Thrive Perspectives: The Misery of Chasing Happiness

In a culture obsessed with comfort, dopamine hits, and curated joy, we’ve been sold the idea that happiness is something we can chase, hack, or buy. In fact you might say that we live in a happiness cult, we worship happiness, and it’s become our ‘idol’. But what if that chase is precisely what’s making us anxious, disconnected, and spiritually thin?

This isn’t a call to abandon happiness. It’s an invitation to reorder it.

What if the good life isn’t found in feeling good, but in becoming good? What if joy is not the prize—but the echo of a life lived with purpose?

• The Misery of Chasing Happiness | Psychology Today