And how you experience happiness is constantly shifting across your life based on all sorts of factors seen and unseen. Where you were born, who raised you, what you do for work, whom you hang out with, and so much more. Every moment, thought, and action affects it. So perhaps it’s best that we can’t give happiness a firm definition. Considering the elusive nature of happiness, the scientists wrote, “a state of contentment is discouraged by nature because it would lower our guard against possible threats to our survival.”
