“Good news: we are happy. The only problem is that we don't know it!"

Marc Welinski argues that most of us are already happy, but we don't realize it. It sounds like a provocation, but his thesis starts from a simple observation: while we chase abstract definitions of happiness, we completely ignore the amount of small joys that surround us every day. Happiness is not a distant destination; it is the landscape that already surrounds us — we just take it for granted. The most common mistake is to think that happiness is a treasure hunt: a goal to be achieved, a prize to be won, or an unmistakable signal that should overwhelm us. Welinski turns everything on its head: happiness is largely invisible because we have trained ourselves to look elsewhere. It manifests itself as a series of tiny and often silent details that we stop seeing from the moment we consider them normal. But the real trap, according to him, is that the majority of people already live in conditions that, seen from the outside — or compared to other eras or regions — would seem heavenly, yet almost no one is aware of it. Two protagonists immediately emerge: Marc Welinski, the author, who had already written "Why It Is Impossible to Fail at Life", and the philosopher Socrates, quoted ironically when Welinski ponders the "science of happiness" — as if to say: do we really think that analyzing enzymes or brain images is enough to decipher happiness? Starting from neuroscience and psychology, Welinski shows how our brain tends to register threats and problems much more easily than satisfaction. A fact that makes you think: most positive emotions are filtered or stored without leaving a conscious trace, while a single negative episode can haunt us for days. His reasoning draws strength from common experiences: the feeling of peace on any given morning, the laughter exchanged with a friend, the pleasure of a hot coffee — all things that we experience without recognizing them as happiness, because we expect something spectacular. Welinski tells how, after overcoming an illness, he began to notice every detail — the temperature of the water, the scent of the air — and realized that happiness had never been lacking; it simply hadn't had the right name. His provocation is this: hell is a dream, while paradise is often already our daily life, if only we change our perspective. But there is a risk that Welinski emphasizes: happiness "without knowing it" is not enough, because it risks making us passive, unable to fight to improve our condition or that of others. In this sense, recognizing happiness is an act of awareness, not resignation. So, if the science of happiness is a novelty, perhaps the real revolution is not finding new sources of joy, but learning to see the ones we already have. If happiness were a river that flows through our lives, most of us would simply ignore it because we are always looking from the wrong side of the bank. If this idea has struck a chord with you, on Lara Notes you can press I'm In and choose: it intrigues you, you've experienced it, or you fully believe it. And if in a few days you find yourself telling someone that being happy is often a matter of realizing it, on Lara Notes you can tag whoever was with you: it's called Shared Offline. This Note comes from Le Monde.fr and saves you 19 minutes.