How should we pursue happiness? This is a question that has many points of views. The Authors like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Gretchen Rubin, C.S. Lewis and also the Declaration of Independence have different ways of viewing how to pursue happiness. They believe that everyone achieves happiness by a variety of certain ways. Some people have the same view points and some the complete opposite. After reading the authors beliefs about happiness, one has many unique ways to pursue happiness. On the Declaration of Independence it claims that “We all have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (The Declaration of Independence sec. 2). C.S. Lewis author of We Have No Right to Happiness, has a different point of view by arguing …show more content…
For example your inner worth, how you feel when you help someone or how you feel with yourself. His Holiness the Dalai Lama claims happiness is determined more by ones state of mind than by external events” (Lama 22). Gretchen Rubin argues with the Dalai Lamas point of view “money symbolizes status and success. It buys time, which can be spent on aimless drifting or purposeful action. It creates power in relationships and in the world. It often stands for the things we are lacking” (Rubin 166). I believe you do not need money in order to feel good and happy about yourself. You just need a good mindset and a healthy state of mind in order to feel happy and find that inner contentment with yourself. I can see how Gretchen Rubin thinks that money can make up for the things we lack on but that does not mean that just because we lack on things and have money it will make us happier on those aspects. I believe that you would feel inner contentment when you feel success as she describes but how long will it last? Now that I have gone through the subject of inner contentment now I am going to be discussing short term …show more content…
Gretchen Rubin claims, “Its certainly true in my household that spending out creates a wealth of love and tenderness, while calculations and scorekeeping build resentment” (Rubin 185). His Holiness the Dalai Lama expresses, “Success may result in a temporary feeling of elation or tragedy may send us into a period of depression but sooner or later our overall level of happiness tends to migrate back to a certain baseline” (Lama 22). I think that Gretchen Rubin’s point of view makes sense because going out and spending money can make you feel happy and other feelings with it but ones you see how much you spend you become unhappy fast and start regretting whatever you spend money on. In other words money is a short term happiness whether you are happy with what you bought at that moment. The Dalai Lama also makes a good point when you succeed in a certain thing you come to a point where you feel extremely happy or you can also feel extremely depressed but after all the emotions pass we go back to feeling the same happiness we once did before that. In conclusion, all authors in some sort of way agree that happiness is pursued different by each person. Everyone has different feelings and thoughts about their happiness and you are the only person that can determine what makes you happy. The authors feel like happiness can be accomplished in different ways,
The article “High Incomes Don’t Bring You Happiness” verbatimly states, “Beyond $75,000, money is important for life evaluation, but does nothing for happiness, enjoyment, sadness, or stress” (Kenney 4). Those who spend prodigal amounts of money disdain plebeians because they claim that money is the foundation to living a great life. However, money only helps one meet certain needs and does not contribute in instigating true happiness within oneself. Happiness comes naturally by one’s actions and accomplishments. Although, money helps buy the commodities which satisfy one’s life, it is not the direct source for obtaining glee within a
Happiness can come in many different ways for people. For me, my Pursuit of Happiness is doing what you love and living your life to your expectations. Over this unit of American Literature we have studied The Great Gatsby the characters looked to others for their happiness. In Of Mice and Men The characters did what made others happy instead of themselves and also looked to simple things for happiness. Although in Ain't I a Woman Sojourner Truth did what made her happy even if everyone was against her. If you are doing
The studies given as examples and discussion focuses on teenagers and young adults, but includes anyone is struggling to find happiness. Evidence to Support Thesis: Point 1: The level of well-being is emphasized as more people continue to lose track of what makes them happy. Shawn Anchor is reminding people to capture the essence of simple contentment and asking his audience to think about what they value. Anchor’s book provides seven principles that involve having an open mind to becoming happier. Anchor includes other research studies as evidence to his claims throughout the book.
Happiness is a feeling adults experience when they receive a gift, win something, and various other reasons, but does money buy this happiness everyone experiences? Don Peck and Ross Douthat claim money does buy happiness, but only to a point in their article which originally appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (252). Throughout their article, reasons on why money can sometimes buy happiness are explained. While some of the reasons given are effective, not all are satisfying answers for adults working diligently to make a living. Money is a part of everyone’s life, yet it is not always the cause of happiness.
According to Freud’s conclusion, based on decades of experimentation and theoretical work in the field of psychotherapy, humans cannot be happy because a satisfaction of needs creates only a momentary phase of happiness which expires after some time. Therefore, the focus of life should not be on obtaining happiness, and people should focus on avoiding suffering instead (Bullock, n.d.). However, several paradigms of well-being exist, and individual cognitive patterns and paradigms define the emotional responses to social influences. From an objective viewpoint, well-being is a state of consciousness that arises from a combination of internal and external factors, and money is an unstable external influence in defining subjective well-being. Money as a determinant of subjective well-being is influenced by several cultural influences.
