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Essays On Personal Development
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Essays On Personal Development
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“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 …show more content…
Dalai Lama points out unforeseen examples, “To maintain good health, you rely on medicines made by others and health care provided by others. If you examine all of the material facilities that you use for the enjoyment of life, you’ll find that there are hardly any of these material objects that have had no connection with other people” (73). This shows the significance of interdependence. In the society that we live in today, we are all dependent on each other to some extent. I have scarcely thought about this before. Up until now, I have always favored independence; however, my thoughts have slightly changed. We live in a society where we are dependent on each other: children are dependent on their parents, friends are dependent on each other, students are dependent on mentors and professors, and such. Through the act of dependence, we can benefit from each other to a great extent. By connecting with other human beings and being dependent on them and allowing them to depend on you, it will be easier to find happiness in
In “Paradise Glossed, ” from Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard, discusses how happiness is not simply quantified or measured, but rather, results from how people interpret the numerous events that make up their lives. His main claim is that each event could be seen from a myriad of different angles, and thus could end in varying degrees of happiness for each person. Gilbert also explains how people often lean more toward the optimistic side of things: upon experiencing an event, people tend to find the positives in the situation. Gilbert’s argument is reasonable, clear, and is backed by evidence. But in spite of this, he fails to clearly define happiness, and his logic is somewhat flawed. He seems to
Technology has advanced a lot and has been greatly impacting our lives since the Industrial Revolution. The appearance of the mobile phone, the computer, and the tablets have all changed our ability to communicate with people around the world. Although technologies have greatly improved our lifestyle, they have brought many negative effects on our relationships and happiness as well, for instance distorting people's views on one another and bringing more loneliness to people's lives. Many people believe that benefited by social media platforms such as Facebook, it is now not necessary to talk to someone in person in order to effectively communicate with one and know one’s life. Others, however, believe that technology alone cannot replace
From the beginning of time, humans have always endeavored to be happy. During this time, thousands of different people have given their interpretation of the term happiness. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the simplified definition of happiness is feeling pleasure or joy because of a certain situation. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Controller, Mustapha Mond, conceals the truth in order to keep everyone happy. He gives people drugs and brainwashes them into believing that life is good. Satisfying. When John the Savage is introduced to the World State, he questions all things pertaining to “civilization.” The civilized people are willing to do everything in their power to hide from the truth. Throughout the story of Brave New World, every character craves happiness in some way, shape, or form; similarly, our society today concentrates and will
Taking the following questionnaire: Satisfaction with Life Scale, Approaches to Happiness Scale, and Authentic Happiness Inventory, helped me evaluate my life. Many times due to circumstance we forget in what positon our life is standing at the moment. We forget how much we have accomplished in the past and how much we have invested to make our future a good one. For the Satisfaction with life scale, I score a 33(love their life and feel that everything is going very well). People may might say well she is living a perfect life, but to be honest is not that is being perfect, is that one day years ago I made a decision of not letting anything take away what I have worked hard for. According to Earl & Carol Diener, because positive moods energize approach tendencies, it desirable that people on average be in a positive mood (1996). If I make a mistake, which is possible because am human, what I do is learn from it. It’s like what the Apostol from the church I go to says” you control life, not life controlling you.”
Happiness is found in unique ways, and people will do anything to find true happiness. In the novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer the complicated subject of true happiness is discussed and written about. People have different and specific ways of finding true happiness. For many family can decrease happiness, also not being in serious relationships and avoiding society can lead to an increase in happiness, finally connecting with nature can lead to happiness. For some, happiness is being connected with a society, but for others, disconnecting from relationships, society, and connecting with nature can lead to more happiness.
In the book, The How of Happiness, author and researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky sets her book apart from other self-awareness books by being the first to utilize empirical studies. She uses data gained through scientific method to provide support for her hypothesis. This hypothesis consists mainly of the idea that we have the ability to overcome genetic predisposition and circumstantial barriers to happiness by how we think and what we do. She emphasizes that being happier benefits ourselves, our family and our community. “The How of Happiness is science, and the happiness-increasing strategies that [she] and other social psychologists have developed are its key supporting players” (3).
