Happiness, like food and water, has been made a necessity for life by people throughout the years. It has gotten to the point where if someone is not happy 100 percent of the time, they are told to seek immediate help. But what is the point of having thousands of other emotionssadness, anger, and fearif a person is only supposed to feel one? Positive psychologists believe that instead of being sad or having neutral feelings, individuals should be happy. From another point of view, Susan David, author of “Don’t Worry Be Gloomy,” and Sharon Begley, author of “Happiness: Enough Already,” both agree that having “negative” emotions is not as defective as people portray them to be. Experiencing other emotions is just as important in life as happiness , and should not be shunned, because these emotions contribute to thinking clearly, encouraging perseverance, and, in the end, making people unintentionally happy. …show more content…
New research shows that “negative” moods, such as sadness, helps improve thinking. Writing in her article “Don’t Worry Be Gloomy,” Susan David complains that “when we’re overly cheerful, we tend to neglect more important threats and dangers” (124) whereas when we are sad, we have a more “attentive, accommodating thinking style (125). In other words, David emphasizes that when a person is happy, they do not think straight because everything appears to be good. But when a person is sad, they have more time to pay attention to details and think long on decisions because they are more skeptical about their surroundings instead of solely focused on
People push being happy on society as a total must in life; sadness is not an option. However, the research that has conducted to the study of happiness speaks otherwise. In this essay Sharon Begley's article "Happiness: Enough Already" critiques and analyzes societies need to be happy and the motivational affects it has on life. Begley believes that individuals do not always have to be happy, and being sad is okay and even good for us. She brings in the research of other professionals to build her claim that extreme constant happiness is not good for people. I strongly agree that we need to experience sadness to build motivation in life and character all around.
This is seemingly the case in the time period prior to the collapse of society. For example, when a character named “[Jeevan] reached Allan Gardens Park… he found himself blindsided by an unexpected joy. Arthur died… there’s nothing to be happy about. But there was… now he was certain, absolutely certain that he wanted to be a paramedic” (11). When Jeevan finally realized what he wanted to be, his true calling, he was overwhelmed with joy. Even though somebody had just died, all he could feel was happiness because he found something within himself. When Arthur was beginning to reflect upon his life, “He stared at his crown and ran through a secret list of everything that was good… Dancing with Clark when he was eighteen… Tanya sipping wine, her smile… Riding in his father’s snowplow when he was nine, the time [he] told a joke and his father and his little brother couldn’t stop laughing, the sheer joy he’d felt at that moment” (327). All of these different things brought Arthur happiness and eventually sadness at some point in his life, showing that nothing can keep you happy forever. The meaning of happiness is ever-changing. Since happiness was based off of how much you had, people had the ability to manipulate it by obtaining more
Sharon Begley, author of “Happiness: Enough Already,” proclaims that dejection is not an unacceptable state of mind and there are experts that endorses gloomy feelings. This reading explicates that even though every-one should be happy there is no need to ignore sadness, as both emotions share key parts in everyone’s life. Sharon Begley and her team of specialists provides the information on why sadness is supplemental to a person’s life.
I was surprised to read that being negative can be harmful to your health and might even shorten your life. This means positive emotions are necessary daily requirements to have a long healthy life. I think that this statement reminds me to be positive in my life. For example, negative emotions can lead to serious problems like stress, anger, hostility of the mind and body. I can relate to this because when I have negative feelings like when I strike out in a baseball game it affects my whole game after that. And when one person gets angry and one negative emotion can change the whole game for the team. However, when I stay positive in a game by patting teammates on the back, saying what good plays they did in the game, and rooting on the batter up and even the pitcher on the mound, it keeps our team in a good mood. And being in a good mood and pumped up is the best situation to be in, in a game. If someone gets upset, as a leader it is my job to get him back in a good mood. One positive emotion can change the whole game for the team. This goes back to filling people's
All of our emotions play a big role in our lives. Even though it does not feel like it at the moment, negative feelings can be a good thing.If we never become sad, angry, or scared we would not be able to appreciate the true value of happiness, we would only focus on ourselves and happiness, and we would become less alert to threats and dangerous situations around us.
Before we look into specifics, we’ll examine the history and development of “happiness” as a philosophy. Of course, the emotion of happiness has always existed, but it began to be seriously contemplated around 2,500 years ago by philosophers like Confucius, Buddha, Socrates and Aristotle. Shortly after Buddha taught his followers his Noble Eight Fold Path (which we will talk about later), Aristotle was teaching that happiness is “dependent on the individual” (Aristotle).
