Happiness –How Does It Affect Mental Health?

Happiness has a personal meaning to everyone, so it can always mean something else. For some people happiness is health , for others being close to someone, and for you it can be a trip for your dream vacation. Another fact is that being happy promotes health, both physically and mentally. Of course, it is not about constantly ignoring uncomfortable feelings, but about enjoying the positive aspects of life, which greatly improves its quality and promotes longevity.

What is happiness?

In any culture, and all the time, people grapple with the questions of what is happiness and how to achieve it. They used to be mainly philosophers. Laozi, a semi-legendary Chinese philosopher, founder of Taoism, saw real happiness in idleness. He argued that when someone stops chasing happiness or other goals, he or she is really happy . For the Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, he led a virtuous way of life to happiness. In their eyes, the feeling of bliss was the goal to which all actions should be directed. Plato was convinced that only those who lived a righteous and holy life would be able to reach the “islands of the blessed” after their death.

Epicurus thought quite differently. For him, happiness was an experience of pleasure and no pain. This hedonistic way of thinking is still common and is often condemned as self-centered and reckless. Today, the search for happiness has gone beyond the mind of philosophers. Sociologists and psychologists want to find out where the happiest people live and when a person is happy .

What is happiness to a person?

It is a real challenge to define happiness in a general context. Why? Because it can mean something different to everyone. Happiness can be experienced in several ways. This could be, for example:

closeness with other people,
making your travel dreams come true,
using your creative potential, e.g. designing something creative,
finding yourself completely relaxed,
achieving sexual fulfillment,
enjoying work,
eating your favorite food,
playing sports.

The ability to feel positive feelings of happiness is genetically determined, among other things. But we are not the passive servants of our genes. There are also environmental conditions such as welfare and security, and personal development and personal experiences that shape a sense of happiness .

Research on happiness is becoming more and more of an interest in various scientific disciplines, including psychology. For example, positive psychology deals with pleasant feelings and personality strengths. However, people’s sense of happiness has not yet been as thoroughly scientifically researched as the issue of feeling negative emotions such as fear and anger.

The chemistry of well-being or happiness hormones

How lucky you feel depends a lot on your hormones, especially your so-called happiness hormones. Their action affects your well-being, mental and physical health. The human body produces six different happiness hormones. They are:

Serotonin – is involved in processes in the central nervous system and affects pain perception, sleep, sexual behavior and emotional state. Especially when the days get longer, brighter and most of all sunnier again in spring, serotonin takes control and gives vigor and motivation.
Dopamine – is the decisive messenger for happiness . Its job is to transmit feelings and sensations, control blood flow to internal organs, and transmit impulses to muscles. Combined with fresh air and exercise, it leads with serotonin and norepinephrine is a kind of well-being mix.
Norepinephrine – is found in the central nervous system and adrenal glands . It is released in stressful mental or physical situations. It controls the level of alertness, increases motivation and promotes mental performance.
Phenethylamine – is responsible for feelings of pleasure and happiness as well as for excitement and desire. For example, long endurance training releases this hormone and leaves athletes into an intoxicating feeling of happiness. But phenethylamine also contributes to the emotional rollercoaster of feelings, or “being in love.” It stimulates the typical symptoms of this condition such as “butterflies” like tingling in the stomach, palpitations and difficulty concentrating.
Endorphins – act as the body’s own personal painkiller and are released, for example, in the event of severe injury. They soothe the pain and make the body a kind of intoxication. They also regulate the feeling of hunger, mood and the production of sex hormones. Endorphins also release intense physical activity.
Oxytocin – known primarily to pregnant women as it affects the mother-to-mother relationship. kid. It helps to induce contractions during childbirth and to provide milk during breastfeeding. Other effects of this hormone, which are noticeable in both women and men, are the reduction of anxiety and stress, general well-being, and an increase in cognitive empathy and social competences.

Mental health and happiness

Your mental health affects your overall health more than you can imagine. When you are stressed, angry or sad, lonely and hopeless, your body and soul suffer as well. Be it in the form of digestive problems, headaches, backaches or many other psychological symptoms. Prolonged stress makes you feel unwell. You may feel a feeling of inner anxiety and neurosis develops over time. In turn, prolonged sadness and pain of existence can lead to a serious illness such as depression.

Happiness significantly affects your mental health, which in turn has a large impact on your daily life. As an individual, you can influence to some extent whether you are mentally healthy or not. In addition to your personal living conditions and genetic predisposition, your health is also influenced by social, cultural, economic and environmental factors. Most people want to improve their well-being and increase their sense of happiness on a daily basis but they often feel powerless and don’t know what to do to be happy.

No wonder … It’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that your problems are completely beyond your control or are caused by other people, that you have no influence on what is happening around you. By simply changing your own actions and establishing new habits, many things can start to improve. When you are happy and calm, your body feels better and you can react more effectively to difficult situations. And it is worth it, because as it turns out, happiness affects life expectancy. According to a study conducted at the University of London, elderly people who are happy and joyful on a daily basis have a 35% lower risk of death compared to people who are unhappy.

