Two Types of Happiness – You need both!

By: Jena, Happiness and Wellness Coach Certificates (NO AI was used)

In my last blog Pour Yourself A Cup of Happiness Every Day, I talked about finding more happiness in your day to day life and how to go about doing that. Now I’m going to talk about the two psychological types of happiness. If you don’t know this already, I have a Happiness Coach Certificate. One of the things I learned in my happiness course was about two psychological types of happiness Hedonic and Eudaimonic. And we need both! In this blog, I share small pieces of what I learned in the course, but most of it comes from research from various different sources and my own experience.

I found researching this and writing this to be helpful for my own personal journey toward living a happier life, I hope you feel the same!

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What is Hedonic Happiness?

Hedonic happiness is experiencing small, simple, joyful experiences that are brief. This could be purchasing a new outfit, enjoying a dinner out, reading a good book, or enjoying a walk with a friend. Hedonic happiness helps you get from one day to the next. Hedonic happiness involves doing activities that make you happy in the present.

Some people live their life completely relying on hedonic happiness. Many psychologists believe it is better to have a balance between Hedonic and Eudaimonic. Where Hedonic happiness could become dangerous is when it is overly used to mask emotional, mental, spiritual or physical pain. This may look like turning to emotional eating regularly, obsessive time spent on social media, impulsive buying, etc. Some people would also argue that people focused too much on simple pleasures, are not doing their part to effectively contribute to society and serving others. Hedonic happiness isn’t considered selfish, but it can be for some.

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What is Eudaimonic Happiness?

Eudaimonic happiness is created when you find meaning and purpose. It is a type of well-being that is formed when we unlock our potential and work toward our personally determined goals. Therefore, Eudaimonic happiness is connected to a strong sense of self-actualization.

True happiness can be found inside of ourselves.

Self-actualization is achieving one’s full potential, including creative abilities (Selva, 2017). Examples of self-actualization can vary greatly from person to person as it involves the pursuit of personal growth and fulfillment in line with one’s unique values and aspirations (Perera, 2024). You may be familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs, and if you recall self-actualization is at the top.

To read more about self-actualization view Positive Psychology.

In order to fully take advantage of Eudaimonic happiness a person has to have strong values, an understanding of one’s core beliefs, and a deep understanding of personal character qualities along with strengths. You also have to develop an awareness of your thoughts and how they connect to the actions you take. 

Examples of Eudaimonic Happiness could be: achieving a life goal, the feeling of doing work that is meaningful, volunteering to help others, mastering a new skill, building healthy relationships, etc.

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How to Obtain Eudaimonic Happiness

In order to achieve Eudaimonic happiness you might actually have to give up some Hedonic happiness items. You might have to give up several things that make you happy short-term because achieving Eudaimonic happiness may mean discomfort, overcoming fears, a devotion of time, monetary sacrifices, and so on. For example, you might have to give up some unhealthy eating behaviors that keep you from a long-term health goal. Maybe you have to get up extra early and have less time to do fun activities you enjoy. But the process of overcoming the challenges and achieving the goal will be worth the sacrifice for more Eudaimonic happiness.

Experts agree there are six pillars that provide a foundation to Eudaimonic happiness.

Six Pillars of Eudaimonic Happiness

1. Autonomy – Autonomy means a person is independent minded and driven to pursue their own path in life no matter what other people say or think. You pursue the job, the hobby, the activity your most passionate about letting go of the fear and all societal expectations. You allow yourself to be curious, experiment, and try new things. By testing your boundaries you get a better sense of who you are. But to do this you have to prioritize yourself putting your goals and needs above everything else. Only when you will have fulfilled your core needs will you be mentally and emotionally strong enough to help others (Draghici, 2023).
2. Self Acceptance
   You must accept yourself both the good and the bad, your strengths and weaknesses, and work toward an even better you.
3. Purpose in Life
   Find a sense of purpose in life. Then, finding activities that align with your core values. (However, I personally believe you can have multiple purposes to guide your life decisions and the actions that you take. I have read many articles that say having one big purpose that guides your entire life is essential, and for the most part I disagree. I will talk about this more likely in my next blog.)
4. Personal Growth
   This is like self-actualization. You work on improving your full potential physically, emotionally, mentally, socially, and spiritually. You might invest in mastering some new skills, work on changing an unhealthy behavior, improve how you handle stress, work on your professional communication, and/or improve your diet to have better focus and concentration. Personal growth is the process of an individual becoming aware of the ‘self’ in its entirety, followed by taking steps to address the behavior, attitudes, values, actions and habits that they wish to change (TRANSCEND HEALTH).
5. Environmental Mastery
   This is all about understanding the resources you have both internally (within yourself) and externally (people, money, equipment, a space, supplies, etc) and figuring out how to utilize them effectively.
6. Positive Relations
   You can’t have Eudaimonic happiness without meaningful relationships. Therefore, it is important to invest in relationships with people who will help support your needs, your goals, and who align with your values. I talk about this in my blog How Relationships Influence Our Health & Our Success. 
   

