Are you happy right now? The question seems simple enough.

But if you really take the time to assess your happiness level, you may find yourself feeling out of balance and wondering how exactly to fix it.

In this article you will learn saving tips that will help you be happy. Because you deserve more joy in your life!

Table Of Contents

What is called being happy?

When are you happy?

Why is being happy so important?

How can I live a happier life?

What is called being happy?

Let’s take a quick look at the definition of happiness so we’re on the same page.

De Van Dale defines happiness as follows: ‘a pleasant feeling of someone who is happy’.

If you can go to your best friend’s exclusive birthday party, then you can indeed look forward to it and that makes you feel happy.

Okay, I agree with this definition, but it’s not really what we’re looking for, right…

Maybe we should dive a little deeper.

Let’s look up the word ‘happy’.

Happy is described as ‘enjoying = being satisfied’ and the example given is: she felt happy.

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That’s better! So, happiness is the state of feeling contentment.

When are you happy?

Everyone strives for a happy life. That is inherent to being human.

One of the greatest philosophers of all time, Aristotle, asked this question as early as the 4th ^century BC.

According to this ‘old’ professor of philosophy, happiness meant the highest of all the good things that we can achieve through our actions.

According to Aristotle, happiness is an attainable goal and a fulfillable desire.

Easy to say for someone who lived in a century where everything was much calmer.

I can already hear you thinking: he probably didn’t live such a hectic life as today’s people.

You’re right!

The workload was probably lower at that time. Although people then also had to earn their living, life was probably less hectic. And perhaps social status was just as important, but there weren’t many things to ‘prove’ your social status. And there were no social media channels on which others like to show that they are ‘happy’.

Yet this Greek philosopher had a very realistic and contemporary view of ‘being happy’.

He claimed that if man fails to achieve certain goals, this means that man is mistaken about what happiness means. According to Aristotle, happiness means much more than mere pleasure, it is a state of contentment.

By the way, I mentioned this earlier in the Van Dale definition: being happy means a general feeling of satisfaction.

But how do you achieve this satisfaction and what should we achieve if necessary?

Should you strive for whatever makes you feel satisfied?

A closet from a villa? A nice job? A satisfying relationship? A nice car in front of your door?

Does self-actualization mean that you have it all together in life?

That you have achieved everything you ever dreamed of? A nice family, a large circle of friends, social prestige, etc.?

If this is your idea of ​​satisfaction and self-actualization then you will keep running around trying to achieve these goals. The result of this is a lot of stress. The greater the fear that you will not be able to achieve happiness and that you will lose it at some point.

In the long run, this really won’t make you happy.

Maybe we should try to rephrase ‘being happy’.

Subjective well-being

Psychologists and social scientists today often use the term “subjective well-being” instead of happiness.

Because feeling happy is indeed the most subjective feeling you can experience.

What makes you happy might be terrible for someone else, just like when someone else claims to be happy, you might think: Is this what happiness means to you?

Subjective well-being focuses on an individual’s personal feelings about their life in the present.

Two important components of subjective well-being are:

#1: The balance of emotions

Everyone experiences both positive and negative emotions, feelings and moods.

Happy people also feel a whole range of human emotions from time to time: anger, frustration, boredom, loneliness and even sadness.

But even when faced with these feelings, they have an underlying sense of optimism that things will get better.

They can deal better with what is happening because they experience inner peace.

#2: Life satisfaction

This refers to how satisfied you feel with your life situation, in other words the different situations that occur in your life including relationships, work, achievements, and other things that you find important.

No one feels happy all the time. Things come our way that we have no control over and these can affect our sense of happiness.

Through life you are constantly torn between feeling happy and not feeling happy or feeling less happy. You want to do fun things to feel happiness.

But beyond these feelings lies something deeper: inner peace. Once you feel this inner peace, ‘being happy’ is no longer far away.

Why is being happy so important?

You may have never thought about this before, but being happy is not just a nice feeling. It also has many other benefits.

Benefit 1: you live healthier

A  study  of 7,000 adults aged 45 to 72 found that happy people eat more fruit and vegetables than people who don’t feel happy.

Fruit and vegetables are ‘purveyors’ of vitamins and minerals. These help you to live a healthy life. A very important aspect if you want to protect yourself against the numerous  consequences of stress .

The same study also showed that people with positive subjective well-being were 33% more active.

