Aging Reflection

Happiness is an essential goal for most people. From books and expensive classes that teach people how to achieve happiness to the fundamental right of “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, the importance of happiness is evident in society. This causes the rise to two fundamental questions: “How does one attain happiness?” and “,How does happiness create a meaningful life?” Both happiness and living a meaningful life are achieved simultaneously. The search for happiness and the factors that make it brings meaning to life. Happiness can stem from several factors such as wisdom and knowledge, savoring life and its experiences, and even suffering and pain. Analyzing these factors brings meaning to one’s life.

Late Adulthood can be a time of distress or fulfillment. It will likely include deep feelings of loss and grief, and may also include a sense of hope and joy. Despair can come from the experience of loss, missed opportunities in the past, declining health, losing friends and family, and an ever-approaching unknown future. Hope and positivity are derived from a sense of purpose and meaningfulness (Berger, 2014, p. 733). How does someone in Late Adulthood successfully navigate this time of life? I discovered one perspective by talking with Mrs. Bonnie Yost.

“Choose to be happy.” This is what mom has always said, since a very young age and still to this day she tells everyone. For so long, it was just “mom talk”, those things your mother says that is supposed to make you stop and think. Yet, being too young, dumb and full of it, to really understand what she means. Curiosity emerges and suddenly there is a need to understand what it really means to be happy, what constitutes Happiness? So follow up with some research, entering the bookstore, gliding in and out of the rows and rows in the self-help sections are others, asking the same question. What is happiness? Where does it come from, are we born with it or do we make it happen? Happiness is but a belief, an idea, a theory; but theories,

Reflection is a major factor in "developing self-awareness" to improve services provided to everyone around me, this is to develop my own understanding in realising the good and bad made previously. Moving forward with a better understanding, as well as rectifying the mistake whilst recognizing the good points, (Horton-Deutsch and Sherwood, 2008).

My family was and is still very important in my life. Sometimes I would become melancholy when I think about how far apart I am from them. On the other hand, I do become enlightened when I think about how both sides of my families are close when I visit them in Missouri. As a child, never really had a birthday party or received a lot of presents, but when my family comes during my birthday, I feel like I’m receiving hundreds of presents. My family makes me feel safe and secure when I’m feeling down.

I see the pros and cons from this result, but, however, believe that this result does not reflect what I really think. I am satisfied with my life because my parents and family love me, devoting all they have on me. I think I have the best family in the world. However, I am dissatisfied with my life in the meantime because I think I am not working hard enough to match my expectations. I keep telling myself that I can do better, but in reality I make silly mistakes. Therefore, according to this thought, my dissatisfaction to life comes from my expectations onto myself rather than from my negative feelings toward the outside world. Because of this root of unhappiness, I have the motivation to work hard to achieve my expectations, pursuing my

As people grow old, they start to reflect on their lives. They evaluate what good things they have done and what they have achieved. One can only hope that, throughout their life, they have succeeded to reach all of their goals and attain excellence. No one wants to reflect back on their life and see that it is full of regrets and “what ifs”. By striving for perfection, making the most out of their lives, and taking all opportunities given to them, they will have completed a successful and fulfilling life.

As people grow older, they start filling into more stereotypes--the angsty teen, the reckless young adult, the soccer mom, the cranky old person. One would think that these truly reflect how people are--carefree through their adult years, unhappy throughout the rest--however, studies have shown that, in fact, the opposite turns out true. Instead, the happiness scale forms a 'U' shape: the youngest and oldest age groups tend to be happier, the middle aged adult turns out to be the most unhappy. This could be because of a combination of responsibilities, socialization skills, and the impending doom of your final breaths coming earlier than you want.

According to Erikson stages of human development, late adulthood stage is between the ages 65 to death (Erikson, 1982). This stage is ego integrity versus despair involves individual to look back over one’s life and feel a sense of contentment and satisfaction (Erikson, 1982). Success at this stage leads to feeling of wisdom and failure to achieve results in bitterness, regret, and despair. This negative resolution manifests itself as a fear of death, a sense that life is too- short, and depression (Erikson, 1982).

Late adulthood should be a time in a person's life where they feel fulfilled. They can look back on their memories and be happy with the way they have lived their life. Now, too many elderly people are not satisfied and look at this stage as depressing. Most fear death of either a loved one or for themselves. This topic is interesting to me because elderly people should make the best of their last stage of life. This topic discusses about getting older, the life changes that they go through physically, emotionally, and mentally. We should know more about it so that we can help our family and friends get through one of the best, yet toughest part of our mortal life.

I have already connected my family, religion, and education to happiness. The more I connect to intrinsically valuable things, the more meaning my life will have. Most people connect the meaning of life to things such as family and friends which add instrumental and intrinsic values to a person’s life. The same applies for me, my life has meaning because I relate it to things that I value. The more I connect with valuable things, the more meaning my life will have. In the future, my career will add more value to my life. I will be doing something that I love, and that gives me happiness, for most of my day. It will also give me financial stability in the future, which will be important. My career and financial stability will allow me to take care of the people that I love (such as for example, taking care of health of my parents as they get older). As I will get older, I will be able to give back to my parents, which will give me the greatest happiness in the world. The happier my family and people I care about are, the more valuable and meaningful my life will

Change in Attitude and continuity of life: My emotions, my feelings and my attitude change along with time as I grew up. (Some of them are continuity and some of them are changes):-Changes that happened in my life from childhood to an adult (still I am not 18) made me think that how is all this even happening. I used to react differently to the same situation two years before than I react to that same situation today. My feelings used to be smoother than it is today. I always think about people than about results. But today question like:-Am I doing this thing correctly? What people will think about me? All of this questions comes first than what am I doing is for my happiness. As said that personality depends on perspective like Id, ego and superego (Myers, D. (2004). Psychology (6th ed.). New York: Worth.) I think this is the phase of my life in which I am going under some kind of transformation of my emotion and feelings. Hope this change is continuous and I get some good outcome of this change because right now I don’t have any particular emotion, it always depends on the situation, time and mood of the day.

Happiness is subjective and may be influenced in various ways according to one's perception. However, there is a level of happiness that is agreeable as substantial to all. Happiness could be experienced differently in various phases in life, according to the conditions or circumstances in such stages (Coon and Mitterer 261). This has raised concerns about whether happiness comes with age, as many would prefer to age gracefully, due to negativities associated with old age such as ill health or loneliness. Hence, in a review of this matter, there are various factors that could determine whether an individual becomes happy in late adulthood. This paper will identify and discuss these factors in detail.

Happiness usually is derived from feelings of independence, competence, self-esteem, or relating well to other people (Sheldon et al., 2001). One aspect of adulthood that still remains the same, despite generational changes, is the development and maintenance of relationships. Erik Erikson spoke of young adulthood as the “Intimacy-Versus-Isolation Stage.” During this period, the focus is on developing close, intimate relationships

Consequently, each person at some point in life asks some question about life. Some ask if they actually want to live the kind of life they are experiencing, while some will ask other questions like “who am I” or “The importance of their