# The hidden benefits of happiness

Satisfied people have an easier life:

- [Hardship](hardship.md) is more bearable.
- The [immune system](body-firstaid.md) is stronger.
- Satisfied people have more energy and finish tasks quicker, meaning more time.
- Positive thinking makes [learning](mind-memory.md) easier.
- Without bad feelings, [creativity](mind-creativity.md) is easier.
- [Self-control](habits.md) is easier because happy people run "to" instead of "from" things.
- [Friendships](people-4_friends.md) are better:
  - More people want to be friends with an enthusiastic person, but less with an unhappy one.
- Everything has more [meaning](meaning.md) when we're happy.

Happiness also avoids the long-term consequences of misery:

- Negativity causes the brain to deteriorate:
  - [Fears](mind-feelings-fear.md) reinforce themselves:
    - Fear of vulnerability or failing
    - Aversion to all risks
    - Afraid to self-express
  - Feelings become harder to manage:
    - Unable or unwilling to identify feelings
    - Feeling inferior or inadequate
    - Forced into constant fight/flight/freeze reactions
    - Low self-esteem builds self-rejection
  - Disconnection from reality:
    - Oblivious to self
    - Tendency to set unrealistic, unattainable, idealized expectations
    - Anxious about all consequences
    - Exaggerating real and imagined threats
- Unhappiness causes physiological problems:
  - The immune system doesn't effectively fight diseases.
  - Wounds and injuries heal slower.
  - Long-term risks of *many* afflictions like heart disease and reproductive problems.
- Unhappy people also tend to live hypocritically:
  - Defining self-worth by others' opinions
  - Distrusting others
  - Not self-forgiving or forgiving others
  - Withdrawn and isolated to avoid rejection
  - Feeling misunderstood and presuming others are evil