The Importance Of Happiness In Life

Have you ever truly sat and considered what makes you truly happy? Often times, people answer directly with the response of money. We say this without deeply considering all that we have to be grateful for. Happiness is not achieved through wealth instead through experiences, the family we love, and the nature that surrounds us, literature has created a great impact upon the ideals we consider to create our happiness.

People tend to feel the most happiness in their daily lives rather than happiness over all. For instance, if someone opens the door for you, does something outrageous, tells a funny story or simply reacts kindly to you, you can experience happiness. Laughing at someones joke can cause you to feel happy even for just a moment. Another definition of happiness in our daily lives is self appreciation such as, getting that new raise, getting an A on a test or even getting into the college you want. These examples all cause happiness in different but still rather large ways. We seem to think that happiness is so difficult to come by, we focus so hard on what happiness is that we don't even realize the simple things in life that are truly making a difference. We can become significantly happy without even noticing. Although happiness seems like it’s hard to find it’s not all that difficult. What’s hard to come by is the feeling of genuine happiness ; genuine happiness is what people truly look for.

Everyone defines happiness differently, but everyone needs happiness. The book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse talks about how Siddhartha finds happiness through many ways. He leaves home and his friend, Govinda, to find enlightenment. He starves himself, he learns love, he even thinks of suicide… Fortunately, he meets a ferryman, who becomes his best friend, also his “teacher”, and helps him find the ultimate way to achieve enlightenment. Siddhartha abandons his relationships, money, and education which bring him happiness, and in the twenty first century, these still bring happiness as the essential steps to take.

Happiness is a reprise from the many trials and turmoil of life, and so it is natural that we should actively seek it. Ironically though, in our naïve belief that we can somehow augment the amount of happiness in our world, we are actually making our world more depressing to live in. Both John F. Schumaker, in The Happiness Conspiracy, and Ray Bradbury, in Fahrenheit 451, argue that our myopic pursuit of happiness is actually counterproductive. The two authors attempt to persuade the reader that happiness is, and should be, an almost-serendipitous byproduct of a truly fulfilling life, and therefore should not be an explicit objective.

Happiness is often confused with acceptance, which means some people accept their lives and protect themselves with a false sense of happiness , instead of striving for the life that brings them the most joy Many people in their lives have a false sense of happiness, instead of seeking out for what they want in their life they try to be content with themselves. For example Brave New World is all about a false sense of happiness and how everyone should always be happy and content, in the book they all take soma to escape their feelings and their life, “ she

The amalgam of the human experience and the pursuit of happiness is that of an instinctive and inexorable nature; perchance in happiness lays the fundamental purpose of the human experience. Happiness, throughout the lapse of time—regardless of multifarious discrepancies, such as nationality or age, has proven to be an all-inclusive search. Whether it is derived from power, wealth, success, or elsewhere, happiness is a perpetual pursuit. Illustrious philosopher Aristotle believed “happiness depends upon ourselves (Aristotle)”, speaking to a notion of happiness being an individual endeavor.

John Stuart Mills, in chapter five of his autobiography “A Crisis in My Mental History: One Stage Onward”, (1909-14), suggest that mankind can never find happiness when it is their goal, they can only find it when their minds are fixed on something unrelated to the topic. He supports his claim by first stating, that happiness is only found when we have our minds fixed on something else than our happiness, then he says that when we are conscious of our feelings and when we feel happiness that is when we feel the most misery and sorrow, and finally he suggests that happiness will come naturally as long as we don’t dwell on the feeling. Mill’s purpose is to express that we are not supposed to be focused on happiness, it will come just as naturally as the air we breathe, but if we do we will just find ourselves in a state of misery. He establishes a very informative serious tone for anybody anywhere.

Sonja Lyubomirsky’s The Myths of Happiness begins with several quotes on a page before the first chapter. Each of them truly resonate with the themes of this text. The first one, by Charlotte Bontë, reads as such, “Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.” Although I did not think much of this quote before reading the book, it summarizes the majority of Lyubomirsky’s main points quite well. In her monograph, Lyubomirsky delves into the psychology of happiness and how, as the title may suggest, that the conventional expectations of what makes us happy may not necessarily be true.

