Do We Need To Be Happy?

Is happiness an innate need found in people and animals or is it a label for many different behaviors? It seems to me that we formulate a vision for ourselves of what would make us happy and in trying to make this vision a reality we do many things that make us miserable.

There can be lots of ways to define or explain happiness but basically we chase happiness around our brains and corner it until it breaks down and becomes a bunch of neurotransmitters or “brain chemicals”. We can get the ones that are associated with happiness by undergoing certain experiences or by means of drugs like Prozac. The trouble is the drugs don’t always work and the experiences could be any number of combinations of thousands of types of situations.

A good policy to adopt in the pursuit of happiness would be to chase pleasure and avoid pain. But of course the goal posts can be moved in all directions when we try to define pleasure and pain. Religious people usually report that they gain happiness by living their lives as they feel God would want them to. Or even by trying to align their lives with God’s wishes. Maybe it’s not good to think about happiness at all.

This video will help you explore the idea of happiness.

You cam also read about how scientists say they can now measure happiness.