The Science of Happy

A la descartes, I am turning this blog into an analysis of things . Apologies for that. Bear with me for now. I shall change gears soon.

Anyways, the topic I want to discuss is happiness. What is happiness ?. It is an emotion right ?. Well, fundamentally you could break down human emotions into two sets - happy and sad. The rest are just the variations of these two basic emotions in different ways, say greed, envy, love, hate and so on.

The first question that one can raise is - why do humans need to be happy ?. Why does everyone want to be in that state? Why not be sad all the time ? What is it about this emotion that makes it the "preferred emotion " ?

Analyzing a bit more - Happiness and the positive emotions are a state where your mind says "this is the way things should be ". So this would mean that happiness is a state where you would not like to change anything. Everything is just as it should be. Again, Sadness and the other negative emotions is where you want something to change.

Doesn't this reflect the laws of nature ? Din't Newton say "Every body shall continue to be in its state, unless an external force is applied "- the famous law of inertia ?

So could we say that it is by this law of inertia that Humans want to be in a state where they dont want to change anything ? That is the exact reason you would like to be with people about whom you wouldnt want to change anything ( or as few a number/quantity of change of things), or you like to eat food to which you just dont want to add any more ingredients. Its just perfect. Its just following its natural inertia.

On the other hand if you think that your food needs some more salt, or your bank account needs more money - well things need to be changed. That is where the inertia is broken and we are in the realm of the negative emotions.

But then there is no perfect inertia in the real world. There are always some forces right? There is friction, there is gravity and electromagnetism and what not.

In the same way - there can be no perfect happy state. There are always forces that keep changing things. Not only the changes in our lives but changes in our likes, our ideals, the way we want things to be. This is the reason people cannot remain in a "happy" state for long.

But what if you start liking change - irrespective of what the change may be ?. What if you say "Isnt it great that I am losing my job - now i get a chance to look for a new one ! ". Wouldnt such an attitude make you perpetually happy ? .

[ It is a another argument that if this were the case, then humans would still have been happy to live in trees and would never have invented anything !! ]

Well, then "to be happy" would be to say "Well there is change - I know it exists. Let me deal with it the best I can". Would that guarantee perpetual happiness ?

How can I find perpetual happiness ? How can I solve this mystery ? How can I solve the biggest problem that billions of people grapple with, the biggest problem that plagues humanity ? How can I ?

Thats Ok ! , I dont want to solve any more problems or change anything in the world - I am perfectly happy with just the way things are right now . Problem Solved ! :)