I found this really interesting site. It’s called the World Database of Happiness and is a continually updated register of all scientific studies done on the condition knowing as happiness or appreciation of life.

It got me thinking. What do people here think are the things that make them happy and do those things translate to real ongoing happiness or are they just fleeting? Does buying more stuff make you happy? Does having more power or increased social status make you happy? Does having more stories to tell at parties make you happy? Does going on holiday make you happy? What makes you happy? How long does that happiness last? Do these things make your life happier or just that moment?

We live in a world that slams us with advertising saying that if we buy this or do that we will be happier. What I’ve gleaned from this site (and I haven’t read everything by a long stretch) is that more stuff does not equal more happiness. Probably something we all already knew for the most part, but here is research to back it up. Long-term happiness increases massively when we go from not having to having the basic things we need to survive. After that, however, the increases in long term happiness seem to be really small, negligible even. Why? (Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs will come in here I suspect.)


We all want to be happier or make other people happier (thereby making us happier), but are we going about that in the right way? Or are our happiness-boosting tactics all out of whack with what all this scientific research says really makes us happy?

The lesson? Happiness is internal.

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A great topic Josh! One that I'd love to discuss with you at a suitable bar in Melbourne in the near future.

As someone who feels both happy and unhappy on a daily basis, I'd have to say the things that make me happy generally involve spending time with friends. I think I'm at my happiest when I'm with friends. Nice food, sleep and exercise also make me happy, and there is no doubt a biochemical reason for that.

Kashi

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Climate Change Australia

A bottle of good bourbon....

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"An armed man is a citizen
An unarmed man is a subject"

Robert A. Heinlein

Spot on, IMO. And short-term gratification is no answer either.

Happiness has to come from within; it's all to do with attitude. Two people can experience the same situation and interpret it completely differently. It's not as simple as optimist/pessimist but I'd say attitude is everything.

Lasting happiness is more like contentment rather than out-loud laughter. That's why good company, nice food etc. bring the feeling of satisfaction and happiness.

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Spike
:)

Just for fun,I'll argue for the "more stuff brings happiness".

Take people who collect things,myself as an example.I like vintage Ludwig drumsets,I have one that's a true collector's item (& I'm well aware that a thing is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it,it's worth exactly 0 to say,a stamp collector) & another that I foolishly refinished 25 years ago,destroying any collector value,but it's a sweet soundin' set.It makes me happy to have them & play them.One of these days I'll buy a late 60s set in Psychedelic Red,I've always wanted one,I'll donate the refinished one to a school.
I like working on drums too,I've spent many happy hours on both mine & other people's,for free just because I like to & it makes me happy to see someone's face light up when they play a drum I've tweaked to sound & sometimes look better.
But things don't have to be expensive to bring happiness,I don't figure a bug collector has to spend a lot of money to build up a good collection,but they enjoy the collection & the collecting & it makes them happy.

Having "things" can bring happiness.

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"An armed man is a citizen
An unarmed man is a subject"

Robert A. Heinlein

Hearing my kids laughing. Very big gap to second place...

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

Actually, the acquiring of things makes me happier, too. It's the endorphins.

In fact, a friend of mine dubbed it the Dead Cat Theory of Discretionary Spending. For a normal person, there's a reason you're sad. That reason--say, your cat died--will not go away if you buy something. If a mentally ill person is said, there's no reason, and the rush of acquisition may stave off the bad chemicals making you sad.

However, it doesn't make me happier when there is a reason, such as . . . oh, I don't know, my boyfriend being in Iraq?

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

right now I'll settle for sleep.

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

I think I have the happy gene. I can never hold a grudge. I forget I grounded the kids or why I even got mad in the first place. I think I may be happy most of the time because being sad/mad takes too much work!

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Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

wellI know on thing that did not bring happines was meeting my father for first time since I three. but if I could go back and time change of somethings I have done maybe things would be happier now.

