What is Happiness

What is Happiness?

Hap•pi•ness: the quality or state of being happy, good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy. All humans on earth are in pursuit of happiness, whether it is through their family, there financial well-being, or with the one person they love. The definition of happiness varies from different people or even from the dictionary term, but what really defines happiness? Happiness is a feeling expressed with intangible things, because there is self actualization, control of your life, developing a warm relationship with someone. These three things are bound to lead you to the path of happiness.

Happiness is defined to be a feeling expressed with intangible things. Intangible things are like feelings, you cannot buy a bottle of love or bottle happiness, and this is something that can only be shared with living items. So in order to achieve happiness you must self actualize. In an article called “Hierarchy of Needs the Five Levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs” by Kendra Cherry states that “Self-actualizing people are self-aware, concerned with personal growth, less concerned with the opinions of others and interested fulfilling their potential.”(cherry1) If you are self aware of what you do and concerned in your success in something, you are most likely to be successful, then you become happy.

Another way happiness is defined is having control over your life. Being in control means that you can make things go your way no way. Many people would like it if they can control what happens in their life. There are some things in life where you cannot control such as a death, losing a job or suffering from an unfortunate event. Even though you cannot control those things you can control how you react to the situation. If there is a death in a family, instead of mopping around and saying that it was your entire fault, you should control your emotion and be happy that you got spend time with them. Instead of crying over losing a job, go find another one. By controlling these things you can control if your happy or not.

Having warm relationship with someone can in fact add to happiness. In an article called “10 things science says will make you happy,” by Jen Angel states “Happier people tend to have good families, friends, and supportive relationships.”(Jen 3) A warm relationship means a supportive relationship, someone you can have by your side through thick or thin. Supportive relationship can help you go through whatever smoothly.
In contrary being single and having no warm relationship with someone can make life a little more difficult than usual. A study was conducted at Cornell University measuring the well being of people who are in a relationship versus someone who is not. “The study of measures of well-being and happiness found that people who cohabit are next on the scale of happiness, followed by those in steady relationships and then those in casual relationships. Unpartnered people report the lowest levels of well-being.”(Committed relationship increases happiness) There are studies that show the being a warm relationship have more happiness than someone who does not have one.

Some may argue that happiness is not defined by those three things. Being happy can fall into the category of having money, being single, and being surrounded by tangible items. The phrase “money can buy happiness,” does have some truth to happiness. Yes, you bought something that you really wanted so for a moment you are happy. For that little moment, it cannot last any longer than a couple minutes. So how much do you have to buy in order to be happy? Therefore money cannot buy happiness, money can buy you things that you are satisfied with, but you are not truly happy overall. Similarly, being surrounded by tangible adds to the phrase: money can buy happiness. When you buy what you want, you have it around you; people tend to replace that with their family or friends. That is why having tangible items do not create happiness, it creates satisfaction till someone realizes that this cannot give you happiness.

Another reason that does not add to happiness is being single. As what was stated about what the true definition of what happiness is, being single does not add to happiness. Some may say that they do not need anyone to make them happy, but in truth that does not makes sense. There is a norm in society that when you marry someone, you are bound to happy with them that’s why parents push their kids to get married in order to be happier with their spouse. If being with someone or having a warm relationship with them means happiness, then being single and having no warm relationship means being unhappy. Therefore being single does not make you happy, being in a warm relationship with someone does.

The search for happiness can also be detrimental to finding it. When someone wants something and keeps forcing it then they will not get what they want. As Dalai Lama said in an article called “Opening up to happiness,” by Mark Epstein states “But, as the Dalai Lama always emphasizes, happiness is not a hobby, nor is it a trivial pursuit. It is a fundamental drive as basic as those of sex or aggression.”(Epstein 1) A lot of happiness is based on religion; if Dalai Lama found his eternal peace why not take this quote to the heart. Finding happiness is not something that is in a bottle, like what was stated already happiness is not a feeling that can be found in a bottle it is something that must be expressed. Therefore someone who search for happiness constantly will not find it, you have to let it come to you before you can feel this emotion.

All in all, happiness is a feeling expressed with intangible things, because there is self actualization, control of your life, developing a warm relationship with someone. All other definitions of happiness should not even be considered because it will have some points like having money will make you happy; being single or even searching for it will make you unhappy. Happiness is something that must be felt, something that you must feel within not something you can carry in your purse. Just like in a YouTube video of Charlie brown the movie Happiness is a warm blanket trailer; Linus learns to break his habit of carrying around his blanket. “Growing up means stepping up to what makes you happy.”(youtube trailer) If Linus learns to be happy without his blanket, he will be happy. Therefore Happiness is not in a bottle, and cannot be found anywhere it is something you will feel with someone else, being successful by being aware of your personal growth and controlling what make you happy or unhappy.
 
Work Cited
"Dictionary.coom." N.p., 2011. Web. 16 Oct 2011. .
Epstein, Mark. "Opening Up to happiness." Psychology Today. N.p., 01/13/2011. Web. 16 Oct 2011. .
cherry, kendra. "Heirchy of Needs." about.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct 2011. .
"Keep your heart smiling." Committed relationship inreases happiness. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct 2011. .
Happiness is a Blanket. youtube, Film. .

Image cited
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=happiness&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=665&tbm=isch&tbnid=byrKM09YiSRiZM:&imgrefurl=http://marilonge.blogspot.com/2011/04/got-happiness.html&docid=fSupAn_QAYerfM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4aWezrVzGggoOfrhwgmbZU_FrBE1OTs5ffY6JUViFeCh98SBXZvGd8iUHo6l0spHRc9dMfeD6Kv3o8RRqHXW00feuVFO3ZMe_26yxkUpFkllfFlG8ctG7kBnsqOl0aY5rDw_BNwne4d4/s400/happiness_is_a_warm_puppy.jpg&w=400&h=386&ei=tRueTqy-LoKfiQLZsJ3gCQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=460&vpy=319&dur=335&hovh=221&hovw=229&tx=137&ty=137&sig=109400141899375366078&page=10&tbnh=135&tbnw=131&start=182&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:182

http://www.littlemummy.com/2009/11/16/what-motivates-us/

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