DIFFERENT ASPECTS THAT CONSTITUTES HAPPINESS

This is a sequel to my earlier article on positive psychology. Here I would like to elaborate upon the three aspects, pleasure, engagement and meaning which constitute lasting happiness. This was stated by Martin Seligman the American psychologist , I would sequentially be starting with pleasure, thru engagement and ultimately to meaning. Pleasure has an emotional aspect attached to it, a thought of a sense of feel-good linked to the positive emotion. Pleasure can be further categorized into  passive pleasure, and active pleasure.

Passive pleasure is one that a person enjoys without participating in the source that brings the pleasure. These are like sitting and watching the television, or cinema, enjoying good food or music or reading a good book or any other means of gratification of one's needs. In this form of pleasure, there is very little or no application of mental faculties, but the person only derives a sense of feel-good which is purely temporary from very short period like enjoying good food, to maybe a few hours like watching television or cinema or listening to music. On the other hand, active pleasure is one in which the person mentally participates in the act of doing it which is the source. Ṭhis could be like playing a musical instrument, writing book, directing a play or cinema or preparation of different cuisines etc. In each of these activities, the person enjoys it by participating in it’s creation . And this may even have a close implication in the person’s  vocation itself too , or purely active pleasure without making any earning out of it.

Engagement is the next level source that brings a greater degree and longer lasting happiness as compared to pleasure .

When a person loves to do what he is doing because he is able to deploy his mental faculties to the best of his abilities and strength , this gives the person a higher degree of happiness than pleasure alone because in this activity his inherent strengths get further reinforced . And so  brings to him a sense of personal achievement thereby elevating his level of esteem and can also lead to advancement in his career.

Thus pleasure plus engagement brings greater happiness than only pleasure. This also has a limitation and after a certain length of time when he has had high level of achievement with the use of his strongest abilities and there is nothing else beyond that for him at that stage . Till now, his all happiness has been related to himself i.e. personal goals ; his loved ones  or people closely related to his loved ones and up to the level of his social circle at the most.

Adding meaning is that last milestone which brings the long-lasting happiness which a person may cherish for. Because, when a person is looking for meaning in life he voluntarily looks for everything which is beyond his self , as he thinks that working for good of  the society or humanity at large is much higher and hence a  noble purpose in life . This stage is also called the " SELF ACTUALISATION " as stated by Abraham Maslow in his " Hierarchy of Needs " which is the highest among the different stages of human needs .As per him, very few people reach up to this stage. And this is the highest level in man's quest for needs that he can contemplate in life.

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Humanity has a choice to make. It is either materialistic affluence through economic prosperity ignoring the human needs and well being of the people. But such a course is more likely to lead to increased selfishness and alienation of the deprived from the affluent which would eventually plunge the society into chaos and despair. The other side is a balanced society with equal benefits, opportunities and overall well being of humanity. For achieving such a state, social and behavioral science can play an enormously important role towards the articulation of a good life for one and all irrespective of the religious, ethnic or cultural diversities. And this where the most crucial role of psychology becomes an essential requirement.

Psychology is a subject that conventionally has been dealing with mental illness with almost exclusive attention to pathology with a disease model of human functioning. The latter half of the 20^th century has seen the advent of the other side dealing with a fulfilled individual aiming at the positive side of the human psyche with a focus on human strength and virtue. Psychology per se is based on the subjective experience of individuals. On focusing on the positive side which is the topic of this article includes experience like well being, contentment and satisfaction  ( in the past ), hope and optimism ( for the future )  and happiness  & flow ( in the present ). These are the general aspects from the past, through the present to the future. At the individual level, the positive traits are capacity of love  & vocation, courage, interpersonal skills, aesthetic sensibilities, perseverance, forgiveness, future mindedness, compassion, empathy, spirituality, and wisdom. And at the group level, it would be about civic virtues and institutions that move the individual toward better citizenship, responsibility, nurturance, mentoring, altruism, tolerance and work ethic.

