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How to Avoid the Depressing Happiness Paradox
Pursuing happiness leads ironically to sadness. So here are 11 science-backed ways to be a little bit happier without really trying, because trying doesn’t work.
Happiness is hard to define and even harder to achieve. When we do stumble into it, the sensation tends to be fleeting. Meanwhile, the flip side — sadness — is a normal part of human nature. Everyone gets sad now and then. But here’s where things get really interesting:
Perhaps the saddest thing about happiness is that pursuing it actually makes us sadder.
Renowned happiness researcher and Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks goes so far as to say happiness isn’t even a feeling. Rather, feelings are the evidence of happiness (or the lack of it). “If you’re looking for a feeling to get your happiness, you’re going after a vapor,” Brooks has said. “You’re consigning your happiness to forces out of your control. You’re going to go to bed at night saying, boy I sure hope I feel happy tomorrow.”
New research helps explain this Happiness Paradox, as some scientists call it, while a slew of other studies I’ve been writing about the past six years reveal behavioral changes that can help us all find a little more happiness without…