Kendall Kazor Period 4 When someone is faced with the question “what is your aspiration in life?” the answer is most all the time “to be happy”(A BUDDHIST VIEW OF HAPPINESS). Whether that takes form in becoming the richest man in the world or bringing peace to the world, everyone wants to be happy. Each individual has developed their own opinion on what this ultimate happiness truly is; however, these are merely uneducated opinions. What does it mean to truly be happy? What defines happiness? An answer to this has been brought to focus by Aristotle and has been instilled in many communities and different lifestyles. Aristotle wrote that happiness is not just a feeling but a state one enters after utilizing the virtues to the fullest extent. Therefore, owning a brand new Mercedes Benz will not bring you true happiness. It may momentarily bring joy, but in reality material luxuries subtract from ones overall goal to be happy. The philosopher uses the Greek term “eudemonia,” translated to good spiritedness, reiterating that happiness is not just to feel something but to be something. Many religions tie in the theory that happiness is the “end” in their teachings. One religious community that centers itself on this concept is Buddhism. The Buddhist community in particular, stems from the idea of happiness or sukkha. All aspects of a Buddhist lifestyle gear towards working to the ultimate happiness, nirvana. Buddha teaches that in order to enter this state of nirvana, one must overcome the natural suffering caused by being human, dukkha. Dukkha is a complex word meaning “that which is difficult to bear”(A Basic Buddhism Guide: The Eight-Fold Path). However, we as humans have a natural tendency towards dukkha. Overcoming this, in othe...
You know when you’re watching a movie and you really connect with it, not just with the characters but you really just get the film? Ever wonder what it is that made you fall in love with a film even if the dialogue or cinematography isn’t everything you hoped for? It’s the sound design! Not to discredit any part of the film, The Pursuit of Happyness, because it is a beautiful film, but the sound design is what truly makes this film so great. It fills all the voids that are sometimes experienced in films. It does this by capitalizing on what the untrained ear calls noise. Another way the sound designers of this film really grab the attention of the audience is by creating a fluid way to make you listen to the sounds simultaneously with the images on the screen. In addition, the realistic sounds in conjunction with synthetic sounds complete the film by providing seamless cuts between scenes. The amalgamations of these three aspects are what make the sound design of The Pursuit of Happyness a truly vital part of the film.
Early Modern Europe experienced several tragedies in which the citizens sensed that there must be a better way to live where happiness was more familiar. Alterations for what truly defines absolute happiness in a society during these times of catastrophe were expressed through utopian literature. Thomas More’s Utopia, Tomasso Campanella’s City of the Sun, and Caron De Beaumarchais’ The Marriage of Figaro together attempt to answer what truly creates a happy civilization during different periods of crisis within Europe. Each of these utopian literature’s suggest a different origin that happiness derives from, soundly signifying that change in Europe would be beneficial. The revolutionary ideas of change in Europe proposed by Utopia, City of the Sun, and The Marriage of Figaro through their individual utopias, demonstrated their beliefs that such change of social classes, the expression of pleasures morally, and a more unified government would lead to a happier, less corrupt society.
According to Webster dictionary the word Happiness in defined as Enjoying, showing, or marked by pleasure, satisfaction, or joy. People when they think of happiness, they think about having to good feeling inside. There are many types of happiness, which are expressed in many ways. Happiness is something that you can't just get it comes form your soul. Happiness is can be changed through many things that happen in our every day live.
Happiness is a feeling that humans naturally desire. Without it, one feels incomplete. In this generation, happiness has taken on a definition by how we are presented to one another. It is measured by how much money we have, how famous we are, or the things we possess. When in reality, none of these things guarantee a happy life. Happiness is something that cannot be bought with money, but rather, it must be found, earned, sought after. Each and every one of us has our own list of things that we consider to make us happy. However, happiness shines brightest through the relationships we create, and the goals we make for ourselves to strive after. Along with these two essential sources, we then can mix and match those things in life that we enjoy to create our own unique formula for happiness.
Humans, though not all the same, have rudimentary needs and emotions that are necessary in life in order to successfully function. A healthy life requires happiness as a basic for psychological and physical soundness. Pleasure visibly, spiritually, and somatically makes a person. Without it in a person’s life, areas such as diseases, stress, pain and even death can onset sooner and takeover, when they could have been at least somewhat prevented in the first place. Happiness is the cause for a greatly increased quality of life; the effects of happiness improve the longevity, peace, and ultimate sweetness in a person.
Happiness is hard to achieve. Some people follow several steps in order to get what they want. People have unlimited wants. However, not all the things they want can give them happiness. Like what Matthie Ricard (2007) said “Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment, not the gratification of inexhaustible desires for outward things.” (p. 31) Happiness is not about material wealth. It can be assumed that a person is happy because of money but like what people say “money can’t buy happiness”. Aside from that, many things in life hinder people’s happiness. Life is not complete without struggles. Those problems and challenges help people grow. One cannot feel happiness if they were not able to feel sadness. Moreover, happiness seems impossible if one lets other people control their life. People around them affect their decisions, but never
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.
While the ideas of "happiness" and "success" seem related at first glance, I believe they are two separate categories and represent two different ways of looking at the world. First, happiness is a feeling, which success is not. A person doesn't need to be successful to be happy, because a wide variety of things can make a person feel happy, and those things might not be the same from person to person. Success isn't an emotion; it's a judgment of its own kind. To say a person is successful or unsuccessful is a way of evaluating that person and deciding whether they measure up to a standard. It's important to see the difference between those two things, or you could end up missing out on happiness.