An alarmingly common question that people ask me once they know of my profession is, “Is anyone happy?” It’s almost like they’re looking for validation or hope to know that happiness is out there. That maybe, if they try hard enough, or wait long enough, they will finally be happy.

Before I continue, I think it’s important to understand that psychologists describe happiness as a state of mind. Focus on state. It is a temporary feeling that you need to work on to prolong. More permanent positive feelings come from life satisfaction,a sense of well being and purpose.

There are many different theories of happiness, but they generally fall into one of two categories based on how they conceptualize happiness (or well-being):

Hedonic happiness is based on subjective well being and the experience of more pleasure than pain. There is a cognitive component involving self evaluation of how good…