The Key to Happiness: The Positivity Effect
The Psychology Underlying Our Ability to Derive Happiness From Society
Happiness: The entity that is able to invoke both immense fulfillment and intense complacence. It is a polarizing entity that we don’t truly understand. In past articles, I’ve expressed my regard on it; I’ve mentioned my disbelief in the entity and the mistake that most make on the path to understanding it. However, taking the logical portions of this predominant emotion can provide us with the opportunity to uncover its inner workings and reconcile it with our mind.
Happiness and satisfaction practically go hand in hand. One doesn’t truly achieve so-called happiness until a certain action or desire is fulfilled. Many don’t pay heed to understanding the mechanics of the mind and simply go about spreading the sentiment that happiness comes from a favorable outcome. On one hadn’t, this seems quite correct; whenever we are to face a desired outcome, we are happy. However, this would mean that any other outcome would bring you nothing but the emotion that we all strive for. This is a mundane way of looking at human emotion-evident in young children without rational thought development-while also being psychologically incorrect.
The overall paradigm of happiness is one that I believe shouldn't be uncovered throughout humanity’s existence. We cannot take conscious control of it, for it is the product of both our controlled and subconscious thought. It’s almost as if they are 2 separate identifies, for both have to be on board in order for one to be content. Personally, as a programmer, I think of in terms of an AND operators. If(subconscious == true AND conscious == true): happiness=true. This is the basic framework that we need to understand about happiness; there are countless other factors influencing the identities as well, but that could be another article in and of itself.
Looking back at the presumption that the majority have, we fail to consider the thought of the conscious mind. In countless scenarios, our subconscious might be on board to derive gratification from a certain situation, but it is your own self-induced thoughts that is preventing you from moving forward. For this very reason, many are unaware about the prescience of the key to unlocking this desired commodity: the Positivity Effect.
The positivity effect is a psychological bias that is actually founds the basis on which we can be able to remain content despite external influence. It dictates that even if we are dealt with bad cards, we are still able to recover and take something away from the situation. Drowning yourself in your own sorrows when faced with adversity will not bring anything but self-deprecating thoughts and misalignment with your ideals.
Attribution is necessary, for we need to analyze our own behaviors and associate them with the feelings that we have at any point in time. If I were to be fired from a job, I could convince myself that I didn’t enjoy the position anyways-a useless form of trying to remain calm-but if I then proceeded to go and sit at the bar where I spend a month of wages on various drinks, the reactions wouldn’t match in the slightest. Despite half of he mind nudging us towards a brighter future, we clearly don’t see it that way and always operate perpendicular to the principle.
For a species who has invented various communicative platforms simply for the purpose of validation, it surprises me that no one has preached this simple mindset. We are constantly chasing behind happiness, but we never stop to think about how we can catch it. Endlessly trying to align with the will of god to receive gratification or dedicating your life to others for social stratification is an utter waste of time.
Consider your position before acting out in frustration. Dedicate your willpower to deriving happiness from the situations where you don’t receive the outcome you want. If you shall only be happy in the situations where you receive superficial benefits, you shall remain disappointed for a long time. Take control of your thoughts and be aware of the positivity that teems in the air around you.
