Happiness is an emotion and means as much as 'being satisfied with the current living conditions', or 'being happy'. Those who are happy have a happy, satisfied, relaxed and joyful feeling.
In her book "The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want" , the American professor Sonja Lyubomirsky says the following:
About 50% of your happiness is a given: Roughly half of the amount of happiness you experience is stored in your genes. You get a so-called 'happiness starting point' from your parents in your DNA as well as in your upbringing 'happiness starting point' along. So some people are 'happier' by nature than others, simply because they were given it from home.
About 40% of your happiness determine yourself and 10% is determined by your environment: By changing your view of the world from within you can influence your happiness. Your view of the world largely determines how you feel. The way you experience your life is your own choice. Life is so complex and big that you can only see a fraction of it, and it depends on which glasses you put on. You can change the way you see the world. And changing them will change your life. In addition, it is important to surround yourself with positive people, people who want to help you and give you everything. (What you deal with, you are also said to be infected)
Obviously these percentages are approximate and depend on the situation you live in, but it gives us an indication of how much influence we can have on our own happiness!
We have read a large number of scientific articles and studies on happiness. We also have the Yale course The Science of Well-Being from professor of psychology Laurie Santos followed.
More about happiness
Much has been published about happiness, on the following pages we have listed the things that we found interesting.
- Research into happiness
- Videos about happiness
- Other sources on happiness
Research into happiness
A lot of research is done on happiness, below the websites of a number of interesting research platforms and organizations.
Shawn Achor, scientist at Harvard University, says: 'Scientific seen is a choice '. He shows with his research indicates that you can learn to be happy no matter what circumstances you are in. The decisive factor in this is your resilience (your ability to recover from stress and setbacks).
Radboud Platform for Happiness
The Radboud Platform for Happiness develops education and social projects in the field of happiness, with and for interested parties. We also conduct interdisciplinary research into happiness. In this way we hope to create a new perspective on happiness and to promote happiness.
The Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization (EHERO)
The Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization (EHERO) is a scientific institute where happiness is studied. Happiness is defined as the subjective enjoyment of one's life as a whole.
Books about happiness
Many books have been written about happiness, below are links to a number of books that we found worth reading:
The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want, Sonja Lyubomirsky
The logic of happiness, Mo Gawdat
Happiness for children, Leo Bormans
The art of happiness, Dalai Lama
On to happiness, Ap Dijksterhuis
Happiness in the pocket, Pep Degens
Poetry about happiness, Martin Gijzemijter
Other sources
In addition to books, research and videos, below are some other interesting resources about happiness
International Day of Happiness
Since 2013, the United Nations has celebrated the International Day of Happiness as a way to recognize the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world.