Setpoints
The biological basis of human happiness is our neurochemical setpoints, which is the resting level of things like dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine, etc in the brain. They are mostly genetic and very hard to change.
If these are out of whack and making you unhappy, there are only three scientifically proven interventions to fix them:
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: The most highly regarded type of therapy which helps us identify our cognitive biases and distortions (untruths) and correct them to alter our brain chemistry.
- Medication: precribed by a Psychiatrist, medication designed to specifically alter brain chemicals.
- Meditation: I’m not joking, meditation is literally one of the most powerful actions we have for improving our mental health, since it returns our bodies to our physiological baselines (read, it relaxes us).
Conditions
The enduring, but not permanent, factors of our life like our jobs, where we live, and the environmental problems we face in day to day life.
The research shows that negative conditions can really impact our happiness, but positive conditions don’t affect it much. Think about it like this – the brain would much rather remove some pain from life than add in some new pleasures. Fixing an annoying leaky faucet or moving away from toxic neighbors does a lot more than upgrading to a luxury car for our happiness.
Actions
This refers to the things we choose to do daily. Outside of the conditions of our life like our jobs and homes, we have a lot of choice each day – what to eat, when to sleep, how to take care of ourselves, what exercise and hobbies to do, who to hangout with, and more. The most important voluntary actions for human happiness are not very surprising:
- Relationships with other people.
- Flow activities are challenging enought to engage us, but not frustrate us, and interesting enough to keep us involved. You know you’re flowing when you lose track of time. In a way, it’s the active form of meditation