The psychology of happiness

Understanding the science behind happiness, including factors that contribute to it and strategies for increasing life satisfaction.

- Joy

Reading time: 5.71 minutes

Over the years there has been a plethora of self-help advice given and books written on the importance of happiness to overall well-being. From academics to psychologists, to everyday folk, everyone seems to agree that the pursuit of happiness is a worthy goal, but it's not always easy to pinpoint what it is that will truly bring us joy. 

Why is it that according to one 2022 survey, 45% of people globally claim they haven’t felt true happiness for more than two years, even though 88% of people are actively looking for new experiences that make them smile and laugh? Why is it that certain locations around the world seem to rank higher in terms of overall happiness versus others (a prime example of this being Finland, which has once again been ranked as the happiest country in the world)?

One of the answers, which I have personally found to be the most effective and all-encompassing, lies in the need to focus on finding the right balance between pleasure and purpose in our lives and identifying ways of optimising experiences, rather than physical things, for well-being.

One of our approaches within selfsquared is centred around Positive Psychology; which is about achieving the optimal level of functioning by building upon your strengths across all aspects of your life. It focuses on increasing our experiences of positive states, such as happiness, joy, contentment, life satisfaction, creativity, gratitude, optimism, wisdom, courage, and love among others.

Balancing pleasure and purpose:

Have you ever wondered “How much happier could I physically be”? Interestingly, Positive Psychology research suggests that our capacity for happiness is set by 50% based on our genetics (biology and heredity), 10% based on our circumstances (sex, ethnicity, income, education or geography) and 40% based on intentional activity (behavioural choices or thinking patterns). Knowing these statistics and percentages, it’s a no-brainer that we absolutely, undeniably, should be more intentional with our activity! Am I right?

So how can we do that? How can we become happier? Jay Shetty, a former monk and current podcaster, author and life coach believes that balancing pleasure and purpose is the answer. Imagine a calculation in which your purpose consists of your skillset, plus what you love, plus what serves the world; pleasure in this equation emerges under the ‘what you love’ element. Following this logic, doing what you love is incredibly important to have a fulfilling purpose.

To dive into this a bit deeper, consider the purpose matrix which goes as follows:

Think of all aspects and areas of your life as falling under these four quadrants:

1. The first one includes “skill + no passion”. This includes things that you're good at but don’t necessarily love. Unfortunately, for most people, this usually includes our profession.
2. The second quadrant includes “skill + passion”. Ideally, we want to have more aspects of our lives falling into this segment. These can include extracurricular activities, such as cooking, baking, or painting; they’re stuff that we’re really good at and love doing.
3. The third quadrant includes “no skill + no passion”. Ideally, we want to eliminate aspects of our lives that fall into this segment as much as possible. These can include part-time jobs done purely for money-saving purposes, that you're not skilled or passionate about, or specific aspects within our routines, that we’re not skilled at and are not passionate about, such as cleaning the house. It is important to acknowledge that we cannot completely eliminate these aspects altogether from our lives, so our goal would be to minimize or assign them to others where possible.
4. Lastly, the fourth quadrant includes “no skill, but passion”. These are aspects of our lives in which we may lack expertise but are really passionate about. They might include a new hobby, such as painting, dancing, sports, DJing, or playing instruments. This segment is important for growth and we want to keep it, while slowly moving aspects of it more towards the second segment.

Use this matrix to think about your life. Where do different aspects of it fall? Have you got enough activities falling into the second quadrant? What is it that brings your passion and purpose together? How can you align these more?

Optimising experiences:

When evaluating the above in my own life, I concluded that the key to those questions revolved around the optimisation of experiences. It seems that I’m not the only one that thinks that way; in fact, 81% of Gen Zers say that an experience is ‘fun’ because you can share moments with others.

Optimising experiences in psychology involves leveraging various strategies and techniques to enhance well-being, satisfaction, and overall quality of life. Regardless of the activity, the experience of fun most often comes from a combination of feeling engaged and liberated at the same time.

There are a number of practices which I’ve personally found effective in optimising my experiences which I’m hoping might resonate with you too and help in boosting your sense of happiness and well-being.

• Mindfulness:Mindfulness is an originally Buddhist practice which focuses on the art of being truly in the present moment. This is often done by observing and anchoring the effects of the breath, practiced through daily meditative sittings, mindful eating, mindful walking, visualizations, body scans and yoga.
• Exercise: Exercise has played an important part in my feeling of well-being, especially during the last few months. It includes a natural way in which our brains release endorphins (which are also known as “the happy hormones”), associated with feelings of enchantment.
• Journaling: Engaging in journaling is a powerful method for developing self-awareness regarding unhelpful thoughts, emotions, and actions. It serves as a means of self-expression, allowing us to monitor our behaviours and pinpoint areas where transformation is necessary. It manifests in various forms such as diaries, logs, thought records, and activities aimed at activating positive behaviour.
• Healthy eating & sleep:Incorporating the right nutrients and vitamins into our dietary habits has been proven to boost motivation, increase energy levels, and support optimal brain function. Adopting a healthy eating pattern, coupled with obtaining 8-10 hours of quality sleep each night, profoundly influences our overall well-being. Whenever I get close to 8 hours of sleep at night, I notice that I wake up with a lot more energy, feeling much more refreshed and ready to take on the day.

Thinking about the ways that you personally optimise experiences in your life are there any others that you’d add to the list? Have you identified any of the ones mentioned above that you incorporate more of in the future? Over the next few months I’ll be posting more deep-dive blogs into each and every one of the topics mentioned above; so stay tuned.

Toxic positivity:

Having established the above, it is important to acknowledge that while positivity and optimism have a place, negative emotions are also a natural part of life and need to be recognised, addressed and processed as part of staying mentally healthy. According to Dr David Kessler, a grief expert, “Toxic positivity is positivity given in the wrong way, in the wrong dose, at the wrong time. Emotions are data. They are not good or bad. They are signposts to things we care about.”

It is therefore important to acknowledge that while we want to maximize feelings of happiness, there is comfort in acknowledging and communicating about negative feelings and the bad times. These honest conversations about mental health and difficult moments create spaces in which we can connect and bond with others over shared experiences.

At selfsquared one of our primary goals is to provide the space for these conversations to take place as well as an opportunity to experience these negative emotions in a constructive way.

- Joy