Considering these disputes, I find Aristotle’s account of happiness more satisfactory. I disagree upon Solon’s ideas that “human life is pure chance” and that happiness is a temporary state controlled by luck (Herodotus 20). I am a strong believer in moral and ethical character, therefore Aristotle’s conclusion that when a person displays the main virtues of justice, courage, moderation, and wisdom, he gains happiness, confirms my views. Everyone wants to be happy; therefore it is a purpose or goal achieved at the conclusion of one’s life resulting from the practice of virtue. I also support the belief that a contemplative life is the happiest life. Questioning and looking at the world in a greater sense helps to open an individual’s eyes and broaden his horizons to reason and justice. It is a self-sufficient way of life and admired for its own sake. This curiosity helps a person to flourish and secure more virtuous characteristics in life, guiding him on the road to ultimate

Happiness is not something that naturally comes to a person, it might appear to be, but the truth of the matter is that happiness comes through any lawful means. A person can be partly

The road to happiness is a long journey and Samuel Johnson explains that mainly through Rasselas. Rasselas and his siblings live in Happy Valley where everyone is content with their home and how easy life is there, except for Rasselas. Rasselas feels restless and that his

Happiness has been subject to debate for centuries. What is happiness? What does happiness consist of? What contributes to happiness? Among many others, Aristotle, Epicurus, and the school of Cyrenaics, prominent ancient Greek philosophers, have greatly contributed that virtue, which is excellence of a certain part, and chance, which consists of any event outside of human control and prediction, may play a role in happiness. After analyzing the works of these philosophers, it has been concluded that virtue greatly contributes to happiness. On the other hand, although chance can either contribute to or hinder one’s happiness, the influence is often not as

Happiness has always been a tricky thing, both to describe and to attain. Most of the great philosophers – Socrates, Hobbes, even (or perhaps especially) Nietzsche – have struggled to find true substance in this area. Aristotle considered it to be the “Supreme Good”, conjecturing that every action, in order to be considered positive, must contribute to the individual’s happiness and conversely that any positive action will inherently make the individual happier. Not in a hedonistic sense, as material pleasure is rarely lasting, but in reason; humans are rational creatures, and in order to attain genuine, lasting happiness we must utilize that quality to make long-term decisions that cause a positive change in either ourselves or our community. While the term “happiness” simply denotes the emotion, this kind of true happiness is better known as bliss. The word “bliss” comes from Old

Happiness is often thought to be something of relativity. What makes one person happy does not necessarily bring happiness to another. Nevertheless, how happiness is defined, by no doubt, has something to do with the characteristics of a culture and time. For example, the beginning of the sixth century was characterized by many controversies in the newly officialized religion of Christianity - Arianism, to name one. Religion, at the time, became a big factor in defining true happiness. As controversies got resolved, the use of religion as a means to defining happiness remained a constant through the sixteenth century, but the influence became more on the need for reformation in the Church. One author in the sixth century, Boethius, writes vividly on the idea of happiness in his The Consolation of Philosophy. Similar points that Boethius makes about happiness can be found between the lines of a sixteenth century writer, Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Due to the difference in the eras of which The Consolation of Philosophy and Doctor Faustus were written, the authors present happiness in a manner relative to their time, while ultimately both agreeing that true happiness is rooted in God.

Imagine every single person in the world living a truly happy life. With a radiant smile emanating from their face, people would skip around going from place to place, continuing on with their daily adventures. We would take joy in the simpler things in life, such as waking up and making our own breakfast, and possibly even tying our own tie. People would enjoy dancing at parties and events because it gives them a sense of freedom and happiness they could not get elsewhere. Some may embrace such happiness that they actually live in the present and not own any nostalgic pictures hidden in their sock drawer! However, in reality, we don’t live in a perfect world in which every single person recognizes the true meaning of happiness. As for Hector, he surely falls into the list of those who do not know what happiness really means for them; because of this, Hector goes on his search for happiness. Throughout Hector’s worldwide journey, he learns how to love, appreciate, and celebrate.