Definition Essay On Happiness

548 Words2 Pages

“Happiness: the state of being happy.
Happy: (1.) delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing. (2.) characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy” (“Happiness”). That is how happiness is defined in the dictionary… not very insightful. People recognize happiness when they feel it, but often struggle to understand its meaning. Happiness is a feeling, something intangible, that varies for everyone. One can be happy for the moment or a long period of time ("What Is Happiness?”). Some philosophers insist that happiness is based on long-term alone. They assert that the amount of good in someone’s life is correlated to how happy a life they lived; that happiness cannot be achieved until the end of a person’s life. In their opinion, happiness is a goal and not a …show more content…

Pleasurable daily experiences can add up to a happy life. If the positive moments of a person’s life outweigh the negatives, that person can be considered happy. However, happiness is subjective. Two individuals can experience the same event and have completely different views on their level of happiness. It is clear that happiness is felt in degrees. An individual may be slightly happy over a free slice of cheese pizza, but ecstatic over winning one-million dollars on a scratch-off. A person who is willing to be happy, often is. Happiness can be the little things in life. It can be discovering that the cafeteria is serving chicken nuggets; having a mouthful of dark chocolate-covered blueberries; lounging around on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee in one hand and a TV remote in the other; that second of serious eye contact people make with each other right before they burst out laughing; making a one-hundred on a composition paper; losing your stomach in the drop of a roller-coaster; or seeing a rainbow after a storm. Any simple moment that brings a smile to someone’s face, can be

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