The two pioneers in this field of positive psychology have been   Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of the USA. Both these psychologists have a personal narrative based on their close observation of human beings that has directed them towards this stream.  Martin Seligman  ( Prof of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania ) during his interaction with his daughter and her responses realized that raising children is vastly more than fixing what is wrong with them. It is about identifying and nurturing their strongest qualities and reinforcing them with what they are best at, so that they can best live out these strengths. This concept he developed and applied in general to all spectrum of the individual so that a person could lead a happy and purposeful life. Now, as per Seligman, three aspects lead to such a life as given in the below equation.

HAPPINESS   =  PLEASURE + ENGAGEMENT + MEANING .

 In the below video presentation he has elaborated upon  each of these three aspects in detail as to how these factors can ultimately lead to a life with lasting happiness.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi the Italian born American psychologist realized the need for positive psychology in Europe during World War II. He observed that the majority of the affected people were mentally embittered with shattered dreams & aspirations struggling to sustain themselves. Amid this gloom and despair without jobs, money or status they were reduced to empty shells. Yet there were a few who kept their integrity and purpose of life despite the surrounding chaos. Their serenity acted as a beacon that kept others from sinking into gloom and losing hope. And incidentally, these were not the most respected, educated or more skilled individuals. This is what set him to thinking as to what was the source of strength these people were drawing on. His video presentation below has elaborated on his concept of   "FLOW" as a major parameter that could act as the trigger to drive an individual. What it means to be in the “ FLOW ” is living in the present i.e . in the  “ HERE and NOW”  both physically and mentally without hangs ups of the past painful events or thinking of  an uncertain future. Because the present is the most powerful on which  an individual needs to concentrate his focus for achieving anything meaningful. And this can act as the driving spirit to sustain him under all circumstances.

 This he has elaborated in the below video presentation.

  And lastly much of the task in  present century will be to evolve science of human strength with a mission to understand and learn to foster these virtues in young people 

PERCEPTION AND BELIEF

Perception is a sensation of the mind that normally comes from fundamentally either of the two sources. These are from the external physical world or inner self. Irrespective of the source, emotion is an aspect that is invariably attached to perception.  This is attached on one hand to the outcome of an event or observation that is stimulated by one of the above-stated sources. And on the other hand, it is attached to a sense organ from where the stimulus originates. Hence, a sense organ is attached to the mind which generates the perception. This human mental faculty of perception is a very subjective parameter as such, but it acts as a major factor that governs the mood or mental state of that person. The external manifestation of the perception could be either a sensation of pleasure and happiness or that of pain and sorrow. For a similar event, different persons would have a different degree of perception based on the person’s assessment and the relation of that event as to how and to what extent it affects him. The person reacts to that external or internal event that directly affects him physically or mentally.

Human perception of the external world does not directly affect him physically. He observes nature to study it for himself for finding his relationship with nature. But human perception based on his observation of the physical world is erroneous. Simple daily life experience will prove this fact. Everybody knows that science has objectively proved that earth is round (bulged at the equator and slightly flattened at the poles ), but in daily life observation, we human beings always perceive it as flat surface since physically what we see with our naked eyes, it is flat. The matter does not end here. The erroneous human perception of the external world has been irrevocably proved by the advent of modern science from the beginning of the 20^th century. The pathbreaking of all the scientific discoveries have been  Einstein’s Relativity Theory and the Quantum Theory put forth in the pioneering works by Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrodinger in particular. In these discoveries, there has been a paradigm-shifting concept by moving from Newtonian classical mechanistic physical world view to quantum mechanical view. This has revolutionized modern science and evolved a new subject called quantum mechanics.  Also what we perceive of the external world is at most a tiny sliver of the reality of nature. We know the visible spectrum is only a small band of the entire spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. Well, returning to the subject of human perception we now shift our focus to another aspect of mental faculty that is associated with perception and that is belief. Perception is the precursor to belief. As stated above perception first develops from some external or internal source and this culminates into belief. But "Belief should be based on reason and supported by argument " this was said by one of the greatest philosophers of the 20^th century Bertrand Russell. And the above stated pathbreaking shift to modern physics that has taken place has happened, is rigorously verified in the way Russell has stated. In every sphere of human activity belief is an aspect that plays a major role that precedes a decision that the person takes. Belief, whether it is positive or negative, comes from the perception that a person develops with a particular end-objective in mind. However, in the present context, we would refer only positive beliefs because it is only such beliefs that trigger a healthy emotion which is necessary for a happy and healthy life. Outside the domain of science, belief moulds the values of a person that he maintains. And these help him to hold on to his moorings or the mental foundation i.e. the psyche, in the event of an adverse external circumstance. It is in such a situation that the strength in his belief helps him to sustain physically and mentally. And for such a person this meaningful belief which he beholds reflects the strength of his character. But there is also another side of belief which is not based on reason and supported by argument as advocated by Bertrand Russell and that is religion. This aspect of human activity is based on faith that a person develops following the convention and tradition of his community. And lastly, there is also another facet of belief which a rational person develops about his self which is based on self-assessment of his capabilities and limitations. Thus we see that there is no major aspect of human activity or assessment whether it is science or religion or tradition or human potential, where a human being doesn’t take recourse to belief.