Mindfulness Helps with These Pillars

One way to develop many of these pillars is to improve or work on being more mindful. Are you living life in the present? Or is your mind constantly thinking about past situations, or worrying about the future? Do you spend any time with your own thoughts? Or are you just going from one activity to the next without time to think about each decision and action? Being mindful as I talked about in a previous blog “How Mindfulness Improves Your Health & Your Life,” is key to living life in the present. But it can also help you understand yourself and develop peace and contentment.

Building Healthy Relationships

A huge part of Eudaimonic and Hedonic happiness is in the relationships you build. Healthy relationships are needed to be happy, and many agree having a purpose that serves others is necessary. I believe when you have autonomy, achieve self-acceptance, are living in accordance with your potential, prioritizing your needs, continue to work on personal growth, and positive relations, you can more effectively serve others.

Improve Your Confidence in Yourself

If you are still trying to figure out your path, your strengths, your weaknesses, and feel confident in who you are, check out my blogs What a Healthy Self-Esteem Really Looks Like and Improving Self-Esteem & Confidence in Your Career.

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Benefits of Eudaimonic Happiness

You can see how Hedonic happiness can leave a person chasing after the next pleasurable thing, and never feeling a real sense of happiness or contentedness. Even though money can buy some happiness short-term, it doesn’t last. The same goes for just filling your life with activities that don’t lead to anything meaningful or purposeful. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m a huge fan of Hedonic happiness, and believe we need it to get from one day to the next. My last blog was very much focused on Hedonic happiness and its benefits.

Eudaimonic happiness benefits every area of your life with a greater sense of peace, personal growth, professional growth, healthier family relations, social interactions, community involvement, better health, and greater success.

It is said that Eudaimonia happiness can reduce the risk of disease, lead to better sleep, better weight management, and so on. Although an illness isn’t an exact result of a lack of Eudaimonic happiness, it can definitely be related. People who focus on Eudaimonic happiness tend to focus more on wellness by watching their diet, exercising, effectively managing stress, and creating healthy behaviors.

Eudaimonic happiness and well-being represent the greatest form of human goodness; an ideal which both Aristotelian and Stoic philosophers promote as the foundation of a genuinely beautiful and harmonious life (Draghici, 2023).

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Make a List & Create Some Goals

Now if you read my last blog on how to pour yourself more cups of happiness everyday, and you created a list of things that make you happy, were those items Hedonic and Eudaimonic happiness? Or both? Try splitting your list into these two categories and make sure you have items that fit into both categories. It doesn’t matter which one is longer.

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Resources

TRANSCEND HEALTH/Why is Personal Growth Important?. Retrieved from: https://www.transcendhealth.com.au/why-is-personal-growth-important/#:~:text=Personal%20growth%20is%20the%20process,that%20they%20wish%20to%20change

Draghici, Alexander. (2023, March 28). Happier Human/Eudaimonic Happiness: The Complete Guide. Retrieved from: https://www.happierhuman.com/eudaimonic-happiness/

Draghici, Alexander. (2023, March 28). Happier Human/Eudaimonic Happiness: The Complete Guide. Retrieved from: https://positivepsychology.com/self-actualization/

Schaffner Ph.D., Anna Katharina. (2023, March 6). PositivePsychology/Hedonic vs. Eudaimonic Wellbeing: How to Reach Happiness. Retrieved from: https://positivepsychology.com/hedonic-vs-eudaimonic-wellbeing/

Gatchpazian M.A. Ph.D., Arasteh. Berkeley Well-Being Institute/Eudaimonia: Definition, Meaning, & Examples. Retrieved from: https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/eudaimonia.html

Perera, Ayesh. (2024, January 24). SimplyPsychology/Self-Actualization In Psychology: Theory, Examples & Characteristics. Retrieved from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/self-actualization.html#:~:text=Examples%20of%20self%2Dactualization%20can,writing%2C%20or%20playing%20an%20instrument

Selva Bc.S., Joaquin. (2017, May 5). PositivePsychology/What Is Self-Actualization? Meaning, Theory + Examples. Retrieved from: https://positivepsychology.com/self-actualization/#what-self-actualization