Happiness is not what it used to be. It real sense, happiness is a modern faith, as is the expectation that it’s in our power to achieve.
The concept of happiness gained currency in the 18th century, when Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that the pursuit of happiness is among the rights endowed by God.
The evolution of happiness is one topic in historian Yuval Noah Harari’s engrossing book, “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.”
In this book he write,”If we measure happiness by objective conditions such as wealth, then as a species we have never been happier. But on the other hand our vlog subjective well-being is not determined by external parameters, rather it is determined by a complex system of nerves, neurons, synapses, and various biochemical substances in our brains such as serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin.”
By that reckoning, medieval peasants, lacking air travel and smartphones and granite counter tops, were just as happy as we are, if not more so. Happyho also provide best tarot reading services in Noida and Delhi NCR India area.
Harari further argues that the agricultural revolution, long considered an extraordinary life-improving advancement, is instead “history’s biggest fraud”. Because it made humans less fulfilled and less healthy, and if anything merely signalled the evolutionary dominance of a previously nondescript wild grass i.e. wheat.
Happiness remains as elusive as ever because good feelings never last long. The brain is simply not built for exhilaration. When we get what we desire we don’t seem to be any happier. It does not change our biochemistry.
While this is modern analysis rooted in science, philosophers have long opined on the value in finding happiness not in temporary pleasure but deeper notions of a good life.
Friedrich Nietzsche said that if you have the why in your life, you can bear any how.
And yet happiness of the fleeting variety remains the rage in our culture — take a trip, buy a coat, have sex, have better sex, get a raise — even though chasing it can be an infinite and ultimately frustrating pursuit.
This is why the modern age science of happiness explains that Joy is deeper and more long-lasting emotion. It is based more on inner certainties, not external events.
one of the reasons why focusing excessively on being happy can paradoxically make us less so.
