Behavior: The Science Of Happiness

The most interesting thing about studies regarding happiness is the way people define happiness. In my experience as an advice columnist, people are happy for different reasons, and what they consider to be happiness varies from family to family and often micro-culture to micro-culture.

The problem with happiness is that it is not a state that can or should be sustained continually because it requires so much energy. Too much happiness or too much saddness, and you have a clinical diagnosis of manic depression. Not enough happiness and you have a clinical diagnosis of depression and/or anxiety.

What’s missing in the scientific study of happiness is how important being peaceful is. People will live longer, in my opinion, if they are peaceful, as opposed to happy. For sure, sadness, depression and stress cut life short. But happiness is not the key to long life or even healthful life in the same way that living peacefully is.