NEEDS OF MAN

The needs of man spring from the motivation to attain it for meeting his specific requirements such as physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs and lastly self-actualization. The theory of motivation was first put forth by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow. He formulated the needs-based framework on human motivation from his clinical experiences with the people. He put forth in his book “ Motivation and Personality” in 1954 the elaborated form of his motivational theory which is popularly known as the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

1)   Physiological needs 

These needs include the following which are the most fundamental necessity for sustaining life.

• Air 
• Water.
• Food.
• Sleep.

Fundamental needs are the first needs the man seeks to satisfy.And only then he is motivated to go for and recognizes higher needs like social or esteem needs.

2)Safety needs This is the need that man is motivated to seek which is directed to safety and security to feel free from physical and emotional threats. Such needs could be fulfilled by the following.

• Living in a safe area in a house.
• Job security.
• Financial reserves.
• Medical insurance.

 According to the Maslow’s hierarchy, if a person feels threatened physically then the other needs above the hierarchy will not be recognized by him .

3)   Social needs 

These include love and belonging needs. Once the lower-level ones like the physiological and safety needs are met , man is awakened to the next higher level which is the social need.This is the first category among  higher-level needs. Social needs are those which are related to  relationship with others and includes the following.

• Friendship.
• Belonging to a group.
• Giving and receiving love.

4)   Esteem needs 

   A person feels that he “ Belongs “, then the urge to attain a degree of               importance  emerges. Esteem needs can be categorized as external motivators and internal motivators.

• Internal Motivational factors that  include the esteem needs  such as self-esteem, accomplishments and self-respect.

• External motivational factors include those of reputation and recognition.
• 
  
• Examples of esteem needs include th following 

      A) Recognition (external motivator )

      B) Attention (external motivator ) 

      C) Social status (external motivator ) 

      D) Accomplishment (internal motivator ) 

      E) Self respect (internal motivator ) 

5)  Self Actualization 

Self-actualization is at the topmost level of Maslow’s hierarchy pyramid and thus is the summit of the motivation theory.It is about the quest for reaching one’s full potential as a person.Unlike the other down the level needs, this need is never satisfied because,  as a person grows psychologically he discovers new opportunities for continuing to grow. Self-actualized persons are more inclined to have motivation for the following .

• Truth 
• Justice 
• Wisdom 
• Meaning.

Self-actualized persons have time to time peak experiences which are energized moments of profound happiness and harmony. According to Maslow only a very small percentage of the population reaches the level of self-actualization .

IMAGINATION AND KNOWLEDGE

Human beings are the highest form of living creature on earth. Mental attributes like memory, intelligence, emotion, perceptions and social behaviour, similar to human beings have also been observed in many animals. Also the physiological needs of animals are similar to that of human beings. But in respect to human beings there is a big difference and that is  their ability to imagine and mentally create visual imagery of what he is imagining. Mentally they can go back or ahead of their time. This unique ability of man to imagine, categorises the human beings as the most highly evolved creatures on earth. It is with this ability man is able to penetrate into the depth of nature in the physical world and also to the depths of their inner self for self-exploration which is the spiritual self. With this phenomenal ability, he has been able to discover phenomenon in the distant galaxies to elucidating the structure of our genetic material DNA. The former being the macro cosmos and the latter being the microcosmos which constitutes the ultimate elements of life.In this process he is thus attempting to find a relation and place of man with respect to the universe. These all are with the fundamental intent of trying to find the origin of the universe at the macrocosmic level and origin of life at the microcosmos level.  In all these and the continuing contribution, man has reflected his enormous capability through his power of imagining things that are beyond the visible physical world. However, this mental faculty of man is not only applicable to scientists but also to writers, poets, artists, performing artists and fine arts too. Though their imagination faculty does not add anything to the material physical world , they enormously enrich the social, cultural, moral and spiritual traditions which are equally important for enhancing the human values that are essential aspects for sustenance of a civilized society.

