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My understanding of the pursuit of happiness
My understanding of the pursuit of happiness
Pursuit of happiness meaning essay
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Pursuing happiness is desired by everyone I know, including myself. One’s happiness can only be interpreted on a personal level. What happiness means to someone can depend on what stage of life the person is in. For example, what made me happy as a child, as a teenage boy or as a single guy might not necessarily make me happy right now. Happiness is a state or a feeling that changes frequently. I would also add that there are two type of happiness. Long term happiness and short term happiness. Long term happiness is associated with a continuous event or what I can call a gift that keeps on giving. For example, long term relationships that make us happy since they started until the present, a great career, good health, etc. Short term happiness, …show more content…
I know individuals who choose not to be happy regardless of the circumstances they find themselves in. I also know those who are the opposite. They choose to be happy regardless of what they are going through. Like Abraham Lincoln said, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” However, to some extent, circumstances and personal attitude regulate happiness.
I don’t know about Charles Schulz but my life has a purpose, a direction, and it is meaningful. Unless this quote was taken out of context, I find it hard to be happy in his state. Maybe what he did right was to purposely not care much about anything. I can see how that could lead to happiness.
Groucho Marx said it best, “Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today.” I like his approach to happiness. I believe that what robs us of happiness is frequently based on what has happened already or the concerns of the future. Most often, though, those things are out of our control. We cannot change what has already happened but we can do what we are supposed to do today, with a whole heart, and let the future be shaped from
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One of them was about happiness and what to do to live a longer, happier life. It was about one of the longest studies in human history that has been going on for the last 75 years. It started with teenage men filling out questionnaires about what they think would make them happy. Most of them said what you would expect. Money, fame, successful careers, beautiful wives, family, good health, and so on. They had to answer questions every year. Those who are still alive are still doing it today. Of course there are a lot of variables among the participants but the one thing that was consistent with everyone who reported experiencing happy lives all of these years was having great relationships with their spouses, family, and friends. Do you want to be happy until old age? Well…there you have it. According to the longest Harvard 75 years old experiment, all you need is healthy relationships with those around
Newman and Randy J. Larsen’s article “How Much of Our Happiness is Within Our Control?” claims that we have much less control over our happiness than positive psychologists uphold. This shows that you let things that happen in your life control if you are happy or not. These psychologists argue that you cannot make yourself happier. This is saying you can never attain everlasting bliss and that you get used to all the negatives factors in your life. I do not believe this statement is true because I think you can always put a positive spin on every negative factor in your life and that your positive factors in your life can last as long as you want them to. Therefore, I disagree with Newman and Larsen because I believe you are the only one that has complete control over your own happiness. They state that the influential environmental variables in our lives are just as uncontrollable than our genes. However, the reactions to the uncontrollable environmental variables is what controls your mood and happiness. Although there beliefs are different they still have some common ground. The authors of both articles agree that the people who are happier tend to always have particular behavioral characteristics such as gratitude, kindness, positive relationships,
However, happiness also takes into account a wide range of other aspects of our lives, including our thoughts and actions, and even genetics. Therefore, happiness should be defined as the amalgamation of how we think and act, and how we interpret our experiences as positive or negative. What this means is that in order to become happier, we must simply force ourselves to become more optimistic. This is easier said than done, however. In order to have a noticeable increase in happiness, people must be willing to make lifestyle changes in addition to changing their mindset. However, the difference between optimism and delusion is a fine line, so people must be cautious to not exaggerate the positive parts of an experience or become overly optimistic. If we practice seeking out the positive views of our circumstances, with time we will find ourselves happier than
This is seemingly the case in the time period prior to the collapse of society. For example, when a character named “[Jeevan] reached Allan Gardens Park… he found himself blindsided by an unexpected joy. Arthur died… there’s nothing to be happy about. But there was… now he was certain, absolutely certain that he wanted to be a paramedic” (11). When Jeevan finally realized what he wanted to be, his true calling, he was overwhelmed with joy. Even though somebody had just died, all he could feel was happiness because he found something within himself. When Arthur was beginning to reflect upon his life, “He stared at his crown and ran through a secret list of everything that was good… Dancing with Clark when he was eighteen… Tanya sipping wine, her smile… Riding in his father’s snowplow when he was nine, the time [he] told a joke and his father and his little brother couldn’t stop laughing, the sheer joy he’d felt at that moment” (327). All of these different things brought Arthur happiness and eventually sadness at some point in his life, showing that nothing can keep you happy forever. The meaning of happiness is ever-changing. Since happiness was based off of how much you had, people had the ability to manipulate it by obtaining more
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
Happiness is the positive emotion and contentment one feels naturally. Many Psychology studies have been concluded to display what pure happiness is. In the article, “In Pursuit of Unhappiness” by Darrin M. McMahon, he indicates that happiness cannot be forced. In the article, McMahon mentions a philosopher, John Stuart Mill, who acknowledges as well, that happiness can not be forced. He says that if one focuses on something other than their own happiness, happiness will come to them naturally. By what Mill says, people should be encouraged that happiness will come to them and can not force happiness to them. Another example is Jeffrey Kluger’s article, “The Happiness of Pursuit”, he talks about how people focus on never being happy. He says,
Happiness has always been a desirable goal throughout our lives, but each actions we take might just affect the happiness of others. When humans seek happiness, we always seek for things that make us feel alive, or things that brings us the greatest comfort. Our contentment comes with the act of selfishness since we choose to prioritize our happiness above all other. We willingly classify happiness in two different types of meaning, both physical and mental happiness. People ought not be in title to happiness because it is classified in general as a physical desire by many people. Contentment is always known to be a physical satisfaction in life instead of a self-inducing satisfaction for life.
