Home: Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness

The Science of Happiness
Five Important Findings to Help You Be Happier Now

Happiness can be learned.
Happy people are more productive, better team players, more creative, and more fun to be around.

Traditionally, doctors and scientists have focused on what was broken or wrong. They studied what made people sick or unhappy and how to fix it. But, over the last 30 years or so, a new breed of scientists has refocused on what makes people happy and healthy.

This new science, called positive psychology, forms the basis of the new science of happiness.

We can use the findings from the new science to help us learn how and why to be happy. What Science tells us about happiness is-

1) Happiness helps us learn, grow and work on cooperative efforts.

Just as stress, fear, anger, and other unhappy feelings biochemically spur us to fight or flight, feeling happy causes chemical changes in our bodies that help us learn and grow. Feeling happy helps us adapt and live in harmony with each other and the environment. Click here for Ten Reasons Why Happiness is Important.

2) It is not what happens to us so much as what we think about it that determines our happiness.

Even wealthy people who have constant access to pleasure are not happy unless they think themselves so. After a certain point, we get used to our circumstances, good and bad and return to our “happiness set point”. The actions that make the biggest difference in our level of happiness are what we think about our circumstances and what we choose to do about them. Click here for more of the Elements of Happiness.

3) Happiness can be learned.

Scientists have identified the key thought patterns that lead to feeling happy. With practice, you can adopt these thought patterns yourself and increase your happiness. The other good news is that feeling happy makes it easier to do the things that make you happier, so adopting happiness habits may be easier than you think. Click here for more on Learned Optimism.

4) There are two basic paths to happiness, mindful happiness and flow.

Mindful happiness is when you know you are happy at that moment. We can often increase our mindful happiness just by tuning in to the sensations of the moment, or thinking about a past, present or future situation and feeling optimistic, grateful or good about it.

A Happy Painter

Flow is when we loose ourselves in an activity that challenges us in some way. Sometimes this is called “being in the zone”. When people recall times they were in flow they often recall that they were happy, however, when in flow people may experience negative emotions like anger or determination. Yet, they are so engaged, that the negative emotions are stimulating and mastery of the situation that causes them causes the same psychological and physical effects as being happy.

5) We feel good when we do good.

Scientists have confirmed what many of us have observed, we feel happy when we do something for someone else. This works on an individual basis where we can see the impact to the other person directly and on a global basis where we believe we are doing something larger than ourselves. Not only do we feel good when we do something selfless, but we are also often attracted to others who we observe doing something for others.

Science Indicates the Path to a Happy Life

Science indicates that the path to a happy life lies within our control. We can have the biggest impact on our own happiness by choosing to think happy thoughts and by using our strengths and talents to do challenging things we enjoy that also do good for others.