What can we do to get happier? Make more money, travel, create a model family? Happiness is like a bizarre picture that looks different to everyone. "Our task is to learn to be happy," says psychologist Mihai Chiksentmihai, author of the theory of "flow", the most accessible form of happiness. The dossier will help us to listen to ourselves, to understand what we really want, and to show the world our inner light.
We can be happy, and no one can stop us from doing that. Except ourselves. Because of our fear of happiness, we create life's difficulties, turn our backs on others, and run away at the last moment. Do we have to chase after happiness? We talked about it with representatives of different fields of science.
The majority of Russians consider themselves happy: 85% of respondents say this. But it is still not acceptable to speak openly about happiness. It seems that a "happy person" is a title that should be earned and confirmed constantly. Earning a lot of money, not as much as necessary, having an exemplary family and a good job.
But research shows that happiness does not come down to a "better life". It looks like a fantastic picture, which looks different for everyone. And yet, is it possible to "measure" happiness? What do representatives of different fields of science say about it?
NEUROBIOLOGY: BALM FOR NEURONS
From the neurobiological point of view, emotion is nothing more than the brain's interpretation of the signals it receives. When we catch admiring looks, wait for an order in a restaurant, see our child's face for the first time, our nerve cells exchange signals through hormones and neurotransmitters. Dopamine, for example, is responsible for the anticipation of the pleasure of eating. When love inspires us, oxytocin acts. And when we are praised, we bathe in serotonin.
Emotions work so hard because they ensure the survival and continuation of the family. They came from wild ancestors, who were more interested in navigating quickly than in thinking.
"Elephant doesn't have to "try" to remember the signs of the water," writes Loretta Browning, author of Hormones of Happiness. - Dopamine automatically creates a neural pathway in his brain. The next time he sees something like a spring, the impulses will follow the neural chain and cause a burst of "happiness hormone".
The paradox is this: to find conscious happiness, we need to understand the unconscious language of the brain
But our life is more complicated than that of an elephant, so in addition to the fast "unconscious", we also have a "conscious" part. It is responsible for plans, goals, and behavior in difficult situations. The problem is that the two "accountants" of the brain are not always able to reach an agreement.
For example, consciously we want to look good and for this, we refuse to eat calories and go to the gym. But as soon as we feel hungry, we get a mammal that doesn't understand our goals. He is interested in one thing: to get nutrients and store them for good. To resist temptation, you have to strain your will and feed yourself with promises of a future happy life in a slender body.
The paradox is this: in order to achieve conscious happiness, we need to understand the unconscious language of the brain," explains Loretta Browning. - And maybe fool him.
ECONOMICS: TREADMILL DANCING
The brain of each of us is unique, that's why we all have our own images of happiness. But what ensures a happy life in general? For a long time, economists believed that happiness means maximum satisfaction of needs. It can be measured objectively - in money in a bank account, quality of products and services.
Indeed, until some point, we become happier when we get richer. However, in 2010, Nobel Prize winners Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton proved that once the "optimal level" of income is reached, the growth of happiness stops.
Moreover, there is the effect of "treadmill" - the standard of living, which recently seemed to us to be the limit of our dreams, after a week, a month or a year is no longer satisfied. I want something more, and this desire successfully parasitizes advertising. The pursuit of sensations becomes an end in itself, but the new models of gadgets and more expensive entertainment give only an opportunity to "stay in the saddle" for a while to relieve anxiety.
Recently, Canadian, American and British economists tried to solve this problem together. In 2011, they released an article, "If money doesn't make you happy, maybe you're wasting it wrong. Their recipe is to discipline yourself: