About happniess and satisfaction

I'm sure you've thought about that. What actually is happiness? And what is satisfaction? What's the difference between that? I would like to touch on the topics and then make a short reference to the blog.

What is happiness and what is satisfaction?:

Happiness is more of a short-term high. For example, when you're out with your friends in the evening, have already had a few champagnes and/or beer, laugh a lot and just have a good time. Or when you're on a merry-go-round and this feeling of freedom overcomes you. That is happiness. Satisfaction, on the other hand, is more of a long-term feeling. For example, when you think about your life in a quiet moment, you have the feeling that you did a lot of things right and it feels good and comfortable. That is satisfaction.

You can be satisfied, so, for example, you can feel really comfortable in quiet moments, even though you have few moments of happiness. And you can also be generally dissatisfied despite many moments of happiness. An interesting study by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman says that married women are often more satisfied than unmarried women, but unmarried women are often happier than married women. Interesting, isn't it?

Which of these is more important?

But now the question is still open, which of the two is more important. Happiness or satisfaction? Satisfaction seems to be more the "deeper" feeling. And happiness seems to be rather the more "superficial" feeling. Contentment is harder to influence than happiness. For example, after you have broken up with someone and you are deeply hurt, it is easier to go out in the evening, to distract yourself and have a good time - in other words, to seek moments of happiness. But it is harder to lie in bed in the evening and feel fulfilled and satisfied again.

If you try to compensate for dissatisfaction with moments of happiness, in the long run, the hole in your soul will eat you up over time. To be satisfied and to feel comfortable even in quiet moments is, therefore, the long term important part. Nevertheless, one should not forget the feelings of happiness. When I look back on my life in many years, I would like to have led a life that was both satisfied, but in which feelings of happiness were not missing. To a certain extent, contentment is the haven of security and the happy moments are the highs that burn themselves positively into our hearts as memories. I think that the combination of these two qualities makes life really worth living.

In this blog, I often talk about "happiness and contentment", because I believe that both are based on deep inner personal values. With my texts I would like to address these values and - even if it sounds pretentious - provide incentives to increase both happiness and satisfaction of each person. The texts are divided according to their focus on happiness (topic "Go for it") and satisfaction (topic "Reflection").

On this topic, I would also like to refer to a poem which touches me personally and which I think everyone in the world should have read: "If I could live again" by Jorge Luis Borges.