La búsqueda de la felicidad, con Antonio Damasio

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The Pursuit of Happiness

At some point, we all have wondered what is the sense in our life and what makes us “happy”. Actually, life and happiness are extremely close concepts, and Antonio Damasio, neuroscientist and Prince of Asturias Award winner, has begun the task of demonstrating that that sense is life itself.

He has dedicated his whole career to study the neurosciences, particularly the role emotions play in our decision making. Thus, in 2010 he published his book Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain in which he explains which is the relation between brain and consciousness.

Damasio reveals that our perception of happiness is closely linked to the sense we give to the things we do and to our life itself. To explain that, he focuses in two essential matters: what happiness is and what elements conform it. In Damasio’s words:


It is hard to define what happiness is. [It is] a state of being, both physical and mental, and it depends on three main components: the first is wellbeing, another one is joy, and the last one is [the ability] to think about what we are experiencing, about the fact that something happened to us, and that something happens to us and makes us know that we experience happiness.”

Nevertheless, we do not usually find those three components Damasio describes, therefore it is important to understand that there is not only one kind of happiness. Many times, we might experience more or less wellbeing and joy without being aware of it.

Emotion versus feeling

While going more deeply into this matter, most of the times it is difficult to define if there is some difference between emotions and feelings. Damasio explains that emotions are like music where our organs are our instruments that produce it for someone else to listen. And feelings are like music in our mind. Nobody is able to notice them, but until the moment they emerge in our mind and let them out.

Understanding what happiness is allows us to comprehend how much both emotions and feelings are signals that indicate us if things are going well or not, as well as the reaction they provoke in ourselves. For example, what makes us feel sad or angry, or any other feeling that is not indifference. Feelings are a representation of our inner selves related to the exterior world.

Lastly, Damasio emphasizes on one of the primordial features of happiness which is fragile and vulnerable nature. Knowing we are at risk of losing it in the “blink of an eye” makes us effort more to get it and keep it. This human “state” has allowed cultures to develop, thanks to empathy and the inexhaustible union in the pursuit of happiness.

Don’t miss Antonio Damasio’s intervention in the brilliant minds festival La Ciudad de las ideas (CDI) in Puebla! 

Don’t believe everything you think!

Tickets to the 2017 edition are now available.

Acerca de La Ciudad de las Ideas

La Ciudad de las Ideas es un festival de mentes brillantes, una celebración de la creatividad y la curiosidad del ser humano. Con la participación de más de 60 conferencistas, científicos, humanistas y líderes de opinión. De manera paralela, se presentará un programa artístico y cultural que integrará cortometrajes, intervenciones artísticas y más.

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