How to find Happiness? — Culture, Spirituality and the Gospel

How to find happiness? Martin Seligman is a psychologist who wrote a book called Authentic Happiness in which he says that the there are 3 levels of happiness.

1.Positive Emotions

2.Engagement

3.Transcendent Meaning

Happiness as Positive Emotionhttps://unsplash.com/@elijahdhiett — Happiness as Positive Emotion
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Often when we think about happiness, we think about positive emotions. The problem is this becomes a form of chasing feelings. Chasing feelings works only up to a point, but then it has diminishing returns. The Harvard Psychologist Dan Gilbert says that if someone won lottery, within six months the happiness that they feel is not any different from any normal person. We easily get used to the feelings of happiness, then we need more and more to be happy. So this kind of chasing emotions will never lead to lasting happiness. It is like getting likes on Facebook, feels good for a while, but then returns back to the baseline quickly.

The second level of happiness is what Martin Seligman called 'engagement' by that he means 'flow.' Flow is an idea talked about by another psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. To be in flow is to be involved in an activity in which we are able to use our strengths in some activity which engages 100% of our attention. It is a space where our sense of time comes down to zero. Artists who are fully focused on the work they do are in flow. If you do any activity whether reading or writing, if you are so engrossed that you lose track of time, you are in flow.

Third level of happiness according to Seligman is by transcendent meaning. It is achieved by investing in something that is bigger than us. It is about finding our sense of belonging in something that is bigger than us. It is a sense of the transcendent.

Happiness as Transcendence https://unsplash.com/@priscilladupreez

From a purely naturalist standpoint, if you think the world we see is all there is, then it is hard to find a true sense of transcendent sense - the most transcendent one can get to is the sense of being a part of stardust. Lawrence Krauss is an atheist physicist he said that he found transcendence in stardust because the atoms in his body came from stardust and will return to stardust.

One could ask is this sense of stardust-transcendence true transcendence?

From the pov of Christian theology, yes the Bible says we came from dust and will return to dust, but that is not transcendence, transcendence has to do with the 'why' - why did we come from dust and go back to dust. As Christians our ultimate why is the love of God. we find our transcendence in Jesus' commandment to love God and love our neighbor because our love points to the love of God. We find meaning in our experience of God's love, and in being a channel of God's love to the people around us. Mother Teresa when she got her noble price said she found the joy in serving the homeless people because she saw Christ in them. This is because Jesus said in Matt 25:40 whatever you did for the little ones as these you did them to me. This is why you need the theological foundation to find a unshakable sense of transcendent meaning.

From a Christian standpoint, the sense of living into Seligman sense of 'Flow' has to do with us being made in the image of God. We are made in God's image, God is the most creative person, who even created the stardust, and being made in His image we are a creative people. From a Christian standpoint even our feelings, even as evanescent as they are, are important because they help us to motivate our creativity and express our love to the people around us.

For this system of happiness to work, one has to get the order right. Finding our deep happiness in transcendent meaning is the most important, that is like the internal combustion engine in a car. Positive Emotions is perhaps like the air conditioning system, it is important, but it cannot function unless the engine is working well. The Christian view of finding our transcendence in God's love all other things fall in their right place. This is what Jesus talks about in Matt 6:33 where He says Seek God's kingdom first and all other things will fall in its place.

To summarise... How do we find our happiness? According to Seligman it is Positive Emotions, Flow and transcendent meaning. He says positive emotions aren't lasting, Flow lasts more, transcendent meaning is the highest point. From a Christian standpoint as in Matt 6:33, getting the order right is key - seek our highest meaning (satisfaction) in the love of God, then engage (purposefully) in the work of God's kingdom building, then positive emotions will follow. But if we attempt to reverse the order, if we try to chase after positive emotions, then we will end up someone frantically adjust the grill in the air conditioning vents in the car to get cold air when the engine is not working.

Find you highest meaning in the love of God, the highest purpose in building God's kingdom, then positive emotions of happiness will follow. Reverse the order to start chasing after positive emotions, and you likely be chasing after the wind.