Feeling happy versus happiness?

You know when you have felt really good, don’t you? Maybe the thought went through your mind, “I feel really happy?”  Is this the same thing as happiness? Seriously – is feeling happy the same thing as happiness?

Let’s say you got promoted at work, and this led you to feel really happy; you celebrate with friends and put the money down on a new car. Great. You are really happy. Then three weeks later your workload has changed, and you have a lot more “responsibilities” and various less-than-desirable tasks to do. Still happy? Perhaps. After all, you expected the change in your job.

Perhaps like many others, you “fell into” your job years ago, and simply stuck with it. Because, well, you didn’t mind the work, had no better ideas or qualifications, or perhaps it was the family business. It has ups and downs, but you reason that you have no reason to complain; you are reasonably content. Some people might regard this reasonable happiness to be as good as it gets. Freud aimed lower; he urged his patients to accept ordinary unhappiness.

So perhaps we should average out our happiness over time, and optimise that? Actually, happiness research looks at both how often you have had happy feelings in recent weeks, and asks about your average – or general happiness with your life. They are related, but they are not necessarily the same thing. Which measurement makes more sense to you? Which have you been using to rate your life? Do you ever think about this to guide your decisions? Are you happy about that?