1.1 Understanding Happiness

Happiness lays high impact on human life. Happiness means the state of being happy. It also reflects feeling or showing pleasure or contentment. Happiness is not a permanent trait of a personality but more short-lived, changeable state. Happiness is not to be confused with joy, ecstasy, bliss, or other more intense feelings. Happiness can be internal or external. It is human high level emotional state after satisfaction of a abstract need and often affected by reason. Buddhist philosophy has faith in doctrine of positive relationship i.e.  happiness is something shared with all not limited to only an induvial. Positive psychologist stated that happiness is a state characterized by contentment and general satisfaction with one’s current situation. According to psychology, happiness is about more than simply the experience of a positive mood in regards to the pleasurable activities in our daily lives. Pleasure, comfort, gratitude, hope, and inspiration are examples of positive emotions that increase our happiness and move us to flourish. Happiness can be visualized in diverse things and moments when some individuals perceive happiness in getting money or luxury and some people think healthy life practices    like spending time with friends and family or practicing gratitude. But it often described sum total of positive emotions and life satisfaction. Sometimes we feel satisfaction, feel good, perusing meaning and purpose in life, this is happiness. Being a multidimensional construct, happiness may be in form of simple pleasure and enjoyment or searching happiness in one’s hobby and passion or offering one’s services for social cause for contributing a meaningful happiness.

There are two key components of happiness:

• Positive Emotions: Everyone experiences positive and negative emotions, feelings, and moods. Happiness is generally linked to experiencing more positive feelings than negative ones. Seligman has stated a pleasant life has characteristics of enjoying pleasures in life by fulfilling the needs of an individual. Going beyond this, when we focus on realizing strength and potential, we feel good and happy. It is a good life.
• Life Satisfaction:This relates to how satisfied you feel with different areas of your life including your relationships, work, achievements, and other things that you consider important. It is observed that when happy people face discomforts, they have an underlying sense of optimism that things will get better, that they can deal with what is happening, and that they will be able to feel happy again. This is a meaningful life.

In concluding statements, happiness is understood as the positive emotions regarding pleasurable activities throughout our daily lives. Happiness means knowing, believing in and loving what you’re doing. Researchers stated that Happiness is a subjective concept and related to well-being.

Martin Seligman has talked about three types of life to indicate the various dimensions of happiness (

• Pleasant Life: Positive Emotions: enjoying pleasures in life by fulfilling the diverse needs of an individual
• Good Life: focus on realizing strength and potential
• Meaningful Life: Contributing a larger cause