Happiness is a set of emotions like joy and pleasure, which raise your dopamine levels and put you in a general good mood which we call "Happiness". Emotions can be short-lived, often disappearing soon after they have been evoked, but happiness sets you in a specific mood for an extended period of time.
Your mood relates directly to how you perceive and react to situations during the day. For example, if you are in a happy mood you are more likely to react positively to bad news than if you are feeling unhappy or low. So happiness can actually define who you are as a person; if you are a happier person you are more likely to be content, be a good person, and have more friends. This is what happiness attracts.
So how do you achieve this thing called happiness? It's not such a mystery. You probably already know. Sometimes we are afraid to acknowledge that happiness is such a simple thing to achieve.
We are living in a modern world where the mind overtakes the heart. Our once natural responses are cloned by man-made stimuli which artificially induce pleasurable moods. These days it is easier to "shop" for happiness!
We have come to such an intellectual understanding of ourselves that we are losing the ability to simply experience basic human things through our hearts and bodies. We drink coffee and smoke cigarettes to elevate and relax us; Media provides us with abundance of opportunities to experience emotions second-hand, through film and magazines. But aren't we in fact killing our natural ability to just be happy?
Is there such a thing as over-analysis
? If you analyse emotion to such extent, aren't you bound to become detached from it? When you separate your emotions from your self in order to look at them objectively, you risk not being able to actually experience and enjoy the feeling. Emotions are subjective. Perhaps this is why we have reaches the stage where we are manufacturing happiness; to make it accessible again.
So, how can you find happiness again? Well think about the last time you felt "happy" for longer than five minutes! If you're honest, you'll probably find that it was when you were with someone you love/ loved/ or just enjoyed being in the company of; because they made you feel relaxed, content, or made you laugh or feel safe.
People are at the route of our happiness! Nothing is of any use unless there is someone to share it with. When you lose your job, or your house gets broken into, you seek consolation in other people. Bad things always seem better when there is someone there for you to help you deal with it. Probably the worst kind of sadness is the loss of a person, whether it is a relationship breakup or death.
Perhaps instead of seeking artificial stimuli which has become the norm, you should focus on building strong, supportive, solid, and lasting relationships with friends, family, and loved ones. A positive attitude towards people in general can transform your life!
See the good in people, even if they have hurt you. Try to understand how "bad" people have become affected by society, culture, and negative human interaction. People are only human, and we don't choose to be born into a modern world where a simple, natural, and basic human instinct such as happiness is being recreated and redefined everyday!