Happify and Integral Theory

The reader will be forgiven for thinking that “Happify” is a silly name, but having spent some time with the program I’ve come to think of it as whimsical. In the all important field of “branding” these days, it’s important for a name to capture the essence of the product you are offering. On that basis the name works. Happify seeks to deliver happiness. They do so using a series of games, goals and questionnaires which are indeed sometimes whimsical. But can the program deliver on such goals as “Conquering your Negative Thoughts,” or “Coping Better with Stress?” They say that users “can’t wait to share with us the transformation that Happily has made possible.”

Can that be true? Absolutely; it is true, but as Ken Wilber would hasten to add, it’s partial. Happify says, (and I believe them), that they have used the latest in brain research on happiness to develop programs that help people with issues like coping with stress or feeling less lonely. The programs, or tracks as they call them, amount to a series of games or questions that refocus, or train the brain to think and feel differently. The theory is solid enough. Norman Doidge in his wonderful book, The Brain that Changes Itself, describes and documents many ways in which the “brain’s plasticity” has been used to create a better life. We change our brains all the time. We are changing our brain when we practice the piano so why not train it to be happy instead of simply playing Brahms?

Having said that, and having mentioned Ken Wilber I’d like to give a nod to an integral approach to such things as developing happiness. “Integral,” which amounts to a map of human experience, always examines four basic perspectives when addressing an issue. In addressing happiness, something like Happify can indeed take care of training the brain, and if that’s the primary reason you are not happy then using Happify, like using a pharmaceutical, (though healthier I’m sure), may well work for you. But training the brain only addresses the external, physical reality, of the individual; that’s only one perspective on reality. There is the internal subjective reality to consider. If a person is unhappy because they are living life without purpose or meaning, without connection to the source of creative love, then Happify won’t be able to address that. If a person is living in an area where war, rape, and poverty are the order of the day, then some work will need to be done on the external realities of that community before happiness or a stress free life is within their grasp. If someone is living in a society where the ethos is misery and horror, then the internal dimensions, or worldview, of the society will need to be addressed. Solving the issues in any one area of human experience, while a good start, cannot guarantee happiness. If we want to affect human experience, whether by bringing more happiness, or financial stability, or peace to the world, we do well to consider all four of Wilber’s “Quadrants” – Internal of the Individual, External of the Individual, Internal of the Collective, External of the Collective.

If you think though that you’re unhappiness may well have to do with habits of mind, then by all means give Happify a try. I’m happier than I was yesterday when I started looking at it. Is that because of Happify or because I had a great night out with my wife? Yes.

More on Happify here.