As they donned their bright yellow Jackets the kids moaned. Charlotte was Seventeen and Sophie was 9. 

To be frank, I couldn’t blame them. I’d dragged them out, to wander the streets of Hornchurch with a brightly lit ‘Santa sleigh’ attached to a land rover, on a cold December day.

It’s an activity I usually get involved with each year. I, along with a number of my friends, traipse around Hornchurch asking for donations, raising money for local charities, entertaining the kids who come out to see ‘Santa’ and collecting bags of shopping for local food banks.

I often question why I do this every year, and why I drag my daughters out to do this with me, and I’ve realised now I understand a bit more about Chaironic Happiness , that sense of Awe or Bliss is probably the reason I love to do it.

Wandering the streets fundraising for charities certainly isn’t an Hedonistic activity. Often wandering the streets in Mid to Late December is cold and at times a little bit miserable, particularly when there’s a mince pie, a warm environment and somewhere, a Christmas party going on.

When I look at this activity it doesn’t provide Eudaimonic pleasure. Do I get a sense of achievement and satisfaction from doing this? Not really. It’s not challenging in a conventional sense and I don’t feel that it sits in that ‘flow’ zone ideal to improve my Eudamonic well being.

However, I’ve thought about this a lot and I get a real sense of Bliss and Awe from wandering the streets, fundraising for local charities, collecting shopping to give to the local food banks and entertaining the kids.

Now, for those of you who are failing to see the direct connection between ‘bliss’ and ‘awe’ from wandering the streets in the dark, even if it’s in a place as lovely as Hornchurch. For me, here’s the connection…

I get a sense of awe when I see the look on the younger kids’ faces when they see Santa, dragged by the Range Rover, coming around the corner. Even some of the adults get quite excited!

I get a sense of joy and bliss seeing the generosity of people. Doing this restores my faith in humanity and supports my belief that most people, despite being flawed, are pretty good people.

I get to play a part in the community. Working on something, not for money but for good, makes me feel that what I’m doing has a positive impact on the world.

This to me, is a perfect definition of Chaironic wellbeing.

It’s interesting. Charlotte and Sophie always express a bit of dissatisfaction when joining me to traipse the streets, but when they’ve had the Hi-Vis tabard on for a while they start to enjoy it.

It also makes me wonder whether we need to consider the role Chaironic wellbeing plays in all our lives, and what we need to do to increase our sense of Bliss and Awe simply by taking action which allows us to see the best in people.

What do you think?