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

Ah, an opportune moment for a favorite Walt Whitman morsel:

I would have to agree with Spike!
its definetly attitude and what your expectations of life is.
take myself for example; I have MS, I have trouble walking and talking,I lost my job as a senior mechanical engineer, and I now live on SSI and Private disability, at less than half of my previous income, but Im always in a good mood joking and laughing and for the most part Jovial. I am very rarely sad or bitter, How can I say that I am usually always happy? its easy, when I start to feel unhappy I just remind myself that things could be much worse!

Life is too short to let everday problems get you down,
those of us who are unhappy at times need to just look around and realize that somewhere, someone else has problems much worse than yourself,and that every day above terra firma is a blessing!
Dennis

And the fact that you forget that you grounded your kids does not cause a problem? I am jealous. I think my kids have lost all concept of consequences for that very same reason. My son even had the nerve once to say..."That's okay, she'll forget by the time we get home from school." From that day forth I have to carry a pad to not the punishments.

Buying things makes me feel like I am happy when things around me don't go how I hoped, but that fades as soon as what ever it is, is no longer new. Socializing, makes me very happy. Practically drowning in my dogs makes me happy. I can feel a chemical change in my mood when I hear squeals of delight from my kids, almost like a drug induced happy. An unexpected hug makes me happy. Good news from others, periods of quiet, when things fall into place, listening to the Derek Trucks Band, and a good moment of truth movie. A close second to my kids squeals, though, is that moment of clarity, when a question that has been plaguing me, finally makes sense. That feels very chemical as well.

I've got very good kids. (So far - knock on wood.) They've done nothing to get into real trouble, yet. They are A - B students, the senior will have a dozen college hours when she graduates this year. She works about twenty hours a week and was student technical director for the HS Musical this year which sold out every night! Since she has a car now and I can take away her keys, she's been really helpful and much easier to get along with.

The other one, well, she's more like me. I'm just waiting to see what she's going to try. Though she's pretty good too.

I do have a husband that is good at remembering things like discipline.

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Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

That's the point I'm trying to get at. I realise that buying things make us happy. What I'm trying to get at here is, what provides us with long term happiness? What makes us happier as a person in general and not just fleetingly?

Frantic Freddie, example of collecting is a good example of having things making us happy longer term, i guess, but are you happy generally and having those is just an extra?

I'm sure we all know people for whom "more stuff" just isn't enough. "I'll be happier when i get xxxxx" doesn't really hold true for them.

There are people we'd call happy people and others we'd call sad people, but all of them are happy at times. Being happy in a moment, or laughing doesn't necessarily mean that the person is a happy person, does it?

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Getting the right meds would make me happy . . . .

Seriously, though. "Happy" is a chemical condition. I should know. It's just that it's one you can induce in yourself. The things I buy do continue to make me happy, because I buy primarily books and music and movies, and the experience is still there when it isn't new anymore. Or material, etc., for sewing projects.

Seeing my daughter makes me happy, rare though it is. Seeing my boyfriend again would really make me happy--it'd mean he wasn't in a warzone anymore. Talking to friends makes me happy. Reading interesting books or watching good movies--or even bad ones, for a given definition of bad--makes me happy. Listening to music, or performing music, makes me happy. My cat sometimes makes me happy, when he isn't being wicked and climbing over Auntie Gwen's altar (he can't get to mine) or on kitchen counters.

Importantly to the "stuff" end of things, being physically comfortable and well-fed makes me happy. I wouldn't be happy in a situation in which I couldn't take long, hot baths when I wanted to. I wouldn't be happy if I couldn't eat proper food regularly. Ergo, I wouldn't be happy in the average Third World country.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Sunlight, warmth, water. Birdies chirping, wind in the trees, the smells of nature.

Call it mushy; getting back in touch with nature revives me. The more I'm able to do it, the more my life is happy.

I don't disagree that the "stuff" is nice and can bring pleasure. The key is to look at why you accumulate stuff. I've got several hobbies and there's pleasure in buying or collecting stuff related to them.

So if collecting things is enjoyable, then fine. Go ahead

But if you find you're buying things but are still unhappy, maybe buying more things won't make you happier.

Despite being an atheist, I can still agree with one of the biblical quotes: "Love of money is the root of all evil". [Note: "Love of money", not money itself.]

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Spike
:)