Many of us like to be nostalgic about happy moments in life. We often think that things used to be better. "How good the weather was last summer, not what this one is." Let's understand why it seems to us that the past was better and how to objectively measure today's and yesterday's happiness.
Objective and subjective level of happiness
It seems that happiness is a rather subjective thing. However, scientists have conducted many studies in this direction and found ways to objectively measure the level of happiness.
Professor Ed Diener, known in the scientific community as Dr. Happiness, has devoted more than 25 years to the study of happiness. Here's how he measured happiness in one study.
People were asked to rate their own happiness and then given various tests to see if the results matched. The researchers scanned the subjects' brains, because the activity of the left prefrontal lobe shows the level of happiness, they measured the level of the hormones serotonin and cortisol during the day, conducted surveys of relatives and friends, asked whether the subject was happy or not and to what extent, conducted a test on the computer for reaction speed, where it is necessary to react to good or bad things in their lives (happy people are able to remember more good moments than bad), etc.
Assessments of the level of happiness of the subjects themselves most often coincided with the results of the conducted tests, not 100%, but for the most part. This shows that the subjective assessment of the level of one's happiness is quite objective and correct.
What's wrong with memories
Ed Diener's theory had many opponents. For example, psychologist Daniel Kahneman2 spoke about "personal experience" and "personal memory". He argued that what we feel in the moment cannot be accurately reproduced and reflected later because our memories are only an interpretation of our brain and not a true reflection of reality. Memories of happiness can be deceptive.
It turns out that we can objectively assess the level of our happiness only now, but not in hindsight. Therefore, you should not trust 100% your memories of "how good it was in the USSR or last summer".
How to create true memories
Document. A diary is perfect for this purpose, in which you can write down the main events of the day, your feelings and an assessment of your level of happiness. Ed Diener's "Life Satisfaction Scale" test will help you quickly determine your level of happiness, it only has 5 questions.
We need true memories in order not to live in the past, not to regret it and not to make the same mistakes. Happiness is possible only in the present.
Results
We can objectively measure our happiness independently only here and now. But memories should not be trusted, because our brain will later photoshop the picture in such a way that it is unrecognizable. Therefore, it is worth keeping a daily record of the main events of the day, your feelings and your level of happiness, so that you can always go back and see how things really were, and not suffer from life, events or people that never existed.