And that is why one of the greatest genius of all time  Albert Einstein had very rightly said “ IMAGINATION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN KNOWLEDGE ”. On a little introspection anybody can understand the import of these words. What he has meant by these words is that thru imagination one gains access to knowledge. As the basis of everything that has been discovered and those yet to be discovered, what all has been created or yet to be created, everything springs from this human ability to imagine. Thus knowledge whether pertains to the physical world or that of the non-physical i.e. subtle world, everything comes from imagination. And that is the reason why people need to cultivate this habit of imaging things beyond the existing available information on any particular stream of human activity. This only can lead to creativity in any stream of human endeavour.

HOW GROWTH IS RELATED TO LEARNING .

It is learning which can lead to growth and personal development. But as we all know learning implies change which may come from a pleasant or unpleasant situation. The nature of change accordingly generates a favourable or unfavourable response in the person. A favourable change always generates a positive mental response and the person adapts to it spontaneously. But in an unfavourable or crisis situation mind always generates an unfavourable response due to which he is not able to develop adaptability easily. A considerable mental effort has to be put in before it can happen and that does take time. In the case of a  mentally resilient person, the conditioning to this unpleasant situation happens easily due to his proactive approach and so without much inner resistance.

 Now looking at the other side of it, after having faced the difficult situation he finds that it has brought forth a sense of personal growth by the enhancement of his mental strength to face future adverse situations. Thus we see that experience of growth comes from the perception of having overcome the situation with fortitude. And this has happened thru this learning of a way to overcome the difficult situation. The sustainability of this personal growth will be reflected in how he faces and responds to the future such events of a difficult situation. These are some of what I have realized from my personal experience after passing thru many adverse situations. Bearing a difficult situation with fortitude enhances mental strength. And so in future, we can see that facing it will no longer be so  difficult  as it had been in the earlier instance which had been the first time.

REFLECTIONS ON THE ACTIONS WE TAKE AND HOW IT IMPACTS THE FINAL OUTCOME

There are broadly three types of actions which we will discuss in this article. One is the action that is preceded by a thought process with the intent of achieving the expected outcome for a positive or maybe a negative purpose of harming somebody. Another type of action is the spontaneous action, a mental trigger which comes from the reflex without any thought preceding the event. This type of spontaneous action mostly ( if not always ) mostly a person takes in a life-threatening situation. And this type of situation generates a response also called the “FLIGHT or FIGHT ” response. In such a situation the person chooses either to leave everything and flee the place or he chooses to face and fight it to the finish. Another type of action is the one he is compelled to take in a totally new and different type of situation with no previous experience of similar such situation. In this situation the person has no knowledge of the probable outcomes and where it would lead him to. So he has to deploy a subjective judgement and try to anticipate the probable outcomes. Here, a person with diverse repertoire of past experience (though may not be similar to the ensuing one) enhances the probabilities of his actions to be in the right direction . The man by nature is inherently averse to facing any adverse situation. But as the saying goes “Sweet are the uses of adversity ugly and venomous like a toad, bears a precious jewel in the head ( in Shakespeare’s play  ‘AS YOU LIKE IT ’). This is very much true because adversity teaches a person to find new ways of overcoming the apparent impasse. And hence adversity is a boon in disguise which most people fail to realize. By overcoming a difficult situation the person enhances his mental strength.

And lastly, I would say every person needs to intensely observe  every action and how it has impacted the final outcome. By following this practice he can know the purpose and clarity of this action which he have taken , before coming to know the outcome.This would always lead him to develop the quality of righteousness thereby preventing from venturing into a wrong path.

