Happiness...it's that combination of chemical reactions that occur in the brain. Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, all combining at the same time to create a smile. A smile that takes 10 of your face muscles to be born.
Only in the past two decades, we have been able to really study the cause and effects of happiness. This according to the article was written in Harvard Business Review titled "The science behind the smile" According to Daniel Gilbert, this is so because of the advances in science. Like he said "...decades ago, the problems of happiness were mainly in the hands of philosophers and poets" (Which isn't exactly bad, but now we can be more precise).
What is it that I need? Some of the materials include money, family, supporting friends, a job. However, this only accounts for 10% of what my happiness could mean, sure there are other small categories and activities that make me happy like playing piano or tennis, but those are the main ones. Like Shawn Achor said in his Ted Talk, 10% of my happiness is predictable, which is basically the way you live in the world, and the other 90% of our happiness comes from how your brain interprets the world. So in reality, money, family, and friends don’t seem to be so important do they?
For example, the man in the van. He was baseball pitcher that literally lived in a van. It was no fancy van, in fact, it was deplorable, and had many technical failures. Sure, he clearly had friends in his team, but other than that he seemed to be very independent, living his life alone. He would stop in the middle of the road to explore something he found interesting. 90 % of his happiness came from his values that were set as a child. Clearly money wasn’t what directed his happiness, it was how he saw the world, he could’ve bought a nice, expensive car, a luxurious house and have a life of parties, yet he lives happily in a van.
The Same example comes from the movie “Happy”. Roy lived in a swamp-like a place. To many of us, it could seem depressing, disgusting, living there could not ever make you happy. Yet Roy said “its like paradise to me”. Again, Roy’s brain does not interpret the swamp as an unpleasant place, but rather somewhere he wants to be. Because something new happens every day.
Only in the past two decades, we have been able to really study the cause and effects of happiness. This according to the article was written in Harvard Business Review titled "The science behind the smile" According to Daniel Gilbert, this is so because of the advances in science. Like he said "...decades ago, the problems of happiness were mainly in the hands of philosophers and poets" (Which isn't exactly bad, but now we can be more precise).
What is it that I need? Some of the materials include money, family, supporting friends, a job. However, this only accounts for 10% of what my happiness could mean, sure there are other small categories and activities that make me happy like playing piano or tennis, but those are the main ones. Like Shawn Achor said in his Ted Talk, 10% of my happiness is predictable, which is basically the way you live in the world, and the other 90% of our happiness comes from how your brain interprets the world. So in reality, money, family, and friends don’t seem to be so important do they?
For example, the man in the van. He was baseball pitcher that literally lived in a van. It was no fancy van, in fact, it was deplorable, and had many technical failures. Sure, he clearly had friends in his team, but other than that he seemed to be very independent, living his life alone. He would stop in the middle of the road to explore something he found interesting. 90 % of his happiness came from his values that were set as a child. Clearly money wasn’t what directed his happiness, it was how he saw the world, he could’ve bought a nice, expensive car, a luxurious house and have a life of parties, yet he lives happily in a van.
The Same example comes from the movie “Happy”. Roy lived in a swamp-like a place. To many of us, it could seem depressing, disgusting, living there could not ever make you happy. Yet Roy said “its like paradise to me”. Again, Roy’s brain does not interpret the swamp as an unpleasant place, but rather somewhere he wants to be. Because something new happens every day.