10 Emotions that make you HAPPY!

Joy, gratitude, serenity, hope, inspiration, pride, amusement, interest, curiosity, awe, and love; those are the 10 emotions of happiness. This week’s video is all about a further way that we can delve into the whole question of, how do we get more happiness for ourselves? In previous weeks, I’ve been doing some teaching on this, the constructs, the theories by which we achieve happiness, and what really happiness consists of. They were really helpful, these constructs. They’re ways that if we academically understand what they mean, then it gives us different avenues and logical ways to pursue more happiness in our own lives. But those 10 emotions that I’ve just described are direct paths to happiness, if we want to pursue it that way. So, that’s what this video is all about.

As a coach, public speaker, and best-selling author, I teach topics just like this one all around the world. So stay tuned, and I’ll give you practical tools that you can use to make both yourself and those around you both happier and more successful. I listed all those emotions: joy, gratitude, serenity, hope, curiosity, inspiration, amusement, and something called awe where we’re just like our jaws go slack, and we’re fascinated by what we’re seeing. Usually, it’s something in nature, but it might be awesome human endeavors too. And the feeling of love, all of those ten emotions, are the emotions of happiness. Now why wouldn’t we just go after those directly, rather than those things that I’ve taught for the past few weeks which is about the ways that researchers have theorized about what are the constructs, the various methods by which we can grow happier? Those were very helpful themselves.

For example, this idea of pleasure, which is found in a bunch of the different theories, is that this is just the emotions of sensory experiences. Hearing something beautiful, tasting something good, having a sense of security that I’m safe, all of those pleasurable emotions are a wonderful way of being happy. Then there was the idea of flow. That when we get into this state of real engagement, being in the zone, that’s a wonderful way to feel more happiness. We often think of it as athletics, but it frankly could be working in an Excel spreadsheet, writing an essay, reading a book, having a conversation, doing a do-it-yourself project, any number of things can get us into a flow state where we’re just completely zoned in. The happiness only comes when we take a break from the flow state. We go, hey, that was really fun, I was enjoying doing what I was doing.

Then there was meaning, this idea that we wake up with purpose, and have a sense of what it is that our life’s about or at least part of our lives are about. That can carry us not just in moments like pleasure or through hours like a flow, but through days, weeks, and years, and even maybe decades. Then there was this new idea about psychological richness, this idea that variety, novelty, and something that stretches us, challenges us, causes us to have a different perspective on the world. The example I gave was international travel, but any number of other examples would exist. These are all ways that we can intellectually say, oh yeah, I get what that means, and then I can pursue actions that give me more of happiness through those mechanisms.

But the 10 emotions, well, they are what happiness is. They’re the feelings that we’re actually pursuing. And each of those other constructs will provide mechanisms by which we can get some of those 10 emotions. Well, what if we just contemplated the 10 emotions themselves and said, I want to go get that? David will put a link in the description below. I’ve done a video that was kind of a mini meditation many months ago, maybe even years ago, on what these 10 emotions are. I encourage you to follow this link if immediately you don’t recognize exactly when and how you feel these ten emotions.

But that’s the challenge. If you can understand what joy is to you, or gratitude is to you, or what hope feels like, or curiosity, or amusement, or inspiration, any one of those words, if you can hone in on what that is to you, then you simply need to ask yourself, well, how do I get more of that? It might be a remembrance first. Well, when did I last feel a lot of joy? And then say okay, well can I do more of that activity or what activities are like that? If I say I get a lot of joy when I play hockey, well then I can say, well I should sign up for more hockey. Absolutely, I played three games this weekend so I’m getting my share of hockey.

But I might also be able to say, well what’s like hockey? Oh well, I really like getting exercise, so I go for a walk in the park, I play table tennis with my friend Tobias. Or I might say I really like hockey because it’s the camaraderie with the men. So I join other activities where there’s lots of men working together and having play and social time together. The same would go for curiosity. If I say, yeah, I really like it when I’m learning new stuff, well okay, what’s like that? Oh well, instead of just learning what I’ve learned in the past like academic subjects or history, maybe I’d be interested in learning a new language or I’m curious about a new method of cooking something. You know, just pursue these, what’s like that, and then you find these myriad many, many, many routes to more personal happiness. That’s it for this week. One of many ways that we can look at happiness. I hope you enjoyed the content. If you like it, click the like button, share it with your friends and family. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you again next week.