Happiness: It's in your Biochemistry
Happiness: It’s in your Biochemistry
What is it that makes us happy? Some may say money, some spending time with friends and family; others may say a promotion at work. Scientists have been exploring what it is that truly makes us happy for decades, and depending on their area of expertise, have all come up with different conclusions. In this blog post however, we are going to consider the biological explanation of happiness.
In his book ‘Sapiens: a brief history of humankind’, professor and historian Yuval Noah Harari, explores the biological view that our mental and emotional world is governed by biochemical mechanisms shaped by millions of years of evolution.
Harari claims that people are made happy by one thing - pleasant sensations in our bodies. These pleasant sensations are caused by chemicals in our brains which are released when we experience something good - chemicals like serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin. So when something good happens, like winning the lottery, a person jumps for joy, not because of the money itself, but because the thought of getting money releases happy hormones in the brain.
The reactions described above are unfortunately temporary, and after the initial rush of winning the lottery, our general mood will quickly return to its ‘normal’ state. What a ‘normal’ state is though varies from person to person and lies within your biochemistry.
Genetic biochemistry scale
Everyones natural biochemistry will swing between 2 numbers on the above genetic biochemistry scale, and biologists say that we inherit our biochemistry from our parents, therefore, if both parents are high on the genetic biochemistry scale, it is highly likely that their children will be too.
Some people are born with a cheerful biochemical system which allows their mood to swing between levels 6 and 10, stabilising at 8. These people are the individuals who seem to be happy no matter what life throws at them. Other people aren’t quite as lucky and have a gloomy biochemistry that swings between 3 and 7, and stabilises at 5. Harari explains that such people remain at a lower level of happiness despite having everything they need around them.
Lets play devils advocate for a moment…
Whilst what Harari says makes sense, it doesn’t account for negative life events such as a the death of a loved one or going through a divorce. Is he saying that those with a happy biochemistry won’t be affected by such things and remain their happy go lucky selves throughout? Similarly, is he saying that those with who are lower down on the biochemistry scale are unable to feel happy when their child is born or marry the love of their life?
Harari explains that biologists maintain that happiness is determined mainly by biochemistry, but agree that psychological and sociological factors also have their place. As stated earlier, we all have a range of biochemistry that we swing between. Whilst it’s near on impossible to exceed the upper or lower emotional boundaries, life events like marriage and divorce can impact the area between the two. Someone born with an average of level 5 of happiness is unlikely to ever dance wildly in the streets, but a good marriage should enable them to live at at the higher end of their happiness scale from time to time. Similarly, when someone who sits higher up on the biochemistry scale experiences a negative life event, they will drop down to level 6 on their scale, and feel blue.
Thoughts from T2
The way that we at T2 interpret this is that because we’re born with our own individual level of biochemistry, we have our own interpretation of happiness and unhappiness. Someone with a biochemistry between levels 1 and 5 on the scale, will feel their version of happiness when they’re at level 5, because that’s the top of their genetic scale. Whereas someone with a biochemistry between 5 and 10, will feel like at their lowest when their biochemistry scale drops to 5.
We all have that one grumpy friend…you know, the person who manages to put a pessimistic view on everything. Someone with a cheerful biochemistry may look at them and think, ‘they’re so miserable all the time’, when actually, the ‘grumpy’ friend is more than content in their lives, they just have a gloomy biochemistry. Equally, the grumpy friend may look at someone with an extremely cheerful biochemistry and think ‘how can they be so happy all the time?’. It’s because of their biochemistry!
Wherever you land on the biochemistry scale, the ultimate aim is to try and sit at the top end of it as much as possible. Although your biochemistry is pretty much fixed, there are ways to manipulate it. Engaging in activities that result in your brain releasing ‘happy’ chemicals is a good place to start.
In Summary: everyone is born with their own individual biochemistry scale. The biological theory of happiness put forward by Yuval Noah Harari is an interesting one, and, one that we at T2 think makes a lot of sense. The biological stance on happiness explains why some people may appear happy all of the time, and others, not so. Whatever your biochemistry is, by engaging in activities that cause our brain to release ‘happy’ chemicals, we all have the ability to manipulate our biochemistry and reach the top of our happiness scale.