The concept of happiness can be divided into two types “feeling based” and ”value based”. Here I will show you the distinction between the two and how focussing more on value based happiness can improve your life.

Feeling Based Happiness

Feeling based happiness is to do with the senses and is often known as pleasure. Eating nice food, kissing and other similar things can provide this type of happiness. Pleasure is clearly desirable but it’s also inherently unstable. It is dependant upon the right environment and also subject to the law of diminishing returns. So as soon as things aren’t going our way we will have lost this happiness.

Value Based Happiness

This is the happiness that comes from living in accordance with our deeply held core values. Living our values gives purpose and meaning to our lives. It is possible to experience value based happiness even while enduring physical or emotional pain. If we know we are doing the right thing we can look past the pain and see a deeper sense of happiness or fulfillment behind it. We have more control over value based happiness so it is more stable.

Finding Your Values

It can be very difficult to determine our true values. Finding whats really important to us is not easy but that’s no excuse to give up. Even if we never achieve a perfect understanding of our core values any progress towards such an understanding is well worthwhile.

Living Out Your Values

To live in accordance with your values is not always an easy task. Often you will be have to forgo pleasure or endure pain to live your values. Fortunately as you exercise your will power in this way you will often find that you no longer desire those same pleasure or that the pain is no longer as great as it once was. I’ve heard this referred to as “educating the sensitivities” which basically means making your feelings come into line with your values. So overtime your feelings or desires will help you to live your values rather than hinder you.

For further reading refer to:

Secrets of Happiness (Steven Reiss) – Psychology Today article where I first came across the distinction between “value based” and “feeling based” happiness. The concept was already familiar to me but this terminology was new and provides a nice way of looking at the matter.

Happiness (Matthieu Ricard) – A Buddhist perspective on happiness. Describes the idea of deeper underlying happiness as opposed to pleasures.

Nichomachean Ethics (Aristotle) – Aristotle puts forward the case that happiness is the highest good the humans are all aiming towards. He also goes on to say that happiness is achieved through developing virtues.