What is happiness? Internal influences

My previous post concerned the external influences that affect our happiness; now I'll comment on what is, perhaps, an even stronger determinate of our happiness, namely internal factors. Such questions are really only an extension of "nature vs. nurture" and "experience vs. reason." They're questions of how we relate to the world and the world relates to us. With progressive discoveries in brain science, psychology and philosophy (to a certain extent) have turned the focus of addressing questions of humanity inward. No longer are questions of metaphysics (such as how a "God" impacts our lives) the most pertinent. Questions of what happens outside our world seem almost primitive in the world of modern science. That said, nature, more than nurture, has been the primary focus on explaining who we are and why we are who we are. Biology and how it affects brain chemistry are vitally important to how we see the world, how we see ourselves and how we feel in general. Emotions have been linked to the brain's amygdala, the walnut sized ganglion (had to look that up) in our mid-brains. As a Romantic, I'm annoyed at the prospect that the awesome power and beauty of human emotions are perceived by science as coming from a "ganglion" (whatever that is) the size of a walnut in our brains. So boring! Still, I accept whatever is true. If our emotions are purely physical, coming from the mid-brain, then so be it (although it's more complicated than that.) Regardless of how they're created, emotions are very complex and are an enormous part of what makes us human. So how does our internal makeup impact our happiness? How we express emotions depends on how they're produced in our brains and how they're affected by the external world. Mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder greatly impact how our emotions are produced and, more importantly, are regulated in our brains. Personality disorders like borderline personality also have huge impacts on our moods and feelings. In the grip of such illnesses, emotions can become delusional and elusive. The individual can enter into escapism and never return. This can create a false happiness which can thrive as long as the individual never leaves the fantasy world. In our real world, this is, of course, impossible as we can only survive by suspending our disbelief for brief periods. The physical science of the brain will always drag the healthy individual back to the physical realities of the world around us. From a purely scientific perspective, that science of mind, neurotransmitters in our brains, govern what we think and feel. How that brain chemistry is then developed by our contact with people and other external factors dictates how we feel. Simple as that. And, scientifically, this is reasonable and, as human research continues, no doubt, biologically true. However, cold, bland, wonderful science doesn't stand a chance of winning the battle over emotional perspective when it comes to combining emotions with abstract imagination and creativity. Our creative imaginations take emotions in hand and explode them into colors, fictional worlds that take us beyond the stars, moments of human drama that inspire us to strive and give life meaning. In short, emotions in the hands of science are dull and lifeless. Combined with imagination, emotions are priceless, the reason why we're alive. If we don't feel and express our emotions in ever more complicated patterns, we become empty robots, devoid of color and life, only capable of thought. No matter how brilliant and developed our thoughts become, it isn't enough. We have to be artistic; we have to paint and be moved by paintings. We have to draw and be amazed by what we're capable of creating. We have to produce music and revel in the beauty of the melodies. Like thoughts and emotions, our creative energies also come from within. Bring them all together and we are human, we are whole. Emotions, especially, become how we motivate ourselves. This is true human happiness. We feel it inside. We are complete.