Photo by Hamed Masoumi

According to research by economists and psychologists, the level of happiness in the population has not changed in almost a century.  In spite of advances in medicine and technology, we are not happier than our ancestors.  Characteristics such as age, gender, income level, and health, do not account for a lot of the variance in happiness between people.  This kind of evidence inevitably leads to the question of why this things that have seemingly improved our lives so much, have not really increased how happy we feel.  It’s important to note first that happiness in these studies was determined by the responses of the subjects themselves.

The first thought I have is that if all these improvements going on externally are not impacting our perceived happiness, then maybe the next step is to go inward.  People tend to rate their happiness based on how much they have externally, so they are in a constant state of wanting more.  I think it is this condition that has persisted over the century studied.  I’ve felt this desire in myself as well.  As soon as a desired improvement, the next step externally, is achieved, we immediately think of something else we have to have.  There are always going to be a million things we don’t have, and this is why this type of thinking will never lead us to feeling happier.  In fact, it is this greed itself that prevents the subjects in these studies from rating themselves the maximum level of “happiness”.  If we always think we have to have more, then even when asked if we are happy, we’ll think “well I could be happier.”  This is why income level was not a good predictor.  The billionaires and the unemployed all want more.

The second thought is that most people’s definition of happiness tends to coincide more with pleasure than contentment or peace.  True happiness either is or is not, there is no “happier”.  So if we are to seek this peace within ourselves, then it is not going to come in the form of a new phone or a more convenient washing machine.  We must go within and sort out the conflicts within ourselves if we want satisfaction.  But none of this can even begin to happen if we first don’t realize our blind rush for “more”.  It’s not going to happen if we don’t realize that we are seeking pleasure, not peace.