Is Happiness a Choice?

Many books, including A Course in Miracles (ACIM), claim that happiness is "merely" a choice. According to this thread of happiness theory, it's always up to us -- we can choose to be happy or we can choose to be unhappy. And we do so, each and every minute, of each and every day.

Like most absolutist's claims there is at least some truth in the happiness-as-choice position. The truth is that in every moment of life we can choose our mental focus. We can choose to focus on the beautiful, wonderful or exciting things in our world, in our lives, in ourselves, or we can choose to focus on the negative, depressing, or just plain stupid things. We can undertake the gratitude exercises that I mentioned earlier, we can "always look on the bright side of life" as they sang in the Monty Python movie The Life of Brian, and we can use our minds in all sorts of creative ways to induce positive emotions. 

And yet, we are more than just minds, we are bodies, too. That's where things like chemicals, hormones, heredity and genetics come in. Some people are just more biologically inclined to have a sunny disposition than other people. Some people, as University of Virginia professor and happiness researcher, Jonathan Haidt puts it, "won the cortical lottery." And all of us seem to have our own specific "happiness set point" to which we regularly return no matter what happens in our lives. Granted, as I mentioned in an earlier post, our happiness set point is just one element that contributes to our overall happiness, but it is an important and powerful element. 

Still, the majority of factors affecting our overall happiness are within our sphere of influence or field of choice. All these things fall into one of two categories -- actions or attitudes, in other words, how we use our bodies or how we use our minds. Short of someone physically overpowering you, you can go where you want to go, do what you want to do. And that freedom of mobility can have an enormous and direct effect upon your happiness.

Attitudes, too, always contain an element of choice. Even if you awaken in a deep, blue, hormonal funk, you can use your power of focus to upgrade your mood and feel better about yourself and your life. As Rational-Emotive Therapy so clearly points out, our thoughts have a direct effect upon our emotions.

So, is happiness a choice? Yes and no. You can choose to undertake behaviors that will increase your overall level of happiness, but that doesn't mean that you can completely "choose" to overcome all genetic, biological and chemical components of happiness. Still, the playing field is quite large, and you'd be foolish to ignore or abdicate your power of choice.

As anthropologist and author, Carlos Castaneda says, "We can either make ourselves miserable or we can make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same." Being strong and being happy is definitely within your sphere of influence, even if it isn't completely under your control. May you always choose wisely.