By Mark Kaplan / February 17, 2020
Happiness is life satisfaction. Happiness is often found in behaviors. Happiness is the journey more than the periodic rewards we enjoy from the right pursuits. The key to life satisfaction can be found in understanding what creates happiness.
5 Behaviors of Happiness
Since happiness is a journey, the behaviors we pursue can be the secret to enjoying the brain chemicals scientists call happiness. The hormones and neurotransmitters of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin are stimulated by what we think, do, and our reflections.
Engaging in learning challenging material is what Nature would classify as a “survival opportunity” and for that engagement she might reward us with dopamine during engagement and serotonin for being proud of our progress. If our intentions are to benefit other people we get a dose of oxytocin.
If we engaged in challenging learning all day, we could enjoy a flood of happiness. Other activities that create the same affect are creativity, contribution, health, and fitness. Each is considered by Nature as a “survival opportunity” to help us become more valuable, help others survive, help our community, and build our body.
Creating Blocks of Time for Happiness
In our journey of pursuing certain behaviors, we will get great rewards. We might have a great family, buy a BMW, become President of our company, write a hit record, or win a race. We dote on the satisfaction of these accomplishments, but soon our brain defaults to cortisol, a stress hormone, warning us we need another summit.
Sustained happiness comes from creating time each day to engage in the behaviors that can create the great rewards. The behaviors are important because rewards come and go. Sustained behaviors can stay with us for a lifetime. Each day we can look forward to learning, being creative, helping others, eating healthy and exercising.
Life Satisfaction
Life satisfaction is very subjective. We have to be careful to select our own dreams and not those of others or what the media paints as our dream. We do get caught up in the fairy tales of movies and living happily ever after from reaching one goal.
Lifetime satisfaction is rarely the result of one goal. You can win the Super Bowl and revel in that for a long time, but soon the brain is demanding more action. Life satisfaction is most likely a number of behaviors that might be called self-actualization or full life enjoyment.
Nature wants us to be accomplished, have a family, have friends, build community, and work to benefit others. Gratitude is a very helpful emotion that is loaded with serotonin. Being happy with our ability to engage in our favorite activities and wishing others could do the same might give us the perspective to keep improving who we are and trying to help others do the same.
Return to the Home Page
See Post Happiness, Fitness, and Mindfulness
See Post How We Enjoy Intensity without Stress
See Post Life Style and Work Life Balance
See Post Creativity Can Be Career Changing
See Post Increasing the Flow in Your Life