Happiness

Perhaps one of the first things I should do is to get around writing something about a certain emotion we have come to know as happiness. Why is happiness intriguing? Simple, it's because we all seek happiness, and we have all achieved it some point or another, yet it seems happiness never lasts. Just think of the times you felt happy in the past, perhaps you did when you just started a relationship, or maybe when you scored straight As, or when you won a sports competition. I'm sure many of you feel satisfied at achieving whatever you did that made you happy in the past, and will probably describe yourself as happy about the achievement in the past. But the truth is you probably do not feel the wonderful feeling now as you did then. You have the satisfaction that you achieved something, but it's more likely that that satisfaction now is making you work extra hard for another does of happiness, be it from love, peer acceptance, or academic/sports achievements.

The point of the above analysis is that happiness never seems to last. Ask someone whether he or she is happy or not, and the most likely answer is a hesitant satisfied, average, or maybe even downright unhappy. People, thus are constantly working in pursuit of happiness, occasionally catching up to it yet when they pause to take a breath, happiness dashes ahead once again, and it happens all over again. Sounds implausible? Think about it.

Doesn't really make sense does it? Why do we seek happiness, if we can only experience it fleetingly every time even though it seems we put so much hard work into it. To understand this phenomenon we need to look towards our dear friend Darwin, and to the extremely controversial field of evolutionary psychology. First of all, think of what usually causes happiness. Usually it's either, i) getting into a relationship, ii) achieving something hard to achieve, indirectly gaining respect and social status (few people would find must joy in acheiving something nobody cares for), iii) gaining money or material objects (resources yo). Now think about how all of these can help your ancestors in the past. Obvious isn't it? Getting into a relationship (or getting a mate) means chance to pass on your genes, gaining social status would bring many benefits such as more potential mates, access to more resources, and gaining resources is of course, self-explanatory (you need food to survive, clothes to keep you warm, etc).

Now brings on the other interesting question. Why doesn't the feeling last? If you've been following the logic till now, the answer should be obvious, if obtaining happiness is nature's way of pushing our ancestors (or us) towards evolutionary success, then it would of course, work better if we were constantly in pursuit of it, which would not be true if happiness lasts! In other words, happiness like a drug that nature bestows upon us, and we are like addicts, constantly in pursuit of happiness, and in doing so, indirectly ensuring our evolutionary success!

Quite a cheery disposition, isn't it?