On happiness: what is it that we are all looking for?

A word we use a lot even though we don't really know what it means. Is that a problem?

Happiness: what a beautiful word.Have you ever wondered where it comes from? Have you ever wondered what it means to you? Have you ever wondered why we all look for it? In these lines perhaps you will discover your own answers to begin to discover how you are happy.

The concept of happiness

Since the founding of civilization until today, many people have reflected on this construct we call happiness, so, as Elsa Punset very aptly writes in Felicesthe study of happiness "more than a discovery, is a reencounter" with the reflections and conclusions of other humans before us..

Other humans who were and are thinkers, explorers of different cultures, artists, poets, neuroscientists who study the brain, philosophers who "love knowledge", sociologists who analyze society, anthropologists who compare cultures, psychologists who, in their "study of the mind", try to unravel the mental web that is the logos or knowledge about human happiness.

Its etymological originIts etymological origin, therefore, also depends on the civilization observed. On the one hand, it is related to the Greek root Eudaimonia (eudaimonia) which literally means "good fortune".

If we break the word down into its two elements: eu, which means "good", and dáimonos, which means "divinity", the key to happiness is found in the word eudaimonia, the key to happiness was placed by the Greeks in the one who has a good spirit, or who is in good spirits.

The same happens in Anglo-Saxon countries by appealing to the concept of "favorable luck", as in the meaning of Happiness, which comes from Happen: to happen by chance. Or we can also understand it in German, Glück, from Gelingen, which literally means "to have good success"; let's note that in English Luck (or Good luck) is equivalent to the Germanic word Glück. Interesting, isn't it?

The mental facet of the happy person

From a cognitive point of view, happiness can be described as a series of thoughts about our emotions. a series of thoughts about our emotions that produce a deep and lasting inner well-being. The very definition of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), we might think, confirms the above:

Felicidad; from lat. felicitas, -atis. f. State of pleasant spiritual and physical satisfaction. f. A person, situation, object or group of objects that contribute to happiness. f. Absence of inconveniences or stumbling blocks.

Nowadays, this has generated a recurrent confusion between the terms eudaimonia and hedonism. a recurrent confusion between the terms eudaimonia and hedonism (hedoné-ἡδονή), since, as positive psychology promulgates, the purpose of human life is happiness, sometimes understood -erroneously- as pleasure, (Cfr Bueno, 2005; Lozano et al., 2016) in Colmenarejo Fernández, R. (2017). And I say erroneously because pleasure does not equal happiness, but pleasure by definition must always be relegated to a part of our complete happiness. I will develop this idea in my next article.

Perhaps the purpose of human life is not to live happily, but just to live. Would it not be more appropriate to understand pleasure as a means and not as an end? The difference is that while hedonism focuses on immediate pleasure, which today we might call joy, eudaimonia is the constant fullness of living life, which today we might call happiness.

Beyond definitions

Happiness is a subject on which everyone has an opinion but few people study. Although we may never agree on the exact definition of happiness, it is rather one of those things you don't know how to define. one of those things that you don't know how to define, but when you see it, you know what it is.. And the reality is that each individual, according to the culture in which he is irremediably immersed, and his personal experiences, shapes throughout his life a concept of his own happiness.

During my research on the subject, I have come to realize that the pursuit of happiness is something very relevant in our society today, as it involves many people, and most human beings want to be happy.

At the time of writing, I have a sample of 275 people between the ages of 7 and 108. With 66% of women and 34% of men, the vast majority of Spanish nationality. Fifty percent live in urban areas and 50% live in rural areas. The current occupation is studying or working, or both.

The key question

The first question I ask someone who wants to know how happy they are is: How are you?

In general, most people say they are "fine". OK, people are fine, but being fine doesn't necessarily mean being happy. And the results show that 9 out of 10 people will tell you that they are looking to be happy.. The other person thinks so too, but won't tell you.

But what is happiness? Fernández-Berrocal already wrote in his article that "the attempt to answer this question may seem pretentious and it is natural for the reader to think so, because even the one who asks the question has a trembling hand while writing it". I think the same thing is happening to me.

But that doesn't worry me, nor should it worry you. Because what I propose (and perhaps this is the key to the necessary paradigm shift) is to to ask ourselves how people are happy, instead of asking ourselves over and over again what is happiness. In this way, just by changing a passive what to a proactive how, we will come to understand happiness as a personal decision and not as an object that can - or should - be achieved.

The message is clear: the study of happiness and all that it entails is a subject of utmost importance for the human species. If we live happily, we live longer and better. In the end, what you will realize is that, although the reflection on happiness remains in the hands of a few, the search for happiness is universal.

Bibliographical references:

• Colmenarejo Fernández, R. (2017). The problem of happiness in Aristotle: answers from Francisco Suárez and Martha Nussbaum. Anales de La Cátedra Francisco Suárez, 51, 27-27.
• Julián Pérez Porto and María Merino. Published: 2009. Updated: 2009. Definicion.de: Definition of happiness (https://definicion.de/felicidad/).
• The five thieves of happiness. John Izzo, 2017 (Urano).
• To answer the online questionnaire On Happiness, enter the following link: https://goo.gl/forms/gMHJcbvLRRiQCrew2.