Types of Happiness: How to Cultivate Happiness

Happiness encompasses a spectrum of positive feelings human beings experience. A sense of happiness can range from simple contentment to thrilling euphoria, with different contexts influencing a person’s happiness. Kinds of happiness include excitement, joy, and pride, which people experience in different ways with various positive effects.

Cultivating happiness is a process that varies from person to person; some people might feel happiness because of professional success, while others encounter it in appreciating the simple pleasures and discovering the good life. People may derive satisfaction from reading a book outdoors, eating a favorite meal, or spending time with loved ones. Volunteer work and pursuing a rewarding career can lead to a meaningful life and overall happiness.

There are two main types of happiness, each affecting a person’s emotional state and mental health. See the unique kinds that influence one’s overall satisfaction below:

• Hedonia: Hedonic happiness comes from pleasure. Activities that feel good, often in an immediate sense, achieve hedonia. You may achieve hedonic happiness through food, sex, and vacations.
• Eudaimonia: A person’s eudaimonic well-being derives from pursuing virtue and more profound meaning, a process usually marked by long-term goals. Working honorable careers, building a family, and growing gardens are some ways people reach eudaimonia. How each person defines virtue will decide what kind of eudaimonia they seek.

Happiness can be challenging to quantify, but the US social scientist Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) gave a structure to unlocking happiness via his hierarchy of needs, which outlines the following steps people can take to reach a happy life:

1. 1. Physiological needs: The baseline of Maslow’s pyramid, physiological needs represent what humans need to survive: food, water, and shelter. Securing these basic needs opens the possibility of obtaining other necessary vehicles toward happiness.
2. 2. Safety: Employment, family, and owned property give people the security to feel comfortable and find greater happiness.
3. 3. Love and belonging: Third on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is love and belonging, which includes friendship and sexual intimacy that give people a social source of happiness and acceptance.
4. 4. Self-esteem: A higher self-esteem can lead to higher levels of happiness. You can build self-worth through self-assessment and the respect of peers and loved ones. At this level, people can efficiently process negative emotions.
5. 5. Self-actualization: According to Maslow, achieving each of the four levels of needs leads to self-actualization. Happy people experience and enact creativity, morality, and problem solving to lead fulfilling and realized lives.

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