Most of us have probably watched some video clips from the Are You Happy Official Series channel on social media. I have followed them on Instagram for years. Sometimes, watching the interviews with random people (in the US and beyond) about whether they are happy helps me rethink how to rewire my mindset and approaches to happiness.

My apologies in advance. I’m an academic scholar, so my thought process always rigidly starts with definitions. So, what is happiness?

From the Are You Happy Official Series channel, some people are happy as long as their families have food on the table. In sociology, we call it satisfying our subsistence needs. Alternatively, others, perhaps having fewer survival concerns, like to approach happiness emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

What about me? How would I interpret happiness? Professionally and academically, I like to study the totality of a concept or issue. By saying that I mean I would probably look at whether I am socially, mentally, financially, occupationally, spiritually and emotionally well, balanced and resilient in order to measure my level of happiness.

Personally, though, as a person diagnosed with mental illnesses for 15 years, I would say being mentally well or not is my utmost concern. As long as I can fairly cope with being psychologically dislocated, mentally drained, and anxious, then, for the most part, I should be fairly happy.

Of course, at work (in academia), like others in the entertainment industry, for example, I have to face rejections day in and day out. Sometimes after weeks or months of consecutive rejections, my self-worth and self-confidence would be destroyed from top to bottom. As an academic scholar, I am constantly trapped in encounters with imposter syndrome, chronic burnout and depression, acute anxiety, significant self-doubt, and notable stress. Over the years, I have activated my survival mode and automatically readjusted my emotional and mental wellness regularly whenever I, once and again, face rejections.

So, in general, am I happy?

In my hometown — Hong Kong, there was a vintage song where the lyrics go, “whether we like it or not, we still need to live our entire life until it’s a wrap.”

Over decades of disappointment, frustration, sometimes hatred, and despair at the ugly side of humanity, I have paid the bill of cohabiting with diagnosed mental disorders for half of my life. For the most part, I’m not happy. I tried to be as easily satisfied as I was as a kid, but perhaps my failure to have answers in life has barred me from developing fair life satisfaction.

Of course, there are times that I’m blessed, joyful, and rather at peace. Yet, at certain points, these would be overtaken by the influx of negative emotions and setbacks. Happiness is always a seasonal thing to me.

I watched an interview that features Harvard Professor Arthur Brooks the other day. He suggests that happiness isn’t a destination, but a direction, and the goal should be to constantly strive for “happierness” rather than achieving happiness.

He emphasises that happiness is a combination of enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning, and that the pursuit of pleasure alone can be detrimental. Brooks also highlights the importance of prioritising areas like faith, family, community, and meaningful work to cultivate a sense of satisfaction.

In line with Brooks’ advice, when I approach “am I happy?”, I would say I have been very self-driven and motivated to seek tentative enjoyment, longer-term satisfaction and lifelong meaning in life through my connections and especially work.

Therefore, if I look at any given day of my life, I might possibly not be happy throughout the entire 24 hours. However, when we look at the forest rather than the tree, I have endeavoured to check most, if not all, of the boxes of striving for “happierness”.

That’s my response to “am I happy?”

Now, it is my turn to ask: Are you happy?

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