Happiness found

Happiness is a goal we all strive towards, but have you stopped to think about exactly what “happiness” is to you? Is it being in love? Is it buying a new car? Is it living in your dream town? Or is it engaging in your Favourite hobby? Let’s dig a little deeper beyond the top-of-mind imagery to discover the true nature of happiness.

- Terry Robson

Happiness: that thing we all want. You want it. Yet what is it? The easiest thing to begin with is to dispense with some of the popular misconceptions. For a start, happiness is not shopping. Despite everything that advertising tries to make you believe, you will not “become” happy by purchasing something. In fact, the evidence is that advertising is a major cause of unhappiness because it seeks to make people feel a sense of lack in their life. Of course, advertising agencies only have that power if you put any credence at all in any of their spruiking. Sling away slogans (there's one for your T-shirt) and you won't be open to the depredations that advertising can wreak in your psyche.

If you ask a politician, they will tell you that happiness for individuals lies in economic growth, a perpetually burgeoning gross domestic product (GDP). For mainstream politicians of all sides, the accepted mantra is to deliver the best possible quality of life for us all by concentrating on a growing economy. Growth, growth and growth are the underpinnings of all government planning. There is plenty of evidence to confirm that economic growth and wealth do not equate to happiness. That leaves us with the question of what happiness is, and many researchers and philosophers have tried to come up with an answer.

Reasons to be happy

Marci Shimoff is the author of Happy for No Reason, a book that resulted from her interviews with scores of scientists and 100 people that she identified as “unconditionally happy”. As a result of all her research, Shimoff concluded that there is a continuum of happiness. At one end are people who are “unhappy”, then there are those who are “happy for a bad reason”, those who are “happy for a good reason” and those who are “happy for no reason”.