There’s a certain headiness that comes with the first days of spring

New beginnings, optimism, possibility. The fragrance of change is in the air.  No matter that there are still cold days ahead, we note the change and walk towards the light.

We feel happier.

But what is happiness? Is it a biological response? Is it a state of mind? Is it an emotion? Don’t worry, be happy is all well and good, but what if we are really worried. Or depressed. Or it’s the middle of winter?

And are all these questions only prevalent in a first world society? If we are worried about survival, is there room to ponder happiness and our access to it?

The United States Declaration of Independence declared life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to be an unalienable right. But I’m fairly certain that the Democratic Republic of Congo does not have such a statement.

Happiness is listed as one of the basic emotions, according to American psychologist and pioneer in the study of emotions, Dr Paul Ekman. The others are anger, disgust, fear, surprise and sadness. Through his research, he discovered that these emotions were the ones which appeared to be instantly recognised even in pre-literate cultures who had not had access to learned facial expressions through the media.

Ekman is of course not the first to explore the concept of emotion. The Greek stoic, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, politician and generally busy man, Posidinius was hanging out in Rhodes around 135-51 BC observing both people and environment and coming up with some observational reflections. Most of his works are now lost with only fragments remaining but many of his theories about the effect of the climate on peoples’ mood and character were the antecedent of much of our modern thought around seasonal mood disorder and the emotional impact of weather.

He was the first Stoic to depart from the orthodox doctrine that passions were faulty judgments and posit that Plato's view of the soul had been correct, namely that passions were inherent in human nature. In addition to the rational faculties, Posidonius taught that the human soul had faculties that were spirited (anger, desires for power, possessions, etc.) and desiderative (desires for sex and food). Ethics was the problem of how to deal with these passions and restore reason as the dominant faculty.

The problem, and it is unfortunate that it IS a problem, is that everyone wants to be happy but not everyone is able to achieve happiness. This is seen as a lack or a fault which then makes happiness even further off. Numerous are those who peddle books and motivational TED talks on happiness and its merits. And I don't have anything against these people. It does seem strange though that we need to be told and then have to learn how to cultivate a basic human emotion. How did we get to the point where happiness was so elusive?

I'm not about to join the crowd of happiness-mongers but I do just want to say, the moment I let go and just allow...allow the fragrance of the daffodils in the vase on my table to intoxicate me, allow the warmth of the sun to soak through my closed eyelids and fill me with goldenness, allow for possibility and awe and wonder and delight...then I feel a deep sense of happiness. And I am lucky that I live somewhere where I can just allow this feeling to envelop me. I can embrace it and walk towards the light.