Is Happiness always good for you?

In recent years, there has been an explosion of scientific research revealing precisely how positive feelings like happiness are good for us. We know that they motivate us to pursue important goals and overcome obstacles, protect us from some effects of stress, connect us closely with other people, and even stave off physical and mental ailments. Clearly, happiness is popular. But is happiness always good for you? Can feeling too good ever be too bad? 

Recent research in an article by June Gruber suggests that happiness is not always what it is cracked up to be! Too much of it is as bad as too little and being happy in all situations is not necessarily the right thing either.

1. Too much happiness can make you less creative—and less safe. Happiness, it turns out, has a cost when experienced too intensely. For instance, while happiness can open up our minds to foster more creative thinking and help us tackle problems or puzzles but too much positive emotion—and too little negative emotion—can also make people inflexible in the face of new challenges. When we experience happiness, our attention turns toward exciting and positive things in our lives to help sustain the good feeling and  we also tend to feel less inhibited and more likely to explore new possibilities and take greater risks. People in this heightened ‘happiness overdrive’ mode engage in riskier behaviors and tend to disregard threats, including excessive alcohol consumption, binge eating, sexual promiscuity, and drug use. 

All these results point to one conclusion: Happiness may be best when experienced in moderation—not too little, but also not too much.

 2. Happiness is not suited to every situation. Our emotions help us adapt to new circumstances, challenges, and opportunities. Just as anger mobilizes us to overcome obstacles; fear alerts us to threats and engages our fight-or-flight preparation system; sadness signals loss, happiness helps us to pursue and attain important goals, and encourages us to cooperate with others. But just as we would not want to feel angry or sad in every context, we should not want to experience happiness in every context. Illuminating studies done by Maya Tamir found that people in a happy mood performed worse than people in an angry mood for example when playing a competitive computer game!

 Thus happiness has a time and a place—it’s not suited for every situation!

3. Not all types of happiness are good for you. “Happiness” is a single term, but it refers to a rainbow of different flavors of emotion: Some make us more energetic, some slow us down; some make us feel closer to other people, some make us more generous. But some forms of happiness may actually be a source of dysfunction. One example is pride, a pleasant feeling associated with achievement and elevated social rank or status. As such, it is often seen as a type of positive emotion that makes us focus more on ourselves. Pride can be good in certain contexts and forms, such as winning a difficult prize or receiving a job promotion. But when we experience too much pride or pride without genuine merit, it can lead to negative social outcomes, such as aggressiveness towards others, antisocial behavior, and even an increased risk of mood disorders such as mania. 

The bottom line: Certain kinds of happiness may at times hinder our ability to connect with those around us.

 4. Pursuing happiness may actually make you unhappy. Not surprisingly, most people want to be happy. We seem hardwired to pursue happiness, and this is especially true for Americans—it’s even ingrained in the Declaration of Independence. But the more people strive for happiness, the more likely they will be to set a high standard for happiness—then be disappointed when that standard is not met. It is as if the harder one tries to experience happiness, the more difficult it is to actually feel happy, even in otherwise pleasant situations.

It may be that striving for happiness is actually driving some of us crazy.

But how exactly can we attain a healthy dose of happiness? This is the million-dollar question.

First, it is important to experience happiness in the right amount. Too little happiness is just as problematic as too much. 

Second, happiness has a time and a place, and one must be mindful about the context or situation in which one experiences happiness. 

Third, it is important to strike an emotional balance. One cannot experience happiness at the cost or expense of negative emotions, such as sadness or anger or guilt.

Finally, it is important to pursue and experience happiness for the right reasons. Too much focus on striving for happiness as an end in itself can actually be self-defeating. 

True happiness, it seems, comes from fostering kindness toward others—and toward yourself!