Happy Days

Is happiness bullshit? University Lecturer & Project Philosopher of Headspace Hunters, Joe Quilter shares his insights into what actually is true happiness and one's quest to find it...

- By Joe Quilter

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is a quote from the United States Declaration of Independence. In the declaration, pursuing happiness was considered an "inalienable right" and has become a common concept in the U.S. and across much of the Western world. Many claim "they just want to be happy" or to "live a happy life". If there is one thing that is certain about emotions, they do not last. Of course, our amygdala (the part of the brain that houses the limbic system) will record emotions and their links to experiences, stored in our memories.

These memories can often be "triggered", brought back to the fore by a smell, sound, sight or circumstance that takes us back to how such-and-such experience stored in our memory felt at the time. For example, we might have had one of the happiest days of our lives at the beach once, say 10 years ago with someone we love. In general, the feel of the sand, the smell of the salt water takes us back to that moment. So in this sense, the sense that we can recall emotion and dwell in it, even when the experience it is connected to is not happening at the time. This is a sense in which emotions stay with us.

However we also know emotions are fleeting. Perhaps this is why strong emotional experiences stick with us so deeply. If we felt as happy as we did that day at the beach all the time, that particular day would not stand out anymore, or be worth recalling. Of course, the same is true of other emotions, fear, betrayal, hurt, feelings of trust and love, of sorrow or elation. When the emotion overwhelms us it sears onto our memories and is recalled when triggered. We might cultivate a strong emotional memory, because we don't want to forget it, or we haven't done the work to heal from it.