How are you feeling today? Our emotions can vary considerably1 depending on many factors, including our health, wealth, relationships and where we live. But sometimes we need to take a step back and think about what happiness really means and how we can find it.
Maybe we should take a leaf out of Finlands book last year the UNs World Happiness Report found the country to be the happiest place on Earth. The report looked at subjective2 well-being3. Thats how happy people feel they are and why - based on factors such as, economic strength, social support, life expectancy4, freedom of choice, generosity5, and perceived corruption6.
This is just one way of measuring happiness. Research has also suggested that while personal feelings of pleasure are the accepted definition of happiness in Western cultures, East Asian cultures tend to see happiness as social harmony, and in some parts of Africa and India its more about shared experiences and family.
Author and journalist Helen Russell has been looking at the positive characteristics of a countrys population to see what makes them happy and found Japan to be one of the most content. She told the BBC that this was due to their concept of wabi-sabi this traditional Japanese concept around celebrating imperfection its this idea that there is a beauty in ageing, its to be celebrated7 rather than trying to disguise it. So, basically, we should be happy with who we are and rejoice in our faults and inpiduality. Thats something to put a smile on our faces!
But if youre feeling down in the dumps because your home country doesnt have a happiness concept to follow, consider some self-help ideas that the BBC programme Hacking8 Happiness has been looking into. These include being virtuous9, finding something to be passionate10 about, enjoying the here and now and being altruistic11 helping12 others.
However, our pursuit of happiness could make us miserable13 as we try to meet societys expectations and goals, making us anxious and stressed. Also, having too little experience of negative emotions can make us less adept14 at facing new challenges.
