Happiness and satisfaction
What we talk about as “happiness” is actually a [set of biochemical reactions](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201211/the-neurochemicals-happiness) that happen inside our brains. [About half of those are determined by our genetics](http://www.springerlink.com/content/515738417321242m/), but the other half can be trained and improved.
There are many ways to train your happiness, but I find two especially important:
– Noticing good things around you
– Being content without them
### **Noticing good things**
Much of “happiness” comes from noticing (consciously or unconsciously) the good things around you. Practicing happiness means focusing your attention on things you find beautiful, pleasing, delicious, fulfilling. Many people find gratitude journaling a good way to do this. [Mindfulness meditation](https://www.mindful.org/meditation/mindfulness-getting-started/) builds the ability to do this throughout your life.
Noticing good things can be easier when circumstances are good; however Victor Frankl highlights in Man’s Search for Meaning [a moment when joy came from noticing a beautiful sunset even while headed to a prison camp](https://books.google.com/books/about/Man_S_Search_For_Meaning.html?id=H8k4JLZu6AsC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=snippet&q=sunset&f=false):
> If someone had seen our faces on the journey from Auschwitz to a Bavarian camp as we beheld the mountains of Salzburg with their summits glowing in the sunset, through the little barred windows of the prison carriage, he would never have believed that those were the faces of men who had given up all hope of life and liberty. Despite that factor–or maybe because of it–we were carried away from nature’s beauty, which we had missed for so long.”
Even those moments of noticing required a brief respite from pain, so a precursor to noticing good things is managing painful emotions. Fortunately the same practices of mindfulness and gratitude can [help with processing and dealing with pain](https://www.mindful.org/how-the-brain-can-change-your-experience-of-pain/).
### **Being content**
> The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his own room – [Blaise Pascal](http://bob.ryskamp.org/brain/sitting-quietly/)
In the modern world, we’re surrounded by physical and mental stimuli at all times. When those are removed, the emotional reaction can be so intense that [people would rather give themselves electric shocks](https://www.nature.com/news/we-dislike-being-alone-with-our-thoughts-1.15508) than experience the boredom of silence.
This dependence on external stimuli means our happiness is subject to our circumstances. If we can learn to be without those influences, our happiness will be more resilient. Taken to an extreme, if we were able to fully entertain ourselves with just the act of breathing, we wouldn’t need anything external to be perfectly happy.
Again, mindfulness meditation can train this ability, as can fasting–from food, entertainment or [social media](https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Living/10-teen-girls-give-social-media-weeks-fared/story?id=58967114)–and practices like keeping the Sabbath. Intentionally restricting what we consume builds our ability to be content without those things.
> I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. – [Paul, Philippians 4:11-13](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+4%3A11-13&version=NIV)