What Is A Happy Life Essay

Mahatma Gandhi one defined happiness as “when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Barring any better definition of happiness from either positive psychologists, self-help gurus, or any other academic source, I tend to think this is a great summation of the definition of happiness. Gandhi doesn’t say anything about how these things make you feel, rather looks at it from a point of view of harmony between thoughts, expressions, and actions. Since one single accepted definition of happiness doesn’t seem to exist, and happiness is different for everyone, this begs the question; how can you increase your own personal level of happiness?

The concept of living “the good life” means something different for everyone. There is a general understanding that living “the good life” is associated with unyielding happiness and lasting satisfaction. The exact meaning of this desired life was pondered by thinkers and philosophers for hundreds of years. They constructed principals of behavior, thought, and obligation that would categorize a person as “good”. Although some of these ancient philosophies about “the good life” had overlapping ideas, their concepts varied widely. This contrast of ideas can be examined through two major characters in two famous works: Aeneas in “The Aeneid” and Socrates in “The Apology”. Aeneas exemplifies the philosophy that the direct route to “the good life" is through faith, trust in the Gods, and family, while Socrates in “The Apology” emphasizes free will, and vast knowledge of life.

Success is extremely coveted in the society, however on the path to success, obstacles will stand in the way. Failure is inevitable and the response of an individual towards these obstacles and the failures in their lives determines whether or not they will have success. Failure gives allowance to learn from mistakes and motivates to do better the next time. The Pursuit of Happyness uses lighting, music and camera angles to give viewers an insight into Chris’ journey through the film demonstrating his resiliency, optimism and loving personality. Filmmaker, Gabriele Muccino, uses the protagonist, Chris’ final triumph to illustrate the significance of failure in achieving success.

People travel through life with what seems like a single goal: to be happy. This may seem like a selfish way to live, however this lone objective is the motivation behind nearly all actions. Even seemingly selfless deeds make people feel better about themselves. That warm feeling experienced while doing charitable acts can be described as happiness. But what is authentic happiness? There is an endless possibility of answers to this question, and man seems to be always searching for the solution. Although one may reach his or her goals, there is always still something one strives for in order to be happy. In the book Stumbling on Happiness, Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert takes the reader through

According to the Dictionary, “happiness is the mental or emotional state of well being which can be defined by others. A pleasurable or satisfying experience.”. Of course that’s true, the feeling of happiness is what it’s scientifically defined as, but happiness is much more than that. Happiness could be a certain sound, a smell, even feeling a certain piece of clothing or a thick warm blanket. People spend hours even years trying to work for what they think is happiness. They work for hours to get large amounts of money, but they never find the happiness their looking for. That’s because happiness isn't materialistic, happiness isn't something you can buy with expensive items. Even though some people believe you can buy happiness, that’s

Happiness: a Human Disease -- An Examination of the Allegorical Theme of Existentialism in the Happy Man

What is happiness? People have agonized over this question for centuries. Let me start this essay by answering a somewhat easier question: what isn’t happiness? Happiness is NOT feeling good all the time. Happiness is a combination of human emotions and states of mind. Exploring this state of being has consumed the philosophical minds of the ages and will continue to do so for ages to come.

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

There is really no definite explanation for what a happy and healthy life consists of. People may create a list of qualities that one desires for a “good” life, though many may come from a bad source. Profound philosophers Jean Kazez and Chris Heathwood developed both subjective and objective theories to help define the true meaning of a substantial life. Jean Kazez was responsible for the objective view of well being, where life requires fundamental goods or necessities for a good life. On the other hand, Chris Heathwood explained in a subjective view that satisfying your desires will promote well being. In the movie, D’Jango Unchained, two black men, Stephen and D’Jango, experienced contrasting lives and confronted each other at the end of the movie. During the time period the movie transpires in, it was extremely rare for a black man to have a “good” life. Most black people were made into slaves, but both Stephen and D’Jango had better lives. Stephen had a bad quality of life, and D’Jango aspired to live a “good” life based on the objective and subjective views of well being.

It is human nature to want and desire certain things out of life. For the most part, people want the same things. No one is the same as anyone else but we all share the fact that we want to make our lives as good as we possibly can. There are many ways to achieve happiness and everything that is wanted out of life can make you happy. Whatever a person’s truest desire may be, if they obtain that desire they obtain happiness. All that is desired falls under “What will make you happy in life?” We long to be happy, but what gets us there?

"A library of wisdom, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it." -- Plato

Life is beautiful. It is. When you look a bit closer, a bit more attentive… you will be able to see it. Maybe it was that ravishing purple sunset glowing at the bluish sky you saw the other day. Or when you saw a stranger helping up someone who has fallen down to the ground. Or it was that small boy holding hands with his mama and papa, as he repeatedly saying: “I love you more mommy and daddy…” on the streets. Or maybe, just maybe it was the feeling you feel from being alive. Life is a gift. It is.

In today’s world, humans are often misled on what really is a good life. We are constantly shown through the television and magazines that being rich and famous is the way to go when it comes to a good life, when in truth many of them are miserable by problems that usually wouldn’t affect the common person. In truth there are only a few that are rich and famous and do achieve what can probably considered one of the greatest achievement’s by a man which is having a good life. In my opinion, the decision if someone has a good life or not is up to them and their will to strive for something better than average during the high school years of their life. The reason I feel like it begins at that age in their life is

Life sometimes seems scary. The fear of failure and the fear of the unknown make a person rethink its choices and goals, this happens all the time. As time passes, be days, moths, years or only simply one experience can change our whole vision of the world, about life, about what really matters and consequently about our goals. Throughout my whole life I have questioned so many aspects of my life, of existence, and consequently about my future. I never stopped wanting to achieve something big, that could change the whole world, some amazing adventure that would be the one thing that would give birth to all the amazing things that could happen next. As time passed I realized that life itself is one big adventure, and that what I will do every day will matter for me and for the people around me. I realized that life is not some perfect movie where there are good guys, bad guys and that in the end of one amazing journey everything would be solved. It may be a childish vision of the world, but it had motivated me for years to do the thing I believed would help me achieve this, and to believe in myself. Obviously as I grew up, I saw what the world really looked like, that sacrifices have to be made, that there are things which no one can control, that if I want something I have to work really hard. In today society everything counts.

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.