What is Happiness?

Psychologists say there is a common myth about happiness and money. Many people believe that if you have a lot of money you will be happy. However, this is not true.

Unemployment, sickness, lack of education or some kind of natural disaster can be the cause of people not having enough money for food or somewhere to live. They have to work hard, and they worry a lot about the future. Food and shelter are the basic needs of all people and if people are too poor to be able to provide these needs for themselves or their family it is difficult to be happy. So in some ways money and happiness do go together.

However, the wealthy were not any happier than the middle class people. In other words, people who have big houses, expensive cars and fancy clothes are not really any happier than people who live in small houses, drive less expensive cars or wear less fancy clothes. Some wealthy people were happy and some wealthy people were not happy, just like middle class people. Even people who were poor found happiness in their families or communities.

It can be seen that happiness does not depend on how much money a person has. So what does make people happy?

Happiness depends a lot on a person’s personality, how a person thinks and feels. People can have very little money but still be happy if they have the right kind of personality.

Three qualities in the personalities of happy people

Firstly, happy people like themselves. They like being the kind of person they are. They do not want to be taller, thinner or smarter. On the other hand, unhappy people often want to change something about themselves. An example of this is some movie stars. Even though they are beautiful, wealthy and popular they are still unhappy. They are unhappy because they want to change themselves or their lives. They want to be younger, more beautiful or more popular. Happy people do not want to be different. They like themselves just the way they are.

Secondly, happy people think about the good things in life not the bad things. They are positive thinkers. Everyone has problems in their lives but when these problems arise happy people try to solve them and think that life will get better. However, unhappy people think a lot about their problems and become sadder and more unhappy. For them, life is often just one big problem. Happy people have the same problems but they are positive thinkers.

The third quality is that happy people are outgoing and friendly. They like to be around other people and they like to make new friends. Because happy people are friendly and outgoing everyone wants to get to know them better and as a result happy people have more friends. This means they have other people to enjoy the good and exciting times in their lives and also have many friends to help in the difficult times or when problems arise.

Happy people also get better jobs because companies want to have friendly, outgoing people working for them. So being outgoing and friendly helps people in many ways.

In conclusion, having a lot of money will not always bring happiness. Instead, it was more important to like yourself as you are, be a positive thinker and be outgoing and friendly.