Everyone's goal in life is to be “happy”, they go out of their way to fulfill temporary pleasures. But what is very ironic is that striving for this possession filled happiness, many become sad, weary and give up on their dream of so called “happiness”. The article written by Darrin McMahon “In Pursuit of Unhappiness” , goes over this issue in great detail. Achieving true happiness is nearly impossible in the way we try to maintain it.…
Novelist Ayn Rand, in her book Anthem, wrote, “My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose”. Although happiness may seem like a simple concept to many, sometimes we don’t recognize it but we always take different paths, face many obstacles, and spend most of our lives trying to achieve happiness. Depending on the circumstances, every person has their own definition of what it means to attain happiness, whether through wealth, success, health, love etc. Happiness is a notion that be developed by focusing on the smaller things in life which are not given a great deal of thought to, but still can heavily impact us. One of these smaller yet significant ideas in life is individualism. Today…
For centuries, society has shaped these abstract ideas of what happiness means and how one could achieve happiness in their lives. However, in order to even understand what actions could lead to one’s happiness, one must be able to understand the definition of happiness itself. Having read Charles Dicken’s book Great Expectations, happiness persists as a pleasure or sense of a meaningful and rich psychosocial integration in a person’s understanding of himself or herself.…
Happiness, the intangible emotion that we all desire. Is there proof that this emotion even exists? Eduardo Porter has written an essay titled “What Happiness Is”. In this essay Mr. Porter took the time to study the emotion of happiness that we all experience in life. He makes an attempt to question not only his reasons as to why he is happy, but to have the reader question their own sense of happiness as well. What is it that makes us feel joyful emotions, and how can vastly different experiences cause us to feel the same emotion that we call happiness? While searching for the proof of this feeling Eduardo Porter reflects upon his own personal experiences, professional studies and ultimately decides that his questions may never be answered. Porter states that, “most psychologists and economists who study happiness agree that what they prefer to call “subjective well-being” comprises three parts: satisfaction, meant to capture how people judge their lives measured up against their aspirations; positive feelings like joy; and the absence of negative feelings like anger.” This is an important analysis of how we form the idea of how joyful we actually are. Something in life that one person might be ashamed of could improve the level of cheerfulness for another person. For example, the thought of getting a tattoo might cause one individual to feel guilt while another individual might feel pleasure at the same thought. Because there is no definitive formula that provides a calculated experience of happiness for everyone, it is interesting to question what actions or lack thereof in our lives cause us to be cheerful or to lose some of the happiness that we have already gained. The organization of this essay was well thought out and effective. The author opens with the statement, “Happiness is a slippery concept, a bundle of meaning with no precise, stable definition.” This opening statement provokes the reader to question their own beliefs in…
Something every single person in the world wants is continual happiness. Everyone searches for this positive feeling in different ways such as: adrenaline, drugs, addictions, and splurging. Although, a not so common way people may find happiness is by being thankful. “If you analyze people’s actions, you will come to the conclusion that they all seek happiness. Every act, in fact, is a search for happiness, even if on the surface it doesn't look so” (Sasson). The human race searches for something that will complete us, or make us feel better about the things we do, and all signs have pointed us to happiness. In this essay, I will be comparing two articles, one written by David Murray and the other by Thomas Corley, hoping to answer the question “Does being thankful correlate with improved levels of happiness more than money does?” Both of these authors have written wonderfully about how being thankful makes you happier and how financially wealthy people are happier. It's a very intriguing question because it matters to us all, and once this question is answered it is possible that humans may be able to find the happiness that we so longingly search for.…
David Sze (July 7, 2015) posted a column in the Huffington Post entitled, “Money and Happiness? It’s Complicated.” As the title suggests, Sze discusses the link between having money and finding happiness, or “life satisfaction.” He approaches the issue from a post-modern perspective without considering any transcendent categories to evaluate the issue. Leaving a theistic perspective out, Sze struggles to find an adequate explanation for meaning, happiness and satisfaction in life.…
Instead of getting a diamond as a gift from a person, one would rather much be happier receiving a gift that he or she has spent a tremendous amount of time on. Everyday, one misses the happiness in little things and tries to find happiness in bigger, much grand things. Sometimes, the littlest things in life are the thing to give a person true happiness. Such as, being able to have a piece of bread might seem like a petty reason to be happy. However, by looking at the situation from the other person’s perspective, it is the most important thing in his or her life. If he or she had not eaten for days, acquiring that bread would be happiness to him or her. Him or her obtaining the piece of bread is not an imagination; instead, it is reality. Although other people may not consider it as happiness, to the one who needs the bread, it is regarded as the most prized thing in the world. Happiness is what he or she makes it out to be as there is no clear definition. Above all, small things that may be of no importance may display true happiness.…
Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Authentic Happiness. Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Retrieved July 27, 2012, from Ebook Library.…
⅕ Americans suffer persistent loneliness, loneliness is something thats hard to get rid of.It will leave a person hollow from the inside out.Loneliness is less like being isolated in a single room but rather feeling isolated in a crowd.The impact loneliness has on a individual throughout their lifetime until they, in some cases, develop anxiety or depression. Candy, Crooks as well as, Curley’s wife all symbolize loneliness, they radiant the idealization of friendship.As these characters being John Steinbeck’s, shower in loneliness, so can loneliness be dangerous?Loneliness is an inevitable fact of life.Loneliness can make you angry,and not to mention make you sick.Loneliness impacts a person because,Loneliness can make you lose your grip on reality. “Suddenly Lennie’s eyes centered and grew quiet, and mad.He stood up, and walked dangerously toward Crooks,Who hurt George?Ain’t nobody goin’ to talk no hurt…
Isolation, or solitude, does not mean that someone is unhappy. Loneliness, on the other hand, is what makes us miserable. However, both are on the rise. In one survey, it showed that there is a decrease in confidents in America, which lead to the growth in the professional field where we hire replacements to help with and hear our problems. And we need these professional careers more and more with the threat of a “societal breakdown” (64) has become an issue of public health. Loneliness can also have serious effects on ones health. Though most won’t directly kill you, it causes a weakening to both your physical and mental health, that can can all lead to an eventual…
Happiness can be found in daily life. However, as peoples living standard rises, many people don’t content simple life, they always will want more. Having happiness does not mean how wonderful the house you live in is. While people are looking for something that they think can make them happy, their life becomes too complex. People will never be happy for what they have now. Although material things can make life more interesting, they will not make you feel the real happiness and have good life. Being simple everyday is what makes people happy.…
* Most people think that happiness is consisted of looking good, having a nice car, nice clothes, and a life based on the images and truth of popular magazines and television “reality” shows. According to the author says that people do not know the reality because the materialistic illusion makes people to be happy.…
Can happiness be found in everyday life? In the articles, “The Pursuit of Happiness,” “Just for the Joy of it,” and “Get out of the Groove,” each author suggests different ways that people may acquire happiness. People are constantly trying to find happiness in some aspect of their lives. For some, it may be easy for them to feel happy, but for others, it may be a continuous difficulty. Not everyone will experience happiness equally, because no person is identical to another. Everyone is different, meaning that it is reasonable to suggest that they encounter different methods for acquiring happiness. Some ways that the authors agree or disagree that happiness may be pursued include how much people are willing to do to be happy, discovering natural tendencies in humans, and focusing on the simple things in life.…
People spend a lot of on material possession and elate at the happiness they get from its acquisition. Hedonic adaptation explains that this euphoria from attaining materialistic purchases doesn’t last long and fades away to their happiness set point. As the fade away takes place, they tend to buy something new to seek the pleasure from buying things and eventually accumulate a lot of materials they don’t actually need and suffer from larger expenses and lesser financial freedom (Richard, 2010). A research was conducted to see if people concentrate more on experiential goals rather than material possessions in the chase to increase happiness, permanently. The research used surveys on various groups to see if focusing on acquiring a positive life experience contributed to elevating happiness set points. It was deduced that life events helped make people contented as “they were more open to positive reinterpretations and are a more meaningful part of one’s identity, which contributed more to successful social relationships” (Boven, & Gilovich, 2003). This reinstated that individuals could indeed live happier lives permanently, if they focused on devoting their time in attaining experiences and building positive relationships compared against acquiring material possessions (Boven, & Gilovich,…
There is much effort invested in attaining the things we want, be it new gadgets, the latest fashions, or the source of it all: money. In fact, we tend to go out of our way to meet these desires, as we believe it will bring us happiness. We’ve been trained to “get rich or die trying”, to create a history of pain to attain a later life of fame, and to build a product called “happiness” with material means. After having gathered all the pots of gold and some over several years, one must sit back with his broken leg and greyed hair and ponder: perhaps smiling would have been simpler. Similarly, self-actualization, though placed at the pinnacle of the need hierarchy, is actually the most basic goal one can achieve.…