The Value Of Happiness

Beginning with Greek philosophers, mankind has constantly pondered the meaning of happiness. Questions of how to attain joy, and how to keep it have been debated for centuries. Various religions provide roadmaps to achieve contentment: Christians preach the Ten Commandments and Heaven, and Buddhists prize the idea of karma and reincarnation. Yet others seek a more material form of satisfaction; especially in the United States, increasing emphasis is placed upon personal wealth.

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.

Happiness is one of the most significant dimensions of human experience. Many people can argue that happiness is a meaningful and desirable entity. Studies indicate that everyone pursues happiness in various aspects of their life. Our four fathers saw happiness as a need, so they made the pursuit of happiness as one of the three unalienable rights branded in the Declaration of Independence. There is a sense of complexity behind the meaning of happiness; its definition is not definite. Think of happiness as a rope; there are many thin fiber strands bonded together to become the strength of the rope. Like the analogy of the rope, there are numerous factors that can contribute to an individual’s overall happiness in life. This study is going to

Based on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi “Happiness Revisited” People have many different points of view about how to achieve happiness, it can be based on the type of life one is having, an experience, a way of living, culture, and religion. Happiness can be defined in many ways but happiness is not something we find or get just by magic. In “Happiness Revisited” by Csikszentmihalyi, the author emphasizes that “It is by being fully involved with every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by trying to look for it directly.” And just as he stays that happiness is when someone is involved in everything that happens in live either good or bad, one example that I think Csikszentmihalyi will describe as an optimal experience

Throughout history humankind has been trying to define happiness. What is it exactly and how do we obtain it? We always think that happiness is a place to be or a destination and technically, that is the main premise or goal of our lives; to obtain happiness. So our whole lives go by from the minute were born to the last breath we take in a quest to work hard in order to reach that destination. Naturally, many philosophical writers have jumped on the bandwagon and put in their two cents of their views on the matter of happiness. Alexander Pope talks about the relationship and purpose man has to the universe in An Essay on Man, Voltaire wrote about living in blind optimism with a false notion of happiness in Candide, and Samuel

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

Ben-Shahar defines happiness as “the overall experience of pleasure and meaning” (33). It means that people obtain positive emotion from their action while they feel their life as purposeful. Simply, pleasure is the experience of positive emotion about the present benefit. Meaning which has the purpose about the future benefit comes from people’s action. But people have either pleasure or meaning is not enough for happiness. People consume ecstasy-inducing drugs or spend their free time lay down on the beach. They cannot get the happiness even though they experience positive emotions. Therefore, people’s action requires having both pleasure and meaning in order to reach the happiness

The Happiness Equation is a great book that you should totally check out, and I wish I had read it earlier… hell, I wish I had listened to Michelle earlier! Being happy unfortunately takes effort, but it is so much better than living a life where you hate everything and you’re sad all the time. I just got out of a situation in my life where that was the case and it’s just, wow:

Happiness, has long been an estate that huge numbers of individuals endeavor to create a path, that seeks to find it. Extensive research, surprisingly enough, does not have definitive answers on the concept of what makes one happy. As a matter of fact; there are as many attempts to define happiness, as there are the many scholars, theologians, psychologist and philosophers, curious enough to research it. Many¬¬; are unsuccessful in comparison to the ready definition of non-scholars and sources; such as Google and Wikipedia. A more intriguing and specific aspect of the definition of happiness, asks the question; can money buy it, or rather, is happiness determined mainly by external circumstances?

In the book “Money can buy Happiness” tells about spending money on important and substantial things that bring us long lasting happiness. It provide some helpful information and tips which can be applied in our daily living. If you want to find out how to put together the most of your money in order to get a good and happy life (good return on investment). This book also creates awareness of how we spend our money, investments and savings wisely. For those who wants to analyze whether their spending habits align with their values, this book can be an eye opener for them.

At first glance, happiness is a state of mind that many, if not all people aspire to achieve in their lifetime. What exactly is that state of mind is up for debate among the east and the west, and varies between different cultures, traditions, and religions. In the west, happiness is mostly associated with success, wealth, fame and power. In the east, happiness can be viewed as freedom from mundane occurrences such as the occupation of western powers from within a country, the end of war, poverty and famine, and liberation of the false self. In contemporary times, and with the arrival of eastern philosophy, religions, and traditions in the west, many are turning inwards and using a tool believed to have more power than an atomic bomb, the human mind. In China, India and various other Asian countries, the mind has long been a powerful tool used to liberate one from suffering, the cyclic cycle of life, as well as a means to reach enlightenment and immortality. However, the mind is only a tool, and not the way per se.

In the Declaration of Independence, it states that all men, being equal by nature, have the equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is interesting from Thomas Jefferson’s point of view that he says that we have the right to pursue happiness. When he said this, what did he mean in ways of understanding it and pursing this happiness? To live, as we have experienced, is itself a means to living well. The same applies to freedom. We cannot pursue happiness if we cannot freely carry out the choices we make. “If everything is determined for us, if the pattern of our life is imposed upon us, there would be no sense in talking about planning our lives or about adopting a plan for living well.” We need to stay and be

Happiness is not measurable, profitable, or tradable. People want to have happiness but happiness is a hard thing to grasp, you can not simply hold it in your hand. So how does a person know they have happiness? For some, happiness is waking up and doing something they love, like caring for children. For others it is driving on the open road. What makes someone happy is often related to their age group, as a new toy will not bring the same happiness to a married man as it would his 6 year old daughter. But no matter what age, happiness is a state of mind, not a destination. Happiness does not come from materialistic items, rather a life of meaning, and balance between work and fun, and the choice to be happy will bring true happiness.

It is common sense that all the human beings would like to live a happy life and they will spare no efforts in order to realize the purpose of really living a happy life in the end. However, different people have different definitions toward what a happy life is and they tend to have different standards as for how a life is that can be regarded as a happy life. There is no doubt that people will then try different means in order to pursue a happy life based on their definition toward what a happy life is. Therefore, the following will talk about the pursuit of a happy life from the perspectives of both Dalai Lama in The Art of Happiness and Viktor E. Frankl in Man’s Searching for Meaning, during which the experiences of some characters from the film Forrest Gump will be applied as evidence. Generally speaking, the pursuit of a happy life in the minds of Dalai Lama and Viktor E. Frankl can be achieved via experiencing sufferings and adversity. It is hoped that this analysis can help people understand what a happy is from a different point of view.

For centuries, economists have deliberated on the most effective ways to promote growth, to increase employment, to boost consumption and to eliminate poverty, but where does this all lead? Surely these are all means to an end? Today, some economists may define the end as happiness. This essay will explore the potential benefits and drawbacks of using happiness as an indicator of economic success, analyze how it can be measured and examine the current theories on whether happiness can cause economic growth, or vice versa. Whilst economic growth first and foremost implies an increase in GDP per capita, increasing happiness can be attributed to many different determinants such as health, education, stability and inequality. Therefore, the economics of happiness is a multi-layered and rather subjective area that divides economists when asked whether happiness can cause economic growth.