Discovering the Real Key to Happiness

Is there really a key to happiness? If so, is it something that any of us can adopt and apply to our lives? Finding happiness and using it constructively is a philosophical question that wise men (and women) have been contemplating since the ancient days. There are actually many mysteries surrounding the notion of how to be happy and the secrets to its keys.

As with many things in life, there are endless theories about being happy and why it occurs often in some people, while not occurring at all in others. Many of the great minds from the past saw happiness as the result of living a moral life.  In other words, ethics were considered to be an integral part of happiness.

Other philosophers saw happiness as a product of chance and luck. It happened to be bestowed upon chosen individuals, but not everyone. They saw being happy as a predetermined state.

So what does it mean to people today? Are we any closer to find the real key to happiness?

Is Upbringing the Key to Happiness?

How a child is raised is a popular theory among experts as to why someone lives happily. There are several reasons for that assessment.

To begin with, a child grows up learning to mimic the authority figures that he or she is exposed to on a daily basis. In a healthy home, loving parent demonstrate by example to the child how to be happy. They also nurture the child and provide a loving environment in which for it grow mentally and emotionally. And quite simply, there is no real reason for a child growing up in such a home to be unhappy.

In contrast, we see bitter individuals grow up in terrible environment and they tend to struggle with being happy. Surviving is a bigger priority to them than finding the key to happiness.

Surrounding Environments

Just when we think we’ve nailed down the reason people are happy because of their upbringing, we begin to see many contradictions to that theory. In fact, we see lots of outliers.

Why does a child who grew up in an affluent home with their every need furnished to them – for the rest of their lives, in some cases – become bitter? We see this happen more often than one might expect. We see individuals that have everything, yet are among the unhappiest people in our society.

Do you doubt this assessment? Check out the lives of celebrities for a few days – you will see what I mean. Many of them attempt suicide, turn to drugs, died of overdoses – sound familiar? It should.

On the other hand, we see people that have suffered outrageous hardships and grew up in awful environments, yet many of them are teaching the rest of us how to be happy. Have they found the true key to happiness?

It seems that these outliers have reached out of their natural environment and found a surrounding environment to adopt and give them purpose.

Is Determination the Secret Ingredient?

Another popular theory is that happy people are simply more determined to be happy. This would explain why people who grew up in terrible environments learn to be happy. The thing about bad environments is that determination can be learned in such a place. Happiness is not required to become determined and persevere.

In all actuality, it can be argued that unhappy people are most likely more determined than happy people. Lao Tzu, the father of Taoism, once said that “the contented man has no ambition”. This statement pretty much confirms the reason why unhappy people are most likely more determined that happy people.

Does this tell us that the real key to happiness is the determination to be happy? Perhaps. Many great thinkers believe this is true.

Does Faith Play a Role In Our Happiness?

Faith is a trait that we find very often among happy people. The notion of believing and worshiping a deity is most certainly a calming effect on one’s spirit. When you have faith in a creator and particularly if your faith embraces the concept of an afterlife with that creator, then happiness would usually be the result of such a mindset.

The idea of faith means that a person has their future taken care of already. Most of us stress about the future quite often, which causes anxiety. Religious people don’t seem to have a high level of anxiety.

Furthermore, most religions have some sort of guideline to live by so that all the guess work is taken away. It is my view that life becomes far less stressful when your personal philosophy is defined and it works for you. This is a main cornerstone that explains the high levels of happiness found in religious people.

How About Health?

One last argument regarding the key to happiness is maintaining good health. This argument is a very good one. Joggers and fitness gurus are quick to tell us that intense cardio workouts produce endorphins, which have been scientifically proven to induce elevated states of contentment or happiness. In fact, they are addictive. This is why joggers continue to jog.

Learning to adopt a physical state or certain physical activities are strong allies to states of happiness. People sing and become happier. People smile and become happier. We see it all the time and can even quickly confirm the effects ourselves.  Put a big smile on your face and try to get angry – hard to do, isn’t it?

Conclusion

So have we defined the real key to happiness here? I don’t think so, but I think we found one significant answer. I think that each of us has our own unique path to happiness. We can’t use the paths of others because it will not fill our needs.

Finding our source of happiness is akin to picking our major when we attend college because that too, is a unique path. Even those people who major in the same field of study do not take the same path. They select different elective classes and they even pick a few different classes within their field of study – making their curriculum unique.

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