Each of us defines happiness differently. There those who define happiness as being in a loving family. Others define it as having good relationship with the people around you. But the question still remains, What exactly is happiness? Is a feeling? A state of mind? A level of accomplishment?
You probably still can't answer that and your definition if happiness may be different from that of your sister, your best friend, or even your mother, and there's a good reason why. Happiness is different for each person. It's an individual experience.
In the July 8, 2015 issue of Science and Tech section of New Statesman Gibraltar, Tosin Thompson tried to categorize it all out. He pointed out that the catalyst for happiness is very subjective and thus making it hard to measure objectively, but he gave it a try. The Oxford Dictionary defines happiness as "the feeling of being happy." I'm sorry Oxford Dictionary, but that's not the answer we were looking for.
Tosin said that according to a Wiley Online Library search, there are 50,522 results for the word "happiness" and 409,708 for the word "depression."
Delighting and significance are words that describe happiness in contemporary psychology. Dr. Martin Seligman, a positive psychologist, added a third element to the definition: engagement. The word refers to living a good life of work, hobbies and family friends.
Psychologists, utilizing these three components, have established a scientific term for happiness called "subjective well-being (SWB)." This is defined as a person's mental and emotional interpretation of his or her life.
These evaluations, according to a 2012 study on SWB, involve emotional responses to stimuli and mental judgments on what is satisfying and fulfilling. That makes SWB the blending together of feelings of fulfillment and life satisfaction.
In order to identify this across the real world, nearly 50 percent of our happiness is decided by our genes, 40 percent by our regular activities and the remaining 10 percent by our experiences. That means we have a 40 percent chance to make our own happiness.
