Are you one of those people asking: is happiness an emotion?
The pursuit of happiness looks like a natural desire. Looking around, it’s the fuel for most marketing campaigns, social bonds, and businesses.
Drinking a can of juice, buying a beautiful dress on sale, or even traveling for leisure are attempts to feel happy.
Those actions seem to encourage happiness through the experience of pleasant emotions—excitement from shopping, joy from drinking coffee, and awe from travel.
That conceptualization of happiness powers the economy and produces short-term boosts in happiness for people.
This post will focus on answering the question, is happiness an emotion, and if it is, how can you achieve it?
What are the Basic Emotions?
Research over the past decades has determined seven basic emotions. These includes:
- Anger
- Disgust
- Fear
- Contempt
- Joy
- Sadness
- Surprise
What is Happiness and is it an emotion?
Happiness includes momentary positive emotions and a more profound sense of purpose and meaning in life. Often, those parts are divided into eudaimonia (flourishing or thriving) and hedonia (pleasure).
However, when people say happiness, they often talk about the combination of both.
According to the book, The How of Happiness, the researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky defines happiness as the experience of contentment, joy, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that a person’s life is worthwhile, meaningful, and good.
Thus, daily pleasure and the meaning of life are considered two vital aspects of defining happiness.
How Can You Achieve Happiness?
Anytime you like to boost your happiness, you should create a set of skills such as resilience, positive thinking, mindfulness, and others.
Establishing those “happiness skills” is the key to acting, feeling, and thinking in ways that make you happy.
Thus, what are the ideal steps to take to achieve happiness?
Well, that depends on the personal challenges you experience, the situations you are currently in, and everything that’s happening around you.
It would help if you looked inward to gain clarity on your challenges and outward to clarify the cultural and social challenges you’re dealing with in the modern world.
Here are a few things you can do to boost your happiness:
- Learn how to think more positively
- Cultivate resilience
- Become kinder and more generous towards other people
- Practice gratitude
- Improve your social relationships
Remember that negative emotions could make your happiness challenging to accomplish.
Negative emotions are bad for happiness, but they stop you from pursuing and achieving your happiness plan and related goals.
Learning some stress-reducing strategies will help your body and mind be more equipped to deal with the challenges.
Learning how to handle negative emotions will also help you move past the obstacles.
To sum up, is happiness an emotion? It is not a basic emotion but more a state of mind which involves positive emotions and life satisfaction.
Being happy makes your life filled with joy and more fun.
Happiness is also associated with physical health, mental health, success, positive relationships, productivity, and living a purposeful life.
When you’re happy, you’re more likely to be healthy, more successful, sleep better, feel less stress, and more. That’s why happiness is essential and a great state of mind.
Read more:
25 Happiness Hacks to Feel Good and be Happy.
Positivity and Negativity and Why They Are Important.
Mental Health vs. Emotional Health, what is the difference?
Want to know more about Emotions? Read here.
