Reflection About Happiness

Happiness is something that all people, no matter what race, gender, or social class, strive for. Based on lifestyle or perspective each person has their independent idea of what happiness is, but everyone shares an end goal to live their definition of a happy life. Many people, though, struggle in finding their way to this goal. They face hardships and challenges that test their happiness every day. Happiness, though somewhat indirectly, does take learning and training to discover and maintain.

On December 15th, 1971, the first X amendments to the Constitution went into affect. The first X amendments to the constitution were known as the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment was written by James Madison because the American people were demanding a guarantee of their freedom. The First Amendment was put into place to protect American’s freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and freedom of petition. The First Amendment was written as follows;

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

Following Malcolm Gladwell’s idea on “the story of success”, Sonja Lyubomirsky put happiness to the test. Happiness has many great advantages that some may not think about. Studies shown happiness leads to stronger relationships, higher work performance, and even living longer with many health benefits.

There appear a few hundred million people living in America now days, and each and every one of them, including myself, strives to accomplish their best to succeed in life. Success for each individual can vary on what level of success they endeavor to receive. For example, an abundance people exasperate their best to become various sorts of celebrity, making millions of dollars every year and making either movies or music, whichever one they desire, although, maybe these ideas of outrageous success can lead to disaster, for if their desires aren’t met, and they comprehend that they can never be achieved, subsequently their self-esteem may plummet severely, causing them to spiral into the deepest and darkest depression of their lives. Though these individuals may never perceive the bright lights of the purest success, numerous others receive what they aspire, and the majority of them don’t deserve it.

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

These achievements may come in a variety of forms, whether it is attaining a college degree, landing your first job, or starting a family. They can also be more tangible achievements such as buying your first house or winning an award. The feeling that one gets after such a feat is pride swelling up inside letting you know that what you have achieved is worth being proud of. When we reach our goals or accomplish these feats we automatically build more self-esteem and strive harder to reach the next goal, making this a continuous chain of building pride while accomplishing goals. However, false pride is a very real thing that can lead to missed opportunities, constrained careers, undermined success, and disrupted relationships (Warrell). Keeping this in mind, it is important to avoid having false pride. This false pride can destroy not only the individual, but also tear at the fabrics of a

Happiness is a word that we often use without truly thinking about its meaning. After reading this chapter one of the insight that I found intriguing is how different people look at happiness in a different perspective. This chapter truly made me think about what happiness truly is about. We often use the word without truly thinking of what it really means to be happy. Something that surprised me is that we often see happiness as, “ The most immediate and direct

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

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.

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

Pleasure seeking may quite easily be mistaken by individuals to be synonymous with happiness. As Aristotle defended in his doctrine, pleasure-seeking is markedly different from happiness. He opines that what most individuals engage in is pleasure seeking which only yields an instantaneous, short-lived gratification. After this satisfaction, pleasure seeking individuals only goes back to his initial state. This can, therefore, be contrasted to happiness which is more long-term and has permanent effects on an individuals' life (Mortimer, 123). This implies that an individual can only be considered happy after achieving all that he wanted to achieve in health, wealth, relationship, family, and career for example. This means that happiness can only be determined at the end of one's life and not during one's life (Mortimer, 116).

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.

Attention Materials: Many times I have wondered what is true happiness. Is there such thing as true happiness? Can it even be attained if there is such a thing? Is it more of fulfilling desires, or satisfying psychological needs? Every person attempts to realize happiness in its fullest essence. It seems like today people are too busy trying to get rich. Nowadays it is believed that happiness lies in that new mansion, or a nice Ferrari. People are mistakingly assuming that wealth will bring to them a personal significance in which they will achieve happiness.

In an unofficial poll of students at State University, I found that of the fifty-eight students and one professor, males and females of several ethnic backgrounds and age groups, that I asked the question "What is happiness to you?", all of them had very different physical, intellectual, or emotional motivator for their happiness. Only the