In reading.

• future: feelings of optimis m, hope, trust, faith, and confidence.

There are three categories of present positive emotions:

• bodily pleasures, e.g. enjoying the taste of food.

• higher pleasures, e.g. glee at listening to music.

• gratifications, e.g. absorption in reading.

The bodily and higher pleasures are "pleasures of the moment" and usually involve

some external stimulus.

Gratifications involve full engagement, flow, elimination of self-consciousness, and

blocking of felt emotions. But when a gratification comes to an end then positive emotions

will be felt. Gratifications can be obtained or increased by developing signature strengths

and virtues. Authenticity is the derivation of gratification and positive emotions from

exercising signature strengths. The good life comes from using signature strengths to obtain

abundant gratification in, for example, enjoying work and pursuing a meaningful life.

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While a person's overall happiness is not directly measurable due to limitations in

neuroscience technology, this does not mean it does not have a real physical component. We

know that the neurotransmitter dopamine, operating along the mesolimbic pathway and

upon the nucleus accumbens, is involved in causing a human or animal to experience

happiness. If we were able to accurately measure the production of dopamine in various

parts of a person's brain, we would likely be able to definitively determine how happy the

person is. Happiness can be induced artificially with drugs, most directly with opiates such

as Morphine and Heroin, which block dopamine inhibitors.

Nevertheless, the exact chemicals and processes which cause happiness do not define

the concept of happiness, they simply describe its biological "implementation". We might

guess that other implementations are possible, even if they have yet to be observed in

nature.

It is possible, however, to describe what happiness is in biological terms. One such

attempt is referred to as Darwinian happiness. Darwinian happiness is based on the fact that

animals, due to their brains, are equipped with the propensity for both positive and negative

feelings and sensations. By understanding the underlying evolutionary background for how

these sensations arise, one may gain insight in how to ensure that the neurological processes

that add to a positive mood will tend to dominate.