“Happiness” is an intense and immediate state of joy, pleasure, or euphoria, which makes us “feel good”. That is why, when we speak colloquially, we often use the terms happiness and well-being as if they were synonyms. But cerebrally, these concepts are different and have diverse implications for our health and quality of life. Understanding the distinction between happiness and well-being is not only interesting from an academic point of view, but it is also essential for promoting sustainable emotional balance and lasting mental health.

Taking a trip to a paradise island. Buying a house. Curing an illness. Having time for family and friends. Winning the lottery. Getting promoted at work. Playing a football match on Sundays. Having children. Sitting on a terrace in the sun. These are all real answers to a question as intimate as it is complex, which thinkers and philosophers, political and religious leaders, sociologists and psychologists –and perhaps those reading these lines– have tried to address throughout their lives: What makes us happy?

A characteristic unique to humans is the amount of time we spend thinking about what isn't happening: the past, the future, or hypothetical situations. This type of thinking, known as mental wanderingMindfulness is considered a key capacity for learning, reasoning, and planning, but various philosophical and religious traditions suggest it can have an emotional cost. Based on this hypothesis, a team from Harvard University analyzed the relationship between mind wandering and emotional well-being in everyday life. Using a mobile app, the researchers, led by MA Killingsworth, collected real-time data from more than two thousand adults, who reported what they were doing, what they were thinking, and how they felt at that moment. The results showed that the mind wanders almost half the time, with little variation depending on the activity, and that happiness levels are lower when thoughts are not focused on the present activity. In other words, when it comes to explaining emotional well-being, what we think about is more decisive than what we are doing, and that a wandering mind, despite its cognitive value, carries a measurable emotional cost.

Daniel Tubau is a philosopher and writer. Publish Seven ways to achieve happiness according to the Greeks (Ariel), where he invites us to abandon slogans and return to the classics to consider what we might consider a happy life today.

"We have commercialized happiness, and we believe that if we are not happy, we are miserable," David Bueno emphasized in the talk "Do you know how your brain works?", which he gave on October 22nd at the Byron bookstore for the ARA Premium Club. The science communicator and ARA collaborator explained the difference between happiness and well-being. "Well-being is more flat than happiness. It has uncomfortable emotional states, such as frustration, disappointment, and sadness, which have no place in happiness and which allow well-being to be maintained. These uncomfortable emotional states are telling us that something is not right and we need to change." David Bueno emphasized that stress is one of the brain's worst enemies. "We should have at least 45 minutes each day to do nothing," he proposed, something he himself tries to practice. And he concluded optimistically: "In this changing society, if we can, we should be the driving force of change."

We read in the ARA that since 2008, "well-being throughout the human lifespan has been represented with a U-shaped graph." Children are generally happy, young people too, but adults reach their fifties and also reach the lowest point of unhappiness, "due to the stress and worries of life." And then, you see, it rises again, because the years pass and everything comes back to haunt you. The ARA reminds us that "this theory is popularly known as the happiness curve." And if it tells us about it, it's because "a study claims that the deterioration of young people's mental health has eliminated the typical behavior of this figure."