Joy Is Not Just Happiness

Lazy fall days, colorful leaves, cooler weather, birds singing, frogs croaking, crickets chirping, relaxing to the sounds of the outdoors. Waves of water crashing upon each other, fishing, telling stories around a campfire, making s’mores, memories with family and friends; this is what happiness is to me. Happiness is in the eye of the beholder, what brings happiness to one person may not bring happiness to another person. When I think of the word happiness, I think of descriptive words like Contentment, enjoyment, satisfaction, delightfulness, something that makes a person smile. I have always looked at the word happiness as a feeling, an action, never have I thought of happiness as an overall affect. However, it is a proven fact, that happiness can affect the over-all health and longevity of human life. Happy people live longer than those that are lonely, stressed, or depressed.

Zadie Smith explains to you that pleasure can be more of a temporary feeling that can only satisfy readers at that moment or for a little bit of time. Reading this short story by Smith makes the readers realize that there is a difference between two words that can also be so similar but so different at the same time. And that joy can sometimes be similar to pleasure but it’s more than a feeling. You enjoy “joy” and you live during

Joy was born in Jamaica and immigrated to the United States. While attending American University, Joy met a guy named Bill got married and had their first child Nikki. However, Joy ended up leaving Bill due to him being abusive and having drug problems. “Pages 1-7” Joy is important to this story because she showed Wes the rights and wrongs since he was young, making him the person he is now.Wes explains throughout the first chapter the different sacrifices she took to give him and sisters a better life , like moving to the

The story of the movie The Pursuit of Happyness directed by Gabriele Muccino portrays a family who struggles with finding enough money to pay taxes and afford living expenses. The movie takes a place in San Francisco during the 80s. The two main characters are the father Chris Gardner and his son Christopher, Will Smith and Jaden Smith respectively. Gardner tries to support his family. But every time he attempts to make things better, they always end up worse. Gardner in the story wonders on "how to be happy?" He earns his money by selling the bone density

In modern society, the line between pleasure and happiness is commonly blurred. While pleasures are momentary feelings of joy, they do not entail true happiness. True happiness is present even at the worst of times. It is there in moments of delight as well as in moments of pain and distress. On the journey to a good life, discovering a true sense of happiness is essential. This concept is portrayed in The History by Herodotus and Happiness by Richard Taylor. While these readings define happiness differently, they both demonstrate the idea that a life well lived consists of long term happiness as opposed to short term pleasures.

    Surprised by Joy is essentially an account of those factors that brought Lewis to a mature, adult Christian faith. Lewis begins his work with an overview of the Lewis household and his early schooling. “The reality Lewis found on the pages of his parents' extensive library seems as tangible and meaningful to him as anything that occurred in the "outside" world” (Hannay 41). Lewis depicts himself and brother, William, as absolute confidants who share their deepest longings and secrets--all in the security of their parents' home. The tranquility and sanctity of the Lewis home is shattered by the death of his mother; the rest of his saga becomes the melancholy search for the

C.S. Lewis once wrote, “Joy... (in my sense), has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again”. There are many examples of joy such as; a mother and father experiencing the birth of their children, a child enjoying the wonders of the ocean for the first time in their life, something as simple as a person completing a project. Joy to one person might be a source or an object while to another it can be an emotion or feeling. Joy means to have profound happiness, discovering peace, and to savor every passing moment that life has to offer.

The feeling of happiness is ubiquitous. In the book of “Stumping on Happiness” states, “to choose or want one thing rather than another because it would be more pleasant,” which is to say that the pursuit of happiness is built the very definition of desire” (Gilbert 33). Happiness is a feeling because I can use my eyes to see all the lovely things in the world. I can use my ear to listen to the natural singing softly. I can use my hand to touch the delicate petals. I am happy I can use my nose to smell the scent of grass. Happiness can have endless memories. Unlike a blind man living in the shadowy world, he has to use walking sticks as a guide to precede the life of the road ahead of him. His main support is to touch a person to perceive