FLOW -THE NATURE'S PARAMETER FOR CHANGE AND IT'S EFFECT ON HUMAN BEINGS

"Everything flows " this was said by Heraclitus the Greek philosopher over two thousand years ago. Everything that we see in nature and living creatures are bound by nature’s process" flow " the dynamic state thru which past leads into present and present leads into future. The effect of flow is visible in the change that occurs and time is the medium thru which it happens. As we all know change means impermanence. And by simple logic, whatever is impermanent has to be transient.

Thus impermanence and transience are complementary aspects thru which all phenomenon that may be visible or invisible occurs. The human being as a sentient creature has self-reflexive consciousness experience this change thru their senses. But man being conditioned mentally to permanence and that is why finds nature’s this imposition difficult to accept. Man always likes to hold on pleasant times, events and memories. Thus holding on to static mindset and this is where he runs into conflict with nature and the ensuing situation which the flow of time has brought him to. And for this reason, remain in disharmony with nature as a consequence suffers mentally.  Thus we see that “ FLOW” being the fundamental aspect of nature and so only by aligning himself to a mental state accepting the same he can live in harmony with nature. But this aligning to a mental state in an adverse situation is only possible if he is able to view the situation in a totally different perspective by reframing the situation and create a choice . Thus a man who lives in the present moment in the “ HERE AND NOW  ” only can be with the flow of time and changing situation that does not affect his mental harmony.

WHAT IS HAPPINESS AND WHAT ARE IT’S CAUSES

The man by nature is conditioned and attached to four aspects which can be classified into four parameters,  these are things, events, people or ideas. The difference between happiness and sorrow is in the state of emotions that a person beholds in given situation. Happiness arouses positive or healthy emotions whereas sorrow arouses negative or unhealthy emotions. The degree of the emotion whether positive or negative both depends on the source ( the four parameters stated above ) that induces the type of emotion which a person experiences and that varies from person to person. For the same source, different persons would experience different levels of happiness or sorrow. When anything that a person likes comes to his possession he feels happy and conversely he feels unhappy if he is unable to get that thing he has been longing for. Thus happiness is directly related to fulfilment of his expectation or anything that comes to his possession as per expectation or unexpectedly. When the closest of a person like the spouse or child or close relation achieve anything on his or her own or that was asked to him to do and he succeeds, that brings happiness. There are innumerable such situations when the outcome of an event or the other aspects related to it turns out to be with positive outcome, it brings happiness. But the perception of happiness per se is not induced by the external factors.It comes from the arousal of a positive emotion  in the mind that brings the perception of happiness. However there is another side to it.A person in a sad mood on receiving a good news would not experience that level of happiness, as a person in good mood in the same situation. Hence the pre-existing state of mind ( before that situation) impacts the level of emotion in the ensuing situation. As stated in my earlier blogpost time always flows in the forward direction. And so man has to strive to be happy in order to be in harmony with flow of time which is transient. Therefore it is something which we need to endeavour for in all situation of life , since whatever be the situation it eventually would pass away.

REFLECTION ON THE RELATION BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY , PSYCHOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY

Philosophy is the unseen foundation on which the civilization rests . This was said by the famous Indian philosopher and statesman Dr. S. Radhakrishnan . Perhaps there is no other better way  to state the purpose of philosophy . This  in general sets the basic guideline for the humankind for the purpose  of adoption of an  objective for  common good of humanity  irrespective of caste , creed , religion or ethnic diversity . But as we all know this is  easier said than done .  And to get an access to those  guidelines man fundamentally has to dive deeper into the inner self to find answer to basic existential questions  .  These would include questions like “Why we are born ? What is the purpose of our life ? Is death the irrevocable truth and the end of everything “ that each of us has to face . This is spirituality . Diving deeper into the self  would  necessary incur application of the mind which is the basis of our psyche . Thus we find that , besides  philosophy  ,psychology too has  very close relation with spirituality . It is what an individual practices to access the peace and serenity in the very core of an individual self  and also is related to the  developing meaning of life and the connection with others .