What makes you happy

Being happy is generally about being healthy, both physically and mentally. Research in the field of health psychology and positive psychology proves that happiness:

is associated with a lower risk of a heart attack and heart disease,
has a good effect on the cardiovascular system,
allows you to better cope with stress (it lowers the level of cortisol in the blood – the hormone stress),
increases immunity,
helps fight infections more effectively,
reduces pain sensation, especially in chronic diseases, e.g. arthritis,
improves concentration and creativity,
makes it easier to make better decisions,
increases productivity,
affects greater commitment to work,
changes attitudes towards others – happy people are nicer, more polite and helpful.

In addition, a healthy lifestyle is directly related to happiness. Happy people are more likely to benefit from implementing healthy habits in their everyday lives. They follow a healthy diet, exercise, sleep better, are more relaxed, and are less prone to using stimulants such as cigarettes or alcohol. Overall, feeling happy generally has a positive effect on mental and physical well-being. Happy people tend to feel healthier in all respects, experience less pain and release less stress hormones in stressful situations.

What makes people happy

Having friends and associating with loved ones makes you happy and even leads to a longer, healthier life. That’s why love and the feeling of falling in love make you feel so happy . Lonely people are under greater stress because they are forced to cope with all life difficulties on their own. Stress hormones like cortisol can suppress the immune system and promote the development of various diseases. A cup of tea combined with a pleasant conversation with a friend, cooking together with a partner, etc. – any form of conscious pleasure and relaxing meeting has a positive effect on the feeling of happiness and ensures relaxation, and thus the reduction of stress hormones. According to research, happiness also comes from sport, which also allows you to de-stress. Particularly beneficial is the pair dance, in which movement releases endorphins and body contact releases oxytocin.

There are, however, other factors that are important to individual satisfaction and happiness. These days, aspects such as experiencing domestic violence, alcoholism, depression and anxiety are at least as important as love or money. In the case of adolescents, the growing sense of alienation among peers and fear of exams also determine happiness and satisfaction. Of course, there are many other reasons for an individual feeling happy or unhappy, so it is difficult to say exactly what makes everyone happy.

Key happiness factors

While it is difficult to ascertain what makes one person happy as much as another, the key factors of happiness can be identified especially those in a psychological context. These include:

Self-acceptance: it’s about recognizing and accepting all aspects of yourself, good and bad. It is awareness of your strengths and weaknesses and an attempt to realistically assess your own skills and talents. It’s a daily job that is about loving yourself despite your mistakes and imperfections.
Autonomy: is being independent in your way of thinking and trusting your opinions despite social pressure. It indicates that you are able to make your own choices and are not influenced by the opinion of others.
Responsibility : it means that you are able to take advantage of emerging opportunities to meet your personal needs. You can manage external factors and situations that arise in your daily life. You just feel you are in control of your life.
Personal development: is a conscious effort that you put in to constantly improve. You do it through new experiences and constant striving to become a better version of yourself.
Positive relationships with others: friends, family, acquaintances – to being happy , it is important to have meaningful relationships with others. They must have mutual empathy, positive feelings and different levels of intimacy.
Purpose in life: Finding meaning in life is about pursuing goals that are very You care about creating meaning and giving value to different things and situations in your life. Some people find their purpose in life through meaningful work, others in their way of being, and still others in interpersonal relationships. The important thing is that they look for it and find it.

Besides happiness, what affects mental health?

There are many factors that affect mental health, both positively and negatively, and are related to happiness. Assessing these influences, or what they mean to you, often determines how you feel.

These factors include:

loving and being loved,
self-confidence,
feeling safe,
meaning in life,
feeling freedom,
social competences,
working conditions,
dealing with problems and problem situations,
perception of one’s own physical and mental needs and to satisfy them,
to be aware of your own feelings and express them,
to take responsibility for your own actions, thoughts and visions,
to distinguish fantasy and dream world from reality.

If any of these aspects lack harmony and balance, you may experience psychological discomfort. Then in understanding yourself and finding happiness in yourself or in other parts of life, a psychologist may be able to help. Meetings with a specialist often allow you to see certain things from a different perspective and discover what has so far remained unnoticeable.

Can you learn happiness?

That is the question … If you want to “learn” happiness , you first need to be optimistic about life . That doesn’t mean you have to deny reality and when a problem arises, ignore it, pretend it doesn’t exist. Optimists also experience crises, blows of fate or have to deal with difficult situations. But they approach it with a positive attitude, so even when unpleasant things happen to them, they don’t lose sight of the positives.

Learning to think positively doesn’t work at the push of a magic button. For example, when you start learning a new language, you do not expect to be fluent in it after your first lessons and to be able to speak fluently with a foreigner. You slowly learn vocabulary, practice grammar, and start by creating simple sentences and writing short texts. It works similarly with positive thinking. You can practice them slowly in your daily life. All you have to do is verify your expectations first. Do you always look for the critical sides of a situation first, develop horror-style scenarios, or do you try to see the positives? All the little measures that help you redirect your thinking from black to color give new, positive impulses.

Finally, remember that too high expectations of yourself and others, and a tendency to perfectionism kill the joy of life and the feeling of happiness. Learn to see the little things, create a healthy work-life balance. The tendency to generalize and think “black and white” also favors a pessimistic attitude. Instead of wondering why the glass is half empty, see that it is half full – and that’s a lot!