Why Happiness Matters

‘Get yourself out of the way, and let joy have more space.’
–Rumi

This blog is no longer just a creative outlet for me.

Lately, I’m coming to see it as something that is closely tied to my life’s work and purpose–serving others–while having fun and growing as a person in the process.

I am not deluded. I know that I am not a teacher or guru.

But I know that I’m someone who is infinitely curious and open minded.

I’m also someone who has had the luxury of free time in which to feed my curiosity.

I got to do things that others simply didn’t have the time to do.

So I looked into a number of subjects that fascinated me, ranging from conspiracies and spirituality to science and ‘new age’.

I learned a lot–which was to realise that I know so little.

But after 16 years of studying and learning, one thing has become crystal clear to me: happiness is the most important thing in life.

It’s not just a good feeling.

It’s the keystone which holds everything else together. And just like the keystone in an arch, when you remove happiness, everything else starts to fall apart.

And so, I realised that the number one thing I could do to help others is show them why happiness matters, and share ideas that could help them to create more happiness in their lives.

The aim of this post is to fulfil the first part of this mission: to show you why happiness matters, and why becoming happier is the most important thing that we could do for ourselves, our loved ones, and humanity.

I will share the ‘hows’ in subsequent posts.

But before we get into the details, I’d like to clarify what I mean by happiness, so we’re on the same page from now on.

Happiness Defined

Experts may disagree on the exact definition, but we have all known since childhood that happiness means ‘feeling good on the inside’.

So let’s stick with that for now.

With that out of the way, let’s explore how feeling good on the inside can improve every aspect of our lives, and also help us move forward as a species.

Happiness Promotes Good Health

We know that inflammation causes many chronic illnesses, such as Alzheimers, heart disease, cancer and arthritis.

It’s such a big deal that TIME magazine featured inflammation on its cover (February 23rd, 2004 issue) with the title: ‘The Silent Killer.’

But what most of us probably don’t know is that stress causes inflammation.

When we become aware of this link, it’s easy to understand why this study review, titled ‘Inflammation: The Common Pathway of Stress-Related Diseases,’ says that:

Stress is the common risk factor of 75%–90% diseases, including the diseases which cause the foremost morbidity and mortality.

But what exactly is stress?

Sure, there are many scientific definitions, but can we just agree that it means ‘not feeling good on the inside?’

According this definition, we could say that stress is the opposite of happiness.

And so, if stress causes illness, it then follows that happiness can help to prevent and cure illness.

No surprise then, that the very things that modern medicine recommends for reducing stress are the same things we would do if we wanted to create more happiness in our lives:

Exercise
Meditate
Get enough sleep
Eat healthy foods
Make enough time for leisure activities

But don’t just take my word for it. Let’s take a quick look at couple of scientific studies.

A 2004 study found that people with positive moods had greater resistance to ‘flu and cold viruses. Their mood helped their immune systems to work better.

Similarly, this 2019 meta-analysis of previous research concluded that:

‘…optimism was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events and pessimism was associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular events.’

There are many other studies showing that happiness helps to control blood pressure and promotes heart health etc.

But for now, I hope that I’ve convinced you that happiness and feeling good on the inside can help you to get, and stay, healthier.

If you’d like links to more studies, please check out the Resources section below.

Happiness Helps Us to Perform Better at Work

Ever been in a state of flow? Where you’re operating at a high level, doing good work with minimum effort, and lose track of time?

Ding, ding! Chances are, you were feeling good on the inside.

But what about the opposite?

Ever go into a task feeling bad and then struggle through it, only to be disappointed with the result?

I know I have!

It’s probably because when we’re in situations that we find stressful, a part of the brain called the amygdala that is responsible for emotional responses, springs into action and kickstarts the ‘fight or flight’ response.

In severe cases, this happens even before the rational thinking part of the brain has had a chance to assess the situation properly and come up with a considered response.

Not only that, in such situations, the amygdala also disables the rational thinking part of our brain. This phenomenon is referred to as an ‘amygdala hijack.’

When this happens, we experience a degradation of our ability to think, learn, be creative, interact with people, and perform well.

So, stress makes it nearly impossible to work well!

Conversely, people experiencing positive states have been found to be more motivated, more productive, more creative and so on.

For example, a 2008 study concluded that being happy made us more creative and better able to generate new ideas.

Another study, by the University of Oxford, found that happier workers are up to 13% more productive.

Tracking the performance of telesales workers, researchers found that the happier ones made more calls and closed more sales.

A further study from 2023 found that happier people benefitted from better speed and visuospatial memory.

(However, this particular study also found that happiness was associated with lower reasoning! I’m not sure what to make of that.)

Be that as it may, there is no denying that generally, feeling happier helps us to work and perform better.

Perhaps, Nisha Rodgerson, a clinical psychologist from South Africa, puts it best when she says:

‘Happiness isn’t just an emotion; it’s a state of the brain that primes us for success.’