I believe that individuals can be happy for short periods of time in society. For example, we do not have to constantly fight for our possessions because we have rights, and security makes us happy. Rousseau would agree with this because he says, “What he [man] gains [from the social contract] is civil liberty and the proprietary ownership of all he possesses” (Rousseau, 27). Unfortunately, security cannot make us happy at all times because it is not usually at the forefront of our mind. It leaves us with a sense of contentedness, and we, normally, only realize the happiness security gave us when we lose
To begin with, anyone can be happy, it all depends on the type of person they are. There are of course they myths of happiness, predictors of happiness, and life satisfaction. Majority people believe myths that there are unhappy times during one’s lifetime, the stress-filled teen years “midlife crisis and then the years of old age” (Myers and Diener 12). In reality, people of all ages unveil that no specific time in their life were they happier or unhappier than others.
I know that life will never be immaculate and unblemished because after all, that is how life is. It is more a matter of perspective. I used to say the glass was half empty but now it seems to make more sense to say it’s half full. Neither of these expressions is inaccurate, but one of them makes life slightly more tolerable. I can now appreciate that happiness is essentially in the mind and it seems to me that if you spend your life in a cynical frame of mind, surely everything you do is surely a waste. The choice to be happy is one that anybody can make and it is this choice that ultimately determines how you live your life.
Achieving long-term personal happiness is possible with hard work and perseverance by using several methods. Understanding and following various steps to have fulfillment can change your life. By consistently following an assortment of important steps, you will develop a life pattern that is generally happy. Many people throughout history have attempted to find ways to become happier, and share the information with others. While there are occasionally things that should make a person unhappy, it is important to not allow unhappiness to become a lifelong pattern that destroys you mentally and physically. In addition, happy people tend to have more friends and success because they are fun to associate with.
Happiness is a psychological term that is hard to define since it is particular to each individual. However, we can define it as a psychological sense of life satisfaction, pleasure, and positive emotional condition. For some people, it is difficult to achieve happiness. In contrast, other people can find happiness in the simplest things. However, remember that happiness is in our hands. Just keep seeking it and we will finally be
When we are young children, we are introduced to the concept of "living happily ever after". This is a fairy-tale emotional state of absolute happiness, where nothing really happens, and nothing even seems to matter. It is a state of feeling good all the time. In fairy tales, this feeling is usually found in fulfilling marriages, royal castles, singing birds and laughing children. In real life, an even-keeled mood is more psychologically healthy than a mood in which you frequently achieve great heights of happiness. Furthermore, when you ask people what makes their lives worth living, they rarely mention their mood. They are more likely to talk about what they find meaningful, such as their work or relationships. Research suggests that if you focus too much on trying to feel good all the time, you’ll actually undermine your ability to ever feel good because no amount of feeling good will be satisfying to you. If feeling good all the time were the only requirement for happiness, then a person who uses cocaine every day would be extremely happy. In our endless struggle for more money, more love and more security, we have forgotten the most fundamental fact: happiness is not caused by possessions or social positions, and can in fact be experienced in any daily activity. We have made happiness a utopia: expensive, complicated, and unreachable.
Happiness, what is it, and why do we strive to achieve it so persistently? Happiness in some points of view is portrayed as the state that is derived from self-awareness of a benefiting action or moment taking place. What of the moments that are not beneficial? Can a person still find moments of happiness and success in discord, a little glimmer of light shining from the deep recesses of our own consciousness? Plucking it from a mere moment, achieved from money, or is it so much more, happiness is the precipice that all strive to gain to better perceive their success. As a person lives, they are in a constant struggle to be happy. For instance, even the United States Constitution makes reference to the idea that every person has the inalienable right to pursue happiness. This was the resulting outcome of the enlightenment from France, spilling out into the rest of the world from 1650 through 1800. This revolutionized the idea that every single person has the inalienable right to happiness or in different views the right to succeed. As to how one peruses or conjures their happiness that is an entirely different concept and completely up to their preferred preference, but it is something that a person needs to find on their own for true success.
According to Buddha, “Happiness does not depend on what you have or who you are. It solely relies on what you think.” To be happy, one must know what happiness is and then find aspects that make them feel that way. Happiness is not a brief sense of positive feelings, but a lasting sense of contentedness that can be achieved by keeping close relationships and engaging in habits that seem contradictory at first to happiness.
I believe that happiness is the key to living a good and prosperous life. Through all of the sadness and hate in the world, happiness gives me hope. It gives not only me, but others hope and joy. Happiness gives us something to hold onto, therefore we cherish it as much as we can.