worry, it's just that our minds aren't hard-wired to process happiness. It takes time to do so. Again, sorry for the long winded post.

I'll end this post by quoting this famous line from Bobby McFerrin's song. 

"Don't worry, be happy."

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Cheers,

Chua.

Word/Phrase Bank

1. What goes up must come down - If something is increasing/rising, it will eventually decrease or fall. (in writing).

2. Prominent - Important; famous.

3. Counter-Intuitive - Contrary(opposite) to intuition, or to common-sense expectation. 

4. Explicitly - In a clear or detailed manner, leaving no room for confusion or doubt.

5. Scarce - Insufficient for the demand.

6. Cherish - protect or care for someone lovingly/ hold (something) dea.

7. Every cloud has a silver lining - Every bad situation has some good aspect to it.