Now how does a person go about being happy, well let us examine one of the most common questions in reference to happiness, “can money buy happiness?” most people would say “yes.” The answer to this question will almost always be yes, because society and humans in general tend to be greedy creature always wanting more, from a better house to finer foods there is and always will be more to obtain. But is having these things what makes humans happy or is it the success of achieving your own...
Happiness means to live a good and happy life and that all your family members and friends find happiness too. In the pursuit of unhappiness written by Darrin McMahon talks about how to live a happy life and how to find happiness.In federigos falcon written by Giovanni Boccaccio he kills and cooks his purebred falcond to feed and empress his love, but by doing that he loves son dies from sadness.The science of happiness they make participants take a quiz about who makes them happy then they make them call that person and the test showed that the people that were less happy came out happier then the other people.The purpose of this paper is to explain what happiness is and what makes a person happy accordinglyat brings them
However, the question now is, does money buy us the joy that we need? Well, it improves the quality of our lives in which gives us some happiness. But we don’t need all luxuries to look happy because many other things measure
When none of us has ever come across such words and formulas, none of the great personalities has ever mentioned it, then who the hell has instilled it in our minds that money brings happiness. But among this debate one question still raises its head - What is happiness? Happiness is not actually leading a luxurious life but the luxury of living a life. Happiness is not actually about expanding your business, but it lies in expanding the horizons of life. Happiness is not having a meal in the most famous restaurant but to have it with your most beloved family. It does not lie in attending honorable parties but to attend a party with honor.
“The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living” is a collaboration by His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., who identify many possible components that could lead to a happy and satisfying life. Their approach combines and integrates the thoughts of East and West; Buddhist principles and practices on one hand and Western science and psychology on the other. Many everyday difficulties are highlighted in this book, and Dalai Lama and Dr. Cutler attempts to help the readers find appropriate solutions in order to find a balanced and lasting happiness. Dalai Lama’s understanding of the factors that ultimately lead to happiness is based on a lifetime of methodically observing his own mind, exploring the nature of the human condition, and investigating these things within a framework first established by The
It is highly debated, but ultimately incorrect. The closest correlation found on this topic was in a study conducted by Stanford, an Ivy League business school. With their findings, we can concur that the only way money can make someone truly happy, is by spending it in constructive ways to help others. With that, it is safe to say that if someone finds themselves unsatisfied with their live and wealth, that they could use it for the greater good. They should put it into charities, or as simple as buying a friend a meal. Whatever it may be, use the money for others. And that is really how money can buy
..., a person who earns $25,000 is happier than a person who makes $125,000 and an employee who makes $500,000 is only slightly happier than someone who makes $55,000. Lastly, there are more important things in life that and make you happy, for example, friends. They don’t come with a price tag, and if they do, you definitely need new friends. Money won’t make you happy since good times can’t be bought. You don’t need a fancy vacation to have a good time; it’s just a matter of who you spend it with. Over the years, humans have blown the value of money way out of proportion. People make it seem like if you’re not filthy rich, then you won’t live a good life but it’s not true. You can lack money and yet still live a perfect, happy life.
I never really thought the expression, “money can’t buy happiness”, was true. As an infant, just by observing the people around me, I observed when they would obtain money and a huge grin would spread across their face, the corners of their smile spreading from ear to ear. Whenever I would see that grin and a person’s face light up at the sight of a crisp, green bill it would make me believe that I had proved the famous expression wrong. Now that I’ve grown up and matured, my idea of that expression has changed. As of now, I am able to reflect on life more and look deeper into things and particularly into people more than I was able to do years ago. My ideas about this expression changed the most though because of the money situation my family had stumbled upon because of the failing economy. I remember being younger when the economy was doing well and waking up to twenty gifts for each of my three sisters and I. We used to believe that all of those presents, brought in because of money of course, were the best part of waking up on Christmas. Of course all of those toys and material items would make a child happy; however looking back it would only make them happy if it was given to them by somebody who bought it for them with love.
Some have even suggested that this moderate connection might be exaggerated. In reality, money might have very little to do with happiness at all. Most puzzling, though, is that people often seem aware at some level that money won’t make them happy. And yet they continue to work away, earning money they don’t objectively need. First, though, let’s look at the three reasons money doesn’t make us happy.
Money and Happiness are two things that we have all given a lot thought. We put lots of effort into these two things either trying to earn them or trying to increase them. The connection we make between money and happiness is strange because they are two very different concepts. Money is tangible, you can quantify it, and know exactly how much of it you have at any given time. Happiness, on the other hand, is subjective, elusive, has different meanings for different people and despite the efforts of behavioral scientist and psychologist alike, there is no definitive way to measure happiness. In other word, counting happiness is much more difficult than counting dollar bills. How can we possibly make this connection? Well, money, specifically in large quantity, allows for the freedom to do and have anything you want. And in simplest term, happiness can be thought of as life satisfaction and enjoyment. So wouldn’t it make sense that the ability to do everything you desire, result in greater satisfaction with your life.