We seek out feel-good experiences, always on the lookout for the next holiday, purchase or culinary experience. This approach to happiness is relatively recent; it depends on our capacity both to pad our lives with material pleasures and to feel that we can control our suffering. ( ① ) Painkillers, as we know them today, are a relatively recent invention and access to material comfort is now within reach of a much larger proportion of the world’s population. ( ② ) These technological and economic advances have had significant cultural implications, leading us to see our negative experiences as a problem and maximizing our positive experiences as the answer. ( ③ ) Yet, through this we have forgotten that being happy in life is not just about pleasure. ( ④ ) Comfort, contentment and satisfaction have never been the elixir of happiness. ( ⑤ ) Happiness is there, on the edges of these experiences, and when we get a glimpse of that kind of happiness it is powerful, transcendent and compelling.

* culinary: 요리의 ** elixir: 특효약 *** transcendent: 뛰어난