What Makes You Happy? Please tell me your pleasure
- What is happiness?
What is happiness?
You feel happy in your brain, especially in the parts which are called the
"limbic system cerebrum" and the "cerebral cortex".
Your emotions and desires arise in the limbic system cerebrum,
and controlled in cerebral cortex.(All graphs are original)
How do our brain works? Emotion, which is created by the brain function as a stimulus, goes through such things as the autonomic nerve system and the endocrine gland, and influence works of your body. On the contrary, the functions of your body can give stimulus to your brain through these networks, which will become your emotions. Thanks to this function, you feel happy when you are satisfied.
Types of desires
When your desires are satisfied, you feel happy.
These desires can be categorized as follows:
1.Physiological needs
These are the most basic desires that are related to
life support and reproduction.
e.g. eating and drinking, wearing, sleeping, and breathing
2 Esteem needs
It helps you to stay as an independent individual.
e.g. wanting to be independent, be loved, know something, or be accepted
3 Love and belongingness needs
These are necessary to live in a society.
e.g. wanting to do same things as the others, be praised,
make a good impression
Hierarchy of needs
Maslow, who was a psychologist in America, proposed the famous theory
related to the priority of our needs, "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs".
His theory demonstrates that there are six kinds of desires,
which are
Biological and Physiological needs,
Safety-security needs, Love and belongingness needs,
esteem needs, self-actualization needs, and transcendence needs.
1. Biological and Physiological needs
- air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep.
2. Safety needs
- protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, freedom from fear.
3. Love and belongingness needs
- friendship, intimacy, trust and acceptance, receiving
and giving affection and love.
Affiliating, being part of a group (family, friends, work)
4. Esteem needs
- achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance,
prestige, self-respect, respect from others.
5. Self-Actualization needs
- realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
6.Transcendence needs
- helping others to achieve self actualization. (Simply Psychology)
Researches on happiness
Do you know that there are researchers who actually study about happiness,
like Dr. Takasi Maeno at Keio Graduate SchoolThey research into
the way how we find happiness. According to it, there are three key points.
1.Dealing with others makes you happy
A lot of experts assert that people who are happy are more likely to be connected with the society than people who are not. They also have reliable family and friends.
It makes you relaxed and feel warm when you think about your loved ones.
c.f. researches that give the reasons are in the book named "Shiawase ni tsuite oshieteokitai itsutsu no koto"(5 things I want tell you about happiness)
2 Wealthiness doesn't always mean happiness
No matter how much money you have, you can't measure happiness just by it.
There are two opinions which experts are saying about money and happiness.
Some researchers say that happiness is completely unrelated to money, while others say that to be happy,
we need some money, but it isn't the most important thing. However, all of them claim that money isn't equal happiness.
We particularly agree with the second opinion because as long as considering what we have experienced through our lives,
we feel that we need money to live at least in Japan. But it is true that opinion varies from person to person.
For example, a person who live a self-sufficient life may agree with the former view. What do you think about the relation between happiness and money?
3.Negative emotions are also needed
It is said that we need some negative emotions to understand what true happiness is.
It is because that a happy person is considered as a person who know that he or she sometimes feels negative but is still satisfied with his or her life.
Of course, it's not good that negative emotions account for most of your feelings,
but you don't need to blame yourself for having them. Negative emotions are to our lives what spices are to good dishes.
Thanks to these emotions, you feel even happier when you are happy.
connection
