How do you define success?

Granted, if you’re reading an article such as this your definition is likely to be more well thought out than many people.

So let’s phrase it this way:

How do you think most people define success?

Well, one way to answer this is to look at who society, specifically the media, celebrates beyond all others.

These people have two important characteristics:

1. Riches beyond necessity
2. International fame

It definitely is not what you and I may want to celebrate in people, such as one’s behavioural attributes and/or contributions towards society.

I’m fully aware, of course, that people such as this are celebrated in the media.

I’m speaking primarily of those who are most celebrated in public.

You see more magazine covers, more adverts, more billboards, more interviews and more attention going towards the latest pop star than you do the most innovative new philanthropist. We can accept this as fact.

Thus, we as a culture are led to assume that those which are most celebrated have achieved goals that are surely the most wanted by all, right?

If you were to put in front of the world as the cornerstone of achievement 5 people who achieved the ability to fly, surely you are suggesting these people have achieved a goal others would benefit from achieving, inspired and interested by, indicating they are doing well in life.

Whilst the relationship between money and happiness is a separate topic in itself, today I’d like to discuss with you the other question that the vast majority of people in western society do not ask themselves ever in their life:

Are famous people happy?

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One feature that will surely define this era is the creation and proliferation of the internet.

And within this transformative new technology, still in it’s infant stages, is the most widely adopted new communication platform in history: social media.

If companies like Google, Facebook and SpaceX reach their goals, soon we’ll have the entire human population with access to online social networks.

The promise of social media? To connect with friends, make the world a more open place, and keep up to date with your social circles.

Social media has enabled everyone with access to the World Wide Web the ability to see what their friends are doing, to interact in debates about controversial news and much more.

It would be easy to assume, therefore, that this new democratisation of social interaction, that we would feels closer to others, more connected, and thus happier.

Does relating to another person online, through online chat or viewing a friend’s pictures from an event last night, actually result in an enhanced feeling of closeness?

As parents it’s a common wonder whether the hours and hours kids spend on social sites scrolling and clicking incessantly actually is healthy for them and whether it really makes the happier.

All of these concerns are both valid and urgent.

The expansion of Internet usage is not slowing. Our culture has forever changed because of it, and how we as humans are being affected by it is a worthwhile point of discussion.

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Admit it.

You love a good old hug.

I know you do, because we all do.

Even though the instruction to ‘give your aunt a hug’ is the most terrifying words a child can hear, we seem to grow to appreciate a hug in a wide spectrum of situations.

As a point of discussion regarding human flourishing, however, it’s rarely a topic that comes to mind.

Hugging must be on everyone’s subconscious list as one of the top five most ‘soft’ topics or activities in the world.

Little do people know the physiological basis for why we love the experience of hugging, or the concrete health and psychological benefits of hugging for both the giver and receiver.

In this article I aim to explore the act of hugging, the impact hugging has on your happiness and how to maximise hugging to elicit optimal well-being. We’ll look, in depth, at the science of hugs.  [Read more…]

Oh, wouldn’t it be great: a single gene responsible for all of human happiness.

Unfortunately, as you may expect, it’s not that simple.

But it does make you wonder; if we found a large group of people who were all remarkably happy, would they be in possession of unique genes, that others aren’t?

Is happiness genetic?

The notion of happiness being genetic calls upon many angles of critical thinking, from psychological understanding to scientific research as well as philosophical concepts.

In this article I will thoroughly explore the topic of genes and the happiness of humans.

Are there any genes that have been found to correlate with happiness?

If there are, who has them?

Are there any known markers that make people predisposed to happiness, genetically?  [Read more…]