Contentment. Happiness. Euphoria

But another expression of happiness is euphoria.

Being ecstatic, overjoyed, giddy with excitement at

the brilliant thing you’re experiencing. Nobody would

argue against the fact that someone in such a state

is clearly happy.

But then, so is someone who’s content. And these

two states are essentially incompatible. Surely nobody

has ever experienced an intense rush of contentment?

Can you imagine sitting in your comfiest armchair

with everything taken care of, an aged whisky in one

hand and your favourite paperback in the other, fizzing

with pure ecstasy, thinking, “I’m so relaxed! This is

amazing!” That’s just not how we work.

This suggests that what we think of as happiness

is down to multiple different processes in our brains.

There’s the reward pathway, which is responsible for

pleasure, of course. But we already know that’s not

the whole story.

This is borne out in the neuroscientific data. According

to the available evidence, there’s no ‘happiness centre’

in the human brain. What we think of as happiness

is more likely a sort of umbrella term, a handy label

we apply to all the ways in which we can feel good.

Indeed, it can often be that what we think of as

happiness isn’t due to something happening in our

brains, but something not happening. Sometimes,

happiness can be experienced via the reduction or

removal of activity in the stress-producing parts of

the brain, which are typically always ‘on’, to a degree.

In many ways, that’s why alcohol is as popular as it

is. In the smallest doses, it suppresses the higher parts

of our brain that worry and stress about consequences

and other people’s judgment. This lowers our stress,

making us happier as a result.

Maybe that’s where the neurological division is?

Contentment is happiness produced by the removal of

stress, while euphoria is the result of excess stimulation

and activity in the reward pathway. It’s a theory, of sorts.

As ever, this isn’t likely to be the whole story. Our

brains are too complex for that. The theme of the

2025 World Happiness Report was belonging and

kindness. This makes sense; humans are incredibly

social, empathetic beings, so much of our happiness is

contingent upon those around us. There’s a significant

link between empathy and happiness, which means

acts of kindness and belonging may indeed be a

significant component of it.

The importance of empathy and connections, or

validation, on happiness can have its downsides, too.

For instance, you could have everything any human

could ever hope to have in terms of money, power

and security, but if you feel people don’t like you,

happiness can still prove elusive.

Ultimately, it’s very hard to measure happiness if we

can’t specify what it actually is in the scientific sense.

But that doesn’t mean we should begrudge anyo