Why happiness is important

Hello! Thank you for reaching out to us at Better Help. My name is Stacey Shine, and I am a Licensed Professional Counselor. I read over your question and hope that I can help provide some clarity to your thoughts.

You asked the question of why happiness is important. I think one really good picture of this is from the movie Inside Out. If you have not seen this movie – I would encourage you to watch it! It does such a great job of talking about emotions in a very elementary way for your children and adults. One concept that is my favorite in that movie is the need to experience all emotions. It shows how if you are joyful all the time, that is not great. It is not appropriate in some situations. If you are happy after a car accident, that is probably not the appropriate emotion to experience. Each emotion has a specific place in our minds, and it also has a specific purpose. You asked why happiness is important, and I think the simple answer is that it is necessary to function fully. Happiness is one of the many emotions needed in life to experience things. Without happiness, are you truly experiencing things? For example, it is appropriate to feel happy when holding a new baby or trying new food that you enjoy. That helps you truly appropriately experience them. However, it is okay for happiness to share space with other emotions like sadness, anger, disgust. They all have their appropriate times in life. Many people may think that their ideal life is only filled with happiness emotion, but I think this would also short them from experiencing life fully as all emotions are needed. Happiness is important, but it is not the only important emotion.

I hope this was a helpful answer for you. If you feel like you are not experiencing happiness and joy, I will encourage you to reach out to us for some time with a licensed therapist. You can go through with them and really look at how to find that happiness state for yourself and have a well-rounded experience in life. Best of luck!