Happiness is one of the important aspects of mental health. Companies across the world are now conducting workshops and sessions for the mental well-being of their employees. Despite gaining so much popularity, we still do not know how to measure the state of happiness. This is because happiness has many definitions and meanings. In this article, we list down some of the ways through which you may measure contentment or happiness.
Self-Report Assessment
Happiness cannot be measured but you can carry out a self-report assessment to know your happiness level. The self-assessment test is done scientifically after carrying out thorough research, norming and testing. The items in the report are tested on a sample population and refined further so that the test gives the desired outcome.
Self-report helps in assessing an individual and measuring happiness. It helps in finding out the impact of changes made in our lives. It also helps in identifying areas where you can do well and areas where you are already doing well.
Biological Factors
One of the ways of measuring the state of happiness is by checking the biological indicators. You may take the sample of urine and saliva to study the changes in the biological indicators like neurotransmitters and hormones. The outcome will have different readings depending upon your state and level of happiness.
Behaviour
The best way to measure happiness is to study the behaviour of a person. When you are happy, you will be in a cheerful mood and would have a smiling face. The smile in your eyes is one of the genuine ways of finding the happiness level. Some other forms of behaviour that correlate with happiness include generosity, acts of kindness, gratitude, etc.
The above mentioned are some of the ways of measuring happiness. Happiness is a subjective experience and every person has a different meaning to it. It is important to focus on the aspects of life that contribute to the concept of happiness. When you focus on those factors, you truly attain mental well-being. There would be occasions when you would be momentarily happy, that would be because of your current emotions and state. However, when you are overall happy, that would be because of your experiences and life satisfaction over a given time. Definitely, it has got positive changes in all aspects of our life journey for a better tomorrow.
Since you know the difference between momentary and overall happiness, you must also know the factors that contribute to them. These factors would vary from person to person. Happiness is the key to a healthy and good life. When you are happy, you would experience the feeling of joy, pleasure and contentment. A higher level of happiness means a higher number of positive experiences in life. And when you are not happy, you are likely to go through emotions like fear, guilt and anger. If at any point in life, you feel low or depressed, you may get in touch with Living In Wellbeing’s expert counsellors and involve yourself in motivational and inspirational talk with us.