Humans gravitate towards safe, loving, and happy experiences. But sometimes it’s difficult to be positive, especially when experiences feel overwhelming. In recent years, there has been a lot of research conducted on regulating emotions. With these strategies, we can learn how to control our feelings. There are two types of strategies: savoring and dampening. Savoring is the idea of noticing and relishing experiences, hardwiring your brain to focus on positivity. Dampening, on the other hang, is the act of suppressing or down-regulating positive emotions, out of fear, shyness, or modesty. There are many ways to promote positive emotions, but the focus of this paper will be on the differing implementation strategies. While there’s consensus amongst scholarship that savoring and dampening are effective ways in influencing life satisfaction, the scholars differ in their approaches leading to their conclusions.
more harm than good. Negative emotions do not exist for no reason. All emotions have a much larger purpose than just the stigma or surface level way people think of them. Experiencing negative emotions has a surplus of benefits due to the fact that sadness and anger spark very useful traits that a person otherwise may not be able to access when happy and carefree. Along with the positive cognitive aspect, constant happiness can completely drain a person’s motivation to grow and change in their daily life, which can be detrimental to their quality of life. Many people may think happiness is the secret to a successful and enjoyable life, but what they do not realize is that negative emotions such as sadness, fear, and anger are just as important to a person's
Happiness is a feeling that everyone aims to accomplish, yet some people seem to only catch a sight of it. Gratifying atonement, a state of well-being, and serenity are the more eminent elements of happiness. David G. Myers and Ed Diener propose the article “Who Is Happy?” which present aspects of happiness, a theory that recognizes adaptation, cultural world view, and personal goals. I believe through word of mouth and through those whom we look up to, we are told many myths about happiness, especially the biggest myth that money can buy happiness. In Daniel Gilbert’s “Reporting Live from Tomorrow”, he argues that the definition of happiness is not defined by wealth and that we rely on super-replicators and surrogates to make decisions that we feel will enhance our happiness. Our economic history has proven the idea of declining marginal utility. If we pursue life and liberty without happiness, our lives, quality, and value will slowly vanish, but the absence of wealth has nothing to do with one’s happiness.
Contrary to belief, genuine happiness is very rarely found at the bottom of a shopping basket or on the leather seats of a brand new car. Often we hear the cliché saying “Money can’t buy happiness” but this is in fact true. Whilst the elation and delight brought from finally owning a wanted item is extraordinary, you must remind yourself that your happiness should not become dependant upon your ownership of this item. Being happy is not something you can purchase from a shop or car dealership, it is the way you take on life. Unfortunately, happiness does not have its own aisle at shops and never will.
Happiness is a feeling that humans naturally desire. Without it, one feels incomplete. In this generation, happiness has taken on a definition by how we are presented to one another. It is measured by how much money we have, how famous we are, or the things we possess. When in reality, none of these things guarantee a happy life. Happiness is something that cannot be bought with money, but rather, it must be found, earned, sought after. Each and every one of us has our own list of things that we consider to make us happy. However, happiness shines brightest through the relationships we create, and the goals we make for ourselves to strive after. Along with these two essential sources, we then can mix and match those things in life that we enjoy to create our own unique formula for happiness.
Moreover, stress and anxiety take a toll on the person’s positivity. A person under stress or in a state of anxious apprehension tends to have more of a negative affect and find less room for positive emotions, at least for the short span during which anxiety is experienced. This can, in turn, affect their entire world view and gradually lead to a loss of psychological well being. It is therefore very crucial to take note of it and address it through effective measures by managing stress and
When we are young children, we are introduced to the concept of "living happily ever after". This is a fairy-tale emotional state of absolute happiness, where nothing really happens, and nothing even seems to matter. It is a state of feeling good all the time. In fairy tales, this feeling is usually found in fulfilling marriages, royal castles, singing birds and laughing children. In real life, an even-keeled mood is more psychologically healthy than a mood in which you frequently achieve great heights of happiness. Furthermore, when you ask people what makes their lives worth living, they rarely mention their mood. They are more likely to talk about what they find meaningful, such as their work or relationships. Research suggests that if you focus too much on trying to feel good all the time, you’ll actually undermine your ability to ever feel good because no amount of feeling good will be satisfying to you. If feeling good all the time were the only requirement for happiness, then a person who uses cocaine every day would be extremely happy. In our endless struggle for more money, more love and more security, we have forgotten the most fundamental fact: happiness is not caused by possessions or social positions, and can in fact be experienced in any daily activity. We have made happiness a utopia: expensive, complicated, and unreachable.
In the article “Finding Happiness” the author says, “all of our problems arise from our own mind” (Finding Happiness”). He later goes on to say, “When we can respond to life’s difficulties with a positive and peaceful mind, they suddenly seem to melt away into nothing right before our eyes” (“Finding Happiness”). This statement goes to show that if you have negative thoughts, then you will be negative overall. Whereas if you try to maintain positive thoughts then you will overall be a more positive person. Being positive is going to help you in being happier (“Finding
Many people are aware of their emotions, whether that is happy or sad. We have become accustomed to these emotions and understand what we need to do in order to change the way we are feeling. When people experience many different situations, whether they are uncomfortable or excited, they become familiar to being able to adapt or leave the situation and completely change their attitude when entering another. When we feel sad, we have different ways of cheering ourselves up. Some just relax while others will play a sport to run or play off the stress they hold. We all have our individual ways to changes our attitudes and perspectives towards different situations. We all have become familiar with our personalities so we are able to control our emotions and thoughts, which makes up our mental well being.