HAPPINESS IN LIFE

Happiness in Life Is Linked More To Expressions of Kindness than To Experiencing Pleasure



Abstract

There have been many philosophers who say a lot of the different think about happiness, but most agree on one thing, that happiness in life is linked more to expressions of kindness than to experiencing pleasure. I have personally checked this by comparing two events of my live, one focused on happiness and the other on selfless care to evaluate them and see which elicits more joy, and for how long.



Table of Content

Introduction4

Philosophy behind happiness4

Enjoyable Activity5

Anticipated enjoyment?5

Joy lasting7

Review of the activity7

Selfless Kindness Activity7

Anticipated enjoyment?8

Joy lasting8

Review of the activity8

Comparison9

Happiness in life is linked more to expressions of kindness than to experiencing pleasure

Introduction

Happiness can be defines as a psychological state of welfare which can be characterized by positive emotions varying from intense satisfaction to complete delight. Some philosophers define happiness as living the good life, growing and so on, instead of simply an emotion (Cloninger, 2004).

Philosophy behind happiness

Happiness is not a solid concept as it may vary differently among different people in different situations. Many people believe that happiness is based on external factors such as money and luxuries which is farther from the truth. A needy person may feel happy getting a warm meal while a prosperous one may not, similarly the tendency of happiness may vary (DeMesa, 2006).

According to Lyubomirsky (2007), external factor contribute to only 10% to our happiness level while 40% is influenced by the mind, while the remaining 50% is hereditary. It is easier to be happy than people think. Just excursive daily, have a good social life, give time to yourself, and most of all, do something good that would make you happy (Lyubomirsky, 2007).

Tatarkiewicz (1976) states that over the past decades, people have been getting richer, but not happier. This shows that happiness is not directly related to external values of factors (Tatarkiewicz, 1976).

Enjoyable Activity

This last weekend I planned to watch a movie which I had been anticipating for the past month. Two weeks prior I booked the tickets online and bugged my friends till they agreed to tag along for a guys night out. As usual we met up at my place an hour earlier and prepared for the movie by creating hype to meet our anticipation.

We got to the place before time and ordered all sorts of stuff from hot dogs to jumbo buttered popcorn to enjoy this magnificent movie. As our tradition, we took loads of photos outside with the posters and standees to upload on Face-book to officially acknowledge that we were the first to see the movie.

The movie started on time with complete silence in the hall representing the high anticipation and eagerness people had for the movie. The best part was that the movie was as great as we all anticipated. It started off exactly as we expected and moved into becoming something even greater. It was full of action and fun filled humor which made us sit at the edge of our ...