Being more happyWe all say that we want to be happy - but what does this really mean?Happiness, or being happy, is often just seen as an emotion. Indeed in our technological age we even have a text sign for it :-) which when turned into an image is a yellow smiley face - call an emoticon! It is literally an EMOTion ICON. Our popular view of being happy is as an emotion. We are happy or sad and our mood changes as fast as we can type a text message. So the popular solution to being more happy is easy - eat more chocolate! Indeed you can buy a t-shirt that says "chocolate=happiness" and there is the saying "in case of emergency, administer chocolate"! Certainly chocolate can change a person's mood, scientific studies seem to suggest that it can prompt the release of endorphins in the brain - chemicals that help to make us feel happy. Chocolate may not be your thing, there are plenty of alternatives, but you can no doubt see the point being made. Happiness however is more than a mere emotion. Positive psychology is a field that is now studying happiness and the suggestion is that there are three types of happiness: pleasure, engagement and meaning. Other writers are also studying this area, people such as Robert Holden. This definition is much more in line with the concept of happiness that we are exploring at Being More. Of course we want to be happy people, but this does not mean that we will only experience happy emotions. It does however mean that in an almost literal sense we ARE happy. To find out more about being more happy, read some of our articles and book reviews:
Robert Holden Be Happy Book Review
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