The sensation of happiness is something that has undeniably been argued about for many years by a wide range of philosophical individuals. Questions about the true meaning of being happy are very common, as there are many different viewpoints that have very different opinions on the matter. A well respected analytical philosopher, Richard Kraut, attempted to differentiate a few of these viewpoints, as well as his own standpoint in comparison with Aristotle, who had his own definition of happiness. Aristotle defined happiness in his Nicomachean Ethics as “eudaimon”, which has roughly been translated as “human flourishing”. The term does not directly mean happiness, rather, he implored that the term differentiates between the notion of feeling happy, and the act of leading a happy life. Aristotle argued that these happy feelings only pertain to one’s internal identity and are only experienced by that particular individual. Leading a happy life is also experienced internally, but it is subject to external criticism, thus giving meaning to a similar, yet different idea. One may argue that a person’s life is full of happiness and joy because they have experienced these emotions, while another, who may have witnessed a large portion of their life, might say they have not had a happy life, despite some of the happy instances had by the person.

What does happiness mean? According to Merriam-Webster happiness (1) is a state of well-being and contentment, (2) an experience that makes people happy. There can be many definitions of the word happiness because it may mean different things to people. What may make me happy may not make others happy. For me happiness is as simple as feeling good about myself, doing what I love and having the people I love around me. According to the Declaration of Independence, they do not guarantee us happiness, but they do guarantee us the right to pursue what makes us happy. Happiness is hard to achieve, and that is why most of us live trying to find those things that make us happy.

Lewis who retells the stories of his childhood through a memoir entitled Surprised by Joy. Lewis’s experience with Joy is not like the typical believer because He first searched for the meaning of life through other means including rational. However, in his mind, Lewis, came to believe that there “ever had been or ever would be a connection between God and Joy” (Lewis) that had been given to him throughout the process of his life. While Lewis is a man rich with theological knowledge, only later in life, even through his childhood he was able to see the Joy that was being set before him in the light of all of life and eternity while he was questioning the meaning of God. Though he saw no common connection between God and Joy at the time, he knew he was searching for something greater than what the world had to

What does Joy mean? This word that has been used for almost one thousand years, borrowed from the old French, and originally from late Latin, is defined by dictionaries in a few words sentence all related to pleasure and happiness. Joy is a felling, a state of being, who’s abstract nature gives it a wider significance. The American writer Joseph Campbell expressed, “Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.” Mother Teresa, for her part said, “Joy is prayer; Joy is strength: Joy is love; Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” Certainly, joy is relative to rejoice and delight, and has a different, and personal meaning for everyone.

Life is found to be more favorable if one can ascertain the asymmetry between joy and happiness. Happiness is ephemeral, circumstantial, and fleeting while joy is abiding, continual, and everlasting. Joy is seen in many; the glimmer in a child’s innocent eyes, the aging countenance of a widow, the glistening faces of newlyweds, and even the mildly destitute seen roaming around the moonlit empty street corners. Everyone is accountable in safeguarding their own personal joy. As a learned emanation, joy is an aura that everyone is adept to possess, whether it is suppressed and hidden, or it radiates from within. Joy is cultivated through experience and definition and is an orientation of the soul that grants perpetual hope.

People constantly have the desire to want more and often believe that by fulfilling those desires, it will increase their happiness. One problem is, people do not just live with simplicity in their lives, which is a direct reflection of their environment and societal factors that influence these continuous desires. Happiness is a very pertinent goal for people to reach. Today’s society has the misconception of happiness as being blinded by monetary and materialistic gains such as wealth, power, social media, and success. The “Mental Health Foundation's survey illustrating that 76 per cent of respondents think society is becoming more materialistic and selfish” (Buggey). Many people contemplate on whether or not it is even possible for individuals to attain happiness, which has driven researchers to neglect to study happiness because some believe that we would be better off by simply accepting our current happiness. However, we believe another reason for this neglect is the pessimistic view “over whether it is even possible to achieve sustainable increases in happiness” (Sheldon, K. & Lyubomirsky, S. (2006). With several different aspects of if happiness is even achievable, there are still individuals who believe there are.

Choir member Davis Blaser says, “I love choir because it is a way to express myself. ” Choir requires a lot more skill than most people think. You really have to know the notes and practice your parts. Usually there are four different parts in choir, the soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. When you pick up a new song you have to read the notes on the music and sing them without knowing the tune of the song. Choir is very fun despite all the hard work, and as some people put it “Happiness is singing in the choir.”