Go for Awe

Darrin McMahon, a history professor at Dartmouth College and author of Happiness: A History, says, “We have this default assumption that happiness is a calculus of pleasure and pain, and if you get rid of pain and multiply pleasures 

then you’ll be happy, but it doesn’t work that way,”

"What’s more," he continues, “The idea of happiness as our natural state is a peculiarly modern condition that puts a tremendous onus on people. We blame ourselves and feel guilty and deficient when we’re not happy."

 

Happy causes expectation, uncertainty and stress. Use of a balanced approach for a life of creativity and mental comfort would avoid semantics and word frustration. 

To light up into enlightenment and AHA moments requires patience, perspective, and perseverance.

Eastern philosophical ideals of happiness and well-being refine and sustain a life of satisfaction. Quality states of gladness, happiness, and contentment feel more developed and fulfilling. Deep peace satisfies and evolves into true enlightenment.

Cultivating a state of happiness requires releasing the need to experience a constant state of intensity. An awakening of joy and wonder arrives from appreciating the simple moments of gladness. 

With awareness on the radar, discovery appears everywhere. 

University of Illinois happiness pioneer and psychology professor Ed Diener does not use  the word Happy. Diener prefers “subjective well-being” as a more accurate way to describe an individual’s degree of life satisfaction. 

Life lightens into enlightenment with AHA moments.

Martin Seligman, proponent of Positive Psychology and author, of Flourish, has shifted his focus from happiness to well-being with five essential elements: positive emotion, engagement in life, meaning, positive relationships, and accomplishment. 

Psychologists have divided happiness into two components: eudaimonic happiness, the well-being that arises from a sense of purpose or service to others. Hedonic happiness arrives from a satisfying meal, making love, or passing pleasures. Both types of happiness develop a balanced, contented life. Fun arrives.

Barbara Frederickson at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Steven Cole of the UCLA School of Medicine studied blood samples of people with high levels of eudaimonic happiness which demonstrated a stronger immune response profile than those with high levels of hedonic happiness.

"Happiness can come and go but flourishing endures." 

- Varun Somi

“In the big sweepstakes of what makes us the most happy, AWE may be the champion."

- Dacher Keltner,

“Awe uniquely predicts happiness,” says Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley and the faculty liaison to the Greater Good team. "After all, who doesn’t treasure experiences such as sunset, in which our sense of being a small, separate self loosens and even temporarily dissolves into the mystery and grandeur of the moment?"

Keltner describes the latest research on awe, which provides a major boost to the body’s immune system. A recent study conducted at UC Berkeley that Keltner co-authored found the experience of awe linked to lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, proteins that signal the immune system to work harder. 

“The fact that awe promotes healthier levels of cytokines suggests anything we can do to foster it—a walk in nature or listening to great music or spending time around people who inspire us—has a direct effect upon our health and life expectancy,” 

Replace words like happiness with created words that delight and energize. 

         Become involved in awedulation. 

                    Paassionate with wonder. 

                               Dance with your laughterator.

                                           Singster along with Glee and Whee.

Discover the amazement and amusement that life miraclates for you. 

Go for Awe.