Possible Explanation of Why 2 Different Types of Happiness Have Vastly Contrasting Effects on Human Genome

There is a research study on Happiness done by Barbara Fredrickson that has found that 2 groups of people who focused on seeking 2 separate types of Happiness(Hedonic and Eudaimonic) have faced 2 contrasting effects in their gene expression. The Hedonic group has high inflammation and low antiviral and low antibody gene expression, the Eudaimonic group has low inflammation and high antiviral and high antibody gene expression.

The reports state that focusing solely on Hedonic Happiness is a form of unhealthy Happiness--

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20130730/Different-types-of-happiness-have-surprisingly-different-effects-on-human-genome.aspx
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/30/health/happy-genes/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

"Inflammation is the first line of defense against infection, so that would be a very useful kind of protein to have; however, something that causes your body to create inflammation over a sustained amount of time can cause collateral damage to healthy tissue."


The Co-author Steve Cole theorized that the stress found in the group that concentrates on Hedonic happiness comes from having a vulnerable source of well-being and having no helpful support. I feel I have a more accurate explanation.

I feel that the stress from the Hedonic group comes instead from a lack of general direction and meaning in one's life. Without a good sense of direction and meaning of life to calm a person down, a person that is uncertain and lost within life would constantly be physically and mentally on-guard to face any sort of difficulties and future unknowns. They would constantly be on high threat alert to prepare to face any threatening scenarios. Therefore, I think the stress from this group comes from the fear of major life difficulties and possibly also the denial of facing such difficulties.

My Concrete Road Analogy of Happiness—
Hedonic and Eudaimonic Happiness can work together quite like ensuring a car can move smoothly on the road. Hedonic happiness is quite like the wheels of a car that individually lifts a car above the ground. Together with the long stretch of concrete road that also lifts the car above raw non-traversable terrain, they both allow the car to go where it needs to go.

I feel Hedonic Happiness is a smaller and concentrated range of Happiness dealing to offset small concentrated forms of negative disturbances/limitations that occur in daily life. For example, the car wheels offsets the strong disturbances/limitations of many small striking rocks on the road. Eudaimonc Happiness is a broader and longer range of Happiness dealing to offset less concentrated prolonged forms of negative disturbances/limitations. For example, the road serves to offset the less-prominent uneven prolonged disturbances/limitations found on raw uneven terrain.

The concrete road analogy that I mentioned also represents having a clear direction that the person can follow. The group that focuses on Eudaimonic Happiness would symbolically have a clear distinct road to follow. The other group focusing on Hedonic Happiness would not be riding on a road but on the rough terrain constantly trying to find a direction to head towards in life. Since they are not on a concrete road but rides on rough terrain, they face a bumpy and shaky(stress-filled) ride frequently trying to find a new direction. The other group focusing on Eudaimonic Happiness rides on a concrete road(Eudaimonic) with a direction, and face a pleasant and peaceful ride to a pre-determined destination in life.

Having no sense of direction in life can create stress and panic of dealing with feel meaninglessness, stress that comes from the need to find other sources of meaning, and the stress of rushing quickly to get to new ones. A life getting from one source of Hedonic Happiness to countless others is unsettling, disjointed and stressful compared to a life with meaning that is more stable.

Examining The Difference and Compatibility Between Hedonic and Eudaimonic Happiness

There are different forms of Happiness discussed in Positive Psychology. I believe that the 2 main kinds of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Happiness have different range and concentration of focus and they both apply in dealing with 2 similarly different range and concentration of negative disturbances/limitations usually perceived as disturbing/distressing events in life.

Hedonic and Eudaimonic Happiness can work together quite like ensuring a car can move smoothly on the road. Hedonic happiness is quite like the wheels of a car that individually lifts a car above the ground. Together with the long stretch of concrete road that also lifts the car above raw non-traversable terrain, they both allow the car to go where it needs to go.

I feel Hedonic Happiness is a smaller and concentrated range of Happiness dealing to offset small concentrated forms of negative disturbances/limitations that occur in daily life. For example, the car wheels offsets the strong disturbances/limitations of many small striking rocks on the road. Eudaimonc Happiness is a broader and longer range of Happiness dealing to offset less concentrated prolonged forms of negative disturbances/limitations. For example, the road serves to offset the less-prominent uneven prolonged disturbances/limitations found on raw uneven terrain.

The Answers on How to Create and Sustain Happiness Indefinitely

There are many positive psychologists doing many studies about Happiness in the world. But they often ask stupid, superficial, materialistic and heavily distracted people for their opinions on how to achieve Happiness that is why they usually get stupid answers from them that only takes them round and round on a wild goose chase to really understand the nature of Happiness.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/significant-results/201308/whats-so-positive-about-positive-psychology

If the positive psychologists would continue to rely on the research data from such stupid worldly people forever then they will forever never get to fully understand Happiness (so this is where I come in).

But at least the positive psychologists have gotten an accurate grouping of the different types of Happiness seen from Hedonic(pleasurable feelings), Eudaimonic(greater good), Chaironic Happiness(spiritual-based Happiness) and prudential Happiness(sense of flow).

Positive psychologists have been trying to understand what really creates Happiness, they have also been searching for the ways to sustain the feelings of Happiness in people by getting them to constantly feel positive about life.

The answers are actually very simple. I have mentioned before that the feelings of Happiness comes from the feelings that come from achieving liberation and feeling liberated from restrictions.

The way to get people to constantly feel positive about life comes from getting them to hold on to a kind of hope that something very liberating and harmonious will happen to them in the future.

When people hold on to such hopes of something positive/harmonious happening to them in the future, they would not be biased to focus on the bad/disharmonious aspects of life in their present but they would be biased to focus more on the positive/harmonious aspects of life. Since they think the future would get better for them, they would therefore start and prepare to increase the positive/harmomious liberating aspects of life in their present while minimizing the negative/disharmonious restrictions currently found around them. They would also focus on treating themselves and others with harmony while they prepare to experience their positive harmonious kind of life in the future. They would therefore be constantly sustaining themselves to feel positive and be happy by focusing on the harmonious and liberating aspects of life that would generate the feelings of happiness.

The level of harmony found in one's future hopes is related to the level of harmony being perceived and practiced in the present.

The Happiness set point of how people normally feel most of the time, can be therefore be changed with the kind of hope held for the future.

If people think that there is a God who would punish them for their sins then they would lead a life where they constantly fear doing wrong things. They would get influenced by the Bible to hate sinful people in order to get to Heaven so they will go on their fanatic mission to try to take down gay people because they thought such a behaviour is their gateway to Heaven. The Christian religion was distorted by the ancient rulers to control people's behaviour and lessen the misbehaving people, it has now only turned to a huge bunch of nonsense.

But if people think that there is an all-understanding and accepting God, then they would not hold themselves accountable for anything they choose to do. They will do what they want with their own lives.

If people believe such things as having the possibility to ascend to a higher dimensional world where they would become beautiful and wouldn't age, they would not be too caught up by the limitations of the materialistic world and influences of the nasty people because they know they would be able to get away from it all eventually and get to go to a beautiful paradise world of immense harmony.

The amount of liberation found in people's lives and the reminder of such would create the onset manifesting feelings of Happiness. People's daily level of positivity that comes from perceiving harmony is dependent/sustained by the level of harmony found in their future hopes.

There is a relevant video that supports what I wrote—