Happiness

H is for happiness. Happy was the first word that came to mind today when I sat down to write about something that starts with an H. I went with happiness instead as it seemed more encompassing, more permanent somehow.  more like a state of being than an adjective. I started to think about happiness and the first things that came to mind were quotes we've all heard. Like how it's an inside job and how no one can make you unhappy unless you give them permission. But then I dove a little deeper, started thinking about all I've pondered and investigated regarding what really brings lasting happiness. Philosophers from way back who looked into what could be known about it were definitely on to something. 

Today, there's a whole branch of psychology  called Positive Psychology aiming to discover the recipe. When they first started to define it, they went with an "authentic happiness" theory, which sort of measured happiness on a scale of life satisfaction, but as it evolved, they posited that that satisfaction was made up of things that would be more measurable: Positive emotion, Engagement, positive Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment (PERMA). It was a shift from keying in on "happiness" to keying in on "well being'. I think that leap was made because "happy" can be so temporary or fleeting as it's derived from your experience of something or someone you deem pleasing. Whereas happiness that is centered in ones wellbeing could be presumed less fleeting, more durable, and achieved on a regular basis by maintaining the PERMA levels in your life. If you want to know more on this, Google Dr. Martin Seligman, Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Another study finds that extroverts often test "happier" than "introverts". I've been an extrovert my whole life and I don't know if I can believe that my extroversion has really been a contributor to any lasting, permanent sort of happiness, or well-being for that matter. Nor can I believe that introverts aren't capable of inner happiness. I can see how extroversion would play into the well-being theory above though, because it's all about engagement, relating, accomplishing, so those who are more apt to get out and connect would have more opportunity for hitting those markers, if it's true that these are "keys" to well being.
I want to touch on the kind of happiness that wouldn't require anything with anyone. The inside job kind of happiness, where you simply make up your mind to be happy, focus on the positive, live gratitude for the eternal now, cultivate inner peace, and resolve that nothing or no one can rob you of it and you don't need any circumstance to spark it. I'd like very much to achieve a state of inner happiness that was unshakable by external forces. I'm still working on it, and not quite there yet!

And there you have it.