The truth is that happiness is finite. It's impossible to be happy now and remain happy for the rest of your life. My longest streak of exceptionally happy days has lasted 29 days. But the average streak of happy days actually only lasts 3 days before my happiness returns to average or even turns into sadness.
Happiness is ephemeral and temporary. It's mostly just passing through. When happiness is present, it's larger than life. It feels good, and nothing feels better or seems worthy of attention.
It may still feel unfamiliar but lasting happiness lies in feeling good about yourself and surrounding yourself with others who do too. As the ego and its sense of inadequacy retreats, we can find lasting happiness there.
Why do some people say happiness never lasts long? Answer – Because they are afraid of problems, so they say happiness never lasts long, and problems persist every time. But after every problem, we need to see happiness.
If we felt happy all the time, we might end up missing opportunities to improve ourselves, fight for what we believe in, or engage in some of the most meaningful endeavors of our lives.
Striving for a happy life is one thing, but striving to be happy all the time is unrealistic. Recent research indicates that psychological flexibility is the key to greater happiness and well-being.
In this case, “too happy” or “too positive” can mean an intense level of happiness. Contrary to popular beliefs, studies have shown that excess levels of experiences, emotions, and mental states can lead to becoming unhealthy (Gruber et al., 2011).
Elation is more than mere happiness — it is extreme, exhilarating joy. It has a sense of rising or expanding, even to the point of light-headedness.
Studies in economics often find that happiness decreases from the teenage years to middle age, only to increase afterwards (and then to fall again in very high age).
For both men and women, higher levels of optimism were associated with a longer life span and “exceptional longevity,” which the researchers defined as surviving to 85.
Satisfaction gives permanent happiness whereas happiness gives you temporary satisfaction.
Happiness should not be your goal, nor an end state, but a way of being. It may sound like a tough ask in a world of uncertainty. But when you change your understanding of what it means to be happy, you may notice that you start to feel it much more.
Concerts, trips, and other activities can leave you feeling happier, longer, than material objects like clothes or gadgets. That's because things that you do, see, and experience lead to lasting memories, giving you something positive to draw on for years to come—long after that new shirt has seen its last wear.
As the Buddha said, “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” Unlike material possessions, which are usually finite, happiness is infinite.
Faking happiness occurs when you make yourself appear to be happy to others, but don't truly feel this way internally. To everyone else, it looks like you're having the time of your life, but on the inside, you feel as though something is missing. No matter what you accomplish, you still feel unfulfilled.
Feigning happiness doesn't count as happiness, of course; it won't bring all the positive benefits that real happiness will. But when you paste on a smile there IS something at work that is pretty amazing: facial expressions themselves can actually make us feel.
Starting at age 18, your happiness level begins to decrease, reaching peak unhappiness at 47.2 in developed countries and 48.2 in developing countries. The good news is that happiness levels then gradually increase.
The most unhappy time of your life is your forties, according to a phenomenon known as the “u-shaped” curve which states that happiness bottoms out around your forties then trends back up as you grow older.
In one large study from the Brookings Institute, for example, scientists found happiness was high for 18- to 21-year-olds and then dropped steadily until about age 40. But past middle age, the pattern began to reverse—gradually climbing back up to its highest point at age 98!
Happiness is an emotion in which one experiences feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to bliss and intense pleasure. Joy is a stronger, less common feeling than happiness.
synonyms for only too happy
delighted. elated. euphoric. jubilant.
It's easy to think that people are happier than you, or happy all the time, because they seem to constantly have a smile on their face. But those who appear to be “always happy” could be managing a mental disorder such as high-functioning anxiety or depression.
While people who experience happiness tend to have better psychological health, people who value happiness to an extreme tend to have worse psychological health, including more depression. We propose that the extreme valuing of happiness may be a general risk factor for mood disturbances, both depressive and manic.