The most popular course in the history of Harvard University is, famously, a course on positive psychology. The New Zealand government made a commitment to measuring “gross domestic happiness” and allotting a national wellbeing budget in 2019. You can now download happiness apps, listen to happiness podcasts and take part in happiness workshops all around the world.
Clearly, we want to be happy. And just as clearly, we’re not sure how to be – there’s a market for all those how-to guides and meditation apps.
But as we adapt to living with Covid, we could all use a little extra help feeling our best. I chatted to a couple of happiness experts to get the scoop on how to find, grow and sustain a sense of personal happiness and was surprised to find it’s simpler than you might think.
What is happiness?
According to Google data, happiness has become more and more of a concern in the past 15 years. In 2020, more people Googled “happiness” than ever before in the search engine’s history – reflecting both how badly we wanted to be happy, and how unhappy we felt during Covid.
But what is happiness, and why has it become such a hot topic in recent years? Is happiness a state of euphoria, or a steady sense of contentment? Is it about the big picture (feeling broadly happy in your job, your relationships, your hobbies) or the small details (accumulating little moments of joy)? And if the pursuit of happiness only took off as a trend in the early 2000s, why was that? Was it just the machinations of capitalism, building a new industry to prompt more consumer spending (buy this yoga mat, buy this meditation app, buy these books)? Were we unhappier than ever?
Karlyn Sullivan-Jones, Kiwi counsellor and author of the forthcoming book , defines happiness as “an emotional state of joy and satisfaction”. She suggests