Happiness Promotes Better Relationships

Ever been around a grumpy person? Or worse yet, someone who is loudly aggressive?

I don’t know about you, but it makes me want to run away from them!

And what about the opposite?

I don’t know about you, but I love to spend time with happy people!

I also find happy, pleasant people to be more attractive.

Even when it comes to work and business, happy people are so much nicer to deal with.

But what does the science say?

This review article concludes that stress can negatively affect the relationship satisfaction of both partners in an intimate relationship. It also confirms that outside stress can spillover into the relationship.

This study found that in couples where the wives were better able to down regulate their negative emotions during conflict, both partners reported better satisfaction with their marriages.

And finally, this meta-analysis found that anger, hostility, and negative emotions moderately related to Intimate Partner Violence.

I think you get the point.

But there’s more!

Mothers and babies start their relationship even before the baby is born, and it’s been shown that a happy mother and a happy pregnancy can benefit the development of the child.

But this mother and baby study found that:

Mothers’ and babies’ brains can work together as a ‘mega-network’ by synchronising brain waves when they interact. The level of connectivity of the brain waves varies according to the mum’s emotional state: when mothers express more positive emotions their brain becomes much more strongly connected with their baby’s brain. This may help the baby to learn and its brain to develop.

So far, we’ve seen that happiness and feeling good on the inside can positively impact our health, our work and our relationships.

But there’s even more!

Happiness and Spirituality

Spirituality teaches us that our outer (physical) world is a reflection of our inner (mental) world.

And when we come to learn how the Law of Attraction operates, we understand that feeling good on the inside will have the effect of attracting people, places and events on the outside, that match and reflect these good feelings.

In other words:

Happiness = High Vibes

And so, when we’re happy, every aspect of our lives will benefit.

This is why my favourite spiritual teachers, Abraham (Abraham and Hicks) advise us to:

‘Find something that makes you happy and fixate on it. That is the answer to all things. It’s the answer to getting everything that you want.’

Happiness and Humanity

The effect that we, as humans, have on each other was elegantly summarised by author and speaker Jim Rohn when he said:

You Are the Average of the Five People You Spend the Most Time With.

Based on this idea alone, we can only imagine how much better humanity’s condition would be, if we had more happy people.

Maybe fewer lawsuits, acts of violence, or wars?

Perhaps, more kindness, acts of charity and support for one another?

But there are a couple of other ideas I’d like to quickly introduce you to.

I’m convinced that they hint at the possibility that all of humanity could experience improved feelings (and all the benefits that accompany this), if enough people (a ‘critical mass’) decide to make the switch upwards.

Morphogenetic Fields and Morphic Resonance

There is an idea in science that genes alone are not enough to tell cells how to make up the different parts of an organism.

For example, I have the same DNA in my liver as I do in my hand. But how does my liver know to become a liver and my hand, a hand?

What tells them how to be different?

Scientists theorise that there are organising fields of information, called morphogenetic fields, which hold memory that is particular to each species, and that this memory makes it possible for members of a species to develop along the correct lines required for that species.

Dr. Rupert Sheldrake explains that:

‘…morphogenetic fields work by imposing patterns on otherwise random or indeterminate patterns of activity.’

Dr. Sheldrake further suggests that morphogenetic fields are not fixed, and that they evolve over time.

But what Dr. Sheldrake says next is the real kicker:

How are these fields inherited? I propose that that they are transmitted from past members of the species through a kind of non-local resonance, called morphic resonance.

So it could be possible that we have an invisible wifi-like field, organising our growth and development, and this field is constantly evolving and updating itself, based on our activity.

And if enough of us make the switch to healthy, happy, harmonious living, then our morphogenetic field would adapt to mirror these changes, and future generations would inherit these new traits through morphic resonance.

So we would end up with kids that come pre-wired for happiness!

The Holographic Universe

Some scientists today believe that we live in a holographic universe.

This idea suggests that the universe we perceive as being three dimensional (3D), and having the attribute of time, is actually a projection from a two dimensional (2D) source.

According to this theory, all the information that is needed to make up our 3D hologram is contained on the 2D source.

Apart from being a projection, holograms have another interesting property: the part of a hologram contains the whole.

If you cut a piece out of a 2D film that is used to project the 3D hologram, that piece will contain a smaller version of the entire hologram (and not just a part, as with conventional photography).

If we are parts of such a hologram, then it follows that we contain the whole within us.

And by extension, if we change ourselves (as individual points of consciousness), would this have the effect of changing the whole (as in all of humanity)?

This is certainly the view of writer and researcher David Icke.

Intuitively, I feel that taken together, these two ideas tend to support each other.

Also, since they offer an attractive vision of the future of mankind, I have to admit that I wish they could be proven true at some point.

But only time will tell…

Concluding Thoughts

I hope I have contributed at least in some small way to your understanding of why happiness matters.

I also hope that you will now be committed to creating more happiness in your life.