Regular exercise is also good in your fight against stress. It ensures that the stress hormones that have accumulated in your body under the influence of chronic stress decrease.

Other research involving 700 adults showed that happy people sleep better.

You probably recognize it: after a busy day you feel so exhausted that you hopelessly long for your bed. Unfortunately… you toss and turn for hours and despite your fatigue you can’t fall asleep. Not being able to sleep due to stress causes you even more misery, which only increases your stress level.

Benefit 2: you experience less stress

Stress increases cortisol levels in your body. That in itself is not so bad because in dangerous situations cortisol makes you more alert.

However, it becomes a problem if your cortisol levels remain high under the influence of chronic stress. Then you can get all kinds of complaints. From poor sleep to skin conditions to high blood pressure and even muscular rheumatism .

A number of studies have shown that in happy people these cortisol levels in the body are lower. For example, a study of 200 adults who had to perform certain tasks showed that the cortisol levels of happy people were 32% lower than those of participants who indicated that they were unhappy.

Benefit 3: you live longer

And they lived happily ever after… probably the most used sentence at the end of beautiful fairy tales.

Various studies show that being happy indeed extends your life expectancy.

A 2015 long-term  study examined the effect of happiness on survival rates in 32,000 people. In total, this study spanned 30 years and showed that the risk of death was 14% higher in people who claim to be unhappy.

So let’s all live a happier life!

Easier said than done, right?

I can well imagine that when you are constantly under stress and when fears determine your life, you wonder how on earth you can be happy.

Because where do you find happiness and how can you maintain that blissful feeling? You’ve probably wondered it countless times.

How can I live a happier life?

Unfortunately, I cannot give you a ready-made answer to this. Because as mentioned earlier, being happy is a very subjective feeling. Let’s try it anyway!

Tip 1: Give up your search for happiness

Your life has been dominated by stress for years and that makes you unhappy. You dream of being happier and going through life without fears.

You are constantly looking for happiness.

My advice: stop this search right now!

You probably don’t understand what I’m talking about and why I’m recommending this to you.

So let me quickly clarify this.

Your search for happiness is precisely what keeps you from finding happiness. Because seeking implies that you are not living in the present moment. In other words, you are looking for a future state.

You imagine that at some point you will be happy. It is therefore not surprising that this causes worries and that you do not feel happy about it.

If you are constantly wondering how to be happy in the future, how can you experience this state in the present moment?

Give up your search for happiness and pay more attention to the present moment. And don’t look for happiness in this present moment either. Don’t look for anything… Be aware of the ‘now’ and make sure you become ‘friends’ with it.

You appreciate real friends too, don’t you? Well, if you start to regard the ‘now’ as your best friend, you will appreciate the ‘now’ more and your life will unfold differently. Instead of noticing the big things that could make you happy, you start noticing the little things.

Accept these little things you find in the ‘now’ and one day you may discover that listening to the rustling of the trees makes you happy. Or staring at white clouds floating by on a sunny day.

If you take this a step further, you will consciously feel the vibrancy in your body, which will make you more powerful in life.

If unpleasant situations come your way – and there undoubtedly will be – you can take action from your inner strength to change the situation or to free yourself from this situation.

If this is not possible – which may very well be – then that inner strength still gives you the opportunity to accept the situation instead of feeling even more unhappy.

Tip 2: accept situations and yourself

Acceptance is a very powerful tool for happiness. Because the better you learn to accept, the more depth you will notice within yourself.

It is not only important to accept situations as they come your way, but also to accept yourself as you are.

No one is perfect, yet we often expect ourselves to be.

How you think about yourself has a major influence on how resilient and happy you are.

Accepting that you – like all other people – have strengths but also imperfections, that you indeed sometimes make mistakes and fail is an important part of your subjective well-being.

This doesn’t mean you won’t feel bad when you make a mistake, but you won’t worry about it as much. This makes you better able to grow deep within yourself and to go further.

The better you are able to understand and accept yourself, to be ‘real’ instead of ‘perfect’, the stronger the foundation is for a happy life.

I would like to end this article with a poem by another Dutch ‘happiness philosopher’, Toon Hermans.

Happiness is not a cathedral,

perhaps a small chapel.

No fair loud and colossal,

maybe a carousel.

Happiness is not a summer of spotless blue,

but now and then some sunshine.

Lucky that’s not a zeppelin

At most it is a balloon.