Sunday, September 28, 2014
Happiness
The article "What makes Us Happy?" by Joshua Wolf Shenk is reporting the findings of psychiatrist George Vaillant, who conducted a experiment following the lives of 268 students from Harvard university and how their lives change throughout the years. Based on Dr. Vaillant's studies the cases that began with the student having a better background when they were younger appeared to have the better future ahead of them. However, that wasn't the case as their chances of living happier lives as elderly men began to deteriorate because of environmental factors such as, war, psychological issues, work, and family issues affected the students psychologically. Compared to the students that don't have healthy backgrounds and experienced the "rough times" at the beginning of their lives tend to go from appearing to have the worst possible future to having the better future than the students that were believed to have the better future. Shenk expresses that we as humans want to be as happy as possible so we mask our true feelings for something in order to keep us from getting hurt. In the article "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians" by Rita Dove takes a religious view point on how to be happy. She discusses her personal experience from learning from the apostle Paul. Paul's experiences and how he learned from those experiences is how his life shaped. Both articles have different views of how to reach happiness, Shenk states that what makes us happy is our experiences through life and how we choose to perceive them and Dove states that we can achieve happiness through love. I would have to agree with both of these articles because there is nothing more related to happiness than love but as well as how we decide to see our experiences is important because bad things do happen but if we choose to accept the bad and stay optimistic then we can stay happy. In my opinion happiness is a difficult concept to grasp because there are so many factors that come into play, but theres really no way I can say it than just if you're happy, then you're happy.
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I also agree that happiness is a difficult concept. In the articles it compares religious happiness to scientific happiness, but what why is the spectrum either one or the other, what if its a mix of both or neither? Just an idea. With the "What Makes Us Happy" article by George Vaillant I don't think it's right that they are trying to find a scientific method/mathematical formula to discover the key to happiness, happiness is an emotion that most can't explain and I feel we should leave the work of this emotion to our brain and not try to make it easily accessible because, true happiness isn't readily available. Although the study of happiness is an interesting idea of saying adaption determines happiness. I feel that in "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians" by Rita Dove, she is not plainly claiming that religion is the key to happiness, but she is saying from her experiences religion gave her insight, knowledge and is a tremendous part of her childhood. The nostalgia of church leads her mind to wonder but to the time where everything was simple in her childhood, full of discoveries and growth, her memories give her happiness. I think that the painting of Paul reminded her of the times she was in Church, bringing her childhood to life, then relating with Paul's experiences. Throughout the reading she is skeptical of Paul's life and his actions, but in the ending she understands Paul. So I don't exactly think she is directly saying religion is happiness
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of these articles. At church I have seen a few guest speakers come and share their stories about how reading the Bible, and going to church changed their lives for the better. They tell us how they were unhappy growing up and as soon as they put Jesus in their lives they were happy. These people realize that the Bible brings them hope, and it shows them that anything is possible, and I completely agree with that thought.
ReplyDeleteI also strongly agree that the way on how we view our experiences does shape, in some way, how happy we are. This is true because there are always more than one way to look at something. I know a family friend that said, “Instead of burying me into the ground and having a funeral, I want to be cremated. Once you have the ashes, I want you to spread my ashes on every golf course I’ve ever played on. Then once you’ve done that I want you to invite family and friends over for a party in remembrance of me.” This man wanted not everyone to be sad because of his life, but he wanted everyone to celebrate the happy, and wonderful life he lived. This is definitely looking at dying in a different perspective. I believe we have to look on the brighter side of everything because there is no time in our lives that we can rewind back to something we regret doing, and changing it. To achieve happiness we must always think positive.
I agree that happiness is difficult to understand because it is so complex. Everyone has a different description of what makes them happy. I agree that happiness comes from our experiences as well as love. I don’t think that you necessarily need both to be happy though. For example, a homeless man still finds happiness in the love he shares for his dog, regardless of all the bad experiences he has had. Another example could be, a doctor who puts all of himself into his work that he doesn’t have time to find a significant other, but he is okay with that because he finds happiness in his career and all of his accomplishments. I also don’t think it is right that they are trying to scientifically find a cause of happiness. I don’t believe that there is any kind of mixture or solution that makes up happiness. Everyone has their own perception of it and happiness is unique to everyone. There just isn’t a scientific reasoning to everything. There is no formula for a good life. A good life is different for everyone. I think everyone has the opportunity to find happiness and to pursue a good life. Like you were saying, optimism is key to a good life. You have to go through the bad and still find the good. Life is what you choose to make of it even if it’s not always easy.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you on both articles and that happiness is hard to understand because of its complexity. There isn't a formula for happiness or love. Each and everyone of us has a different input on what make's us happy or fall in love. Happiness comes through experience just like love. You have to go through the bad to appreciate the good and i believe that's what makes us happy. That the good moments and life are what make us the happiest, because we appreciate those specific moments the most. I also think that you need both love and happiness to be happy. People who aren't in relationships could be equally as happy as those that are married or have a partner. We each have different opinion's on what makes us happy. Happiness can be from your career, hobbies, or interests it doesn't necessarily have to be from a significant other, it all depends on what drives you the most. You have to be optimistic, like you said above, about life. Things might not be going your way, but that's life for you. You have the choice to let it make or break you.
ReplyDeleteI, along with all the other commentators, agree with you on both articles. Happiness is hard to understand because it is so intricate. There are so many things that contribute to happiness that I believe there is no universal way to find out how to become happy. Every person on this Earth has a different definition of happiness. However, based off of the readings I do believe that our perception of events and love do weigh in heavily on happiness. If an unfortunate event occurs in your life you can choose to build a bridge, get over it, and be happy. Also, the feeling of love and being loved brings great happiness, for some. Happiness is all about personal preference and might not be achievable by some. It is a shame though that there isn't a formula for happiness, that would be nice.
ReplyDeleteAs you can tell in both articles, by Rita Dove and by Joshua Wolf Shenk, happiness is achieved in different ways by different people depending on their experiences and points of views of life. Although I agree with you on how you perceive the articles and what is said, you failed to mention how the experiences affected each person differently. In Shenk’s article he shows how the gain of happiness can change depending on the changing environment for the boys’. At first they are all healthy college sophomores but with different backgrounds and he predicts their success based on their experiences in the past, but after the war his predictions are disproven because the situation of the boys change. The one with a tougher background were the ones that became more successful and the ones it came easier to become more prone to mental illness. In Dove’s article we see how religion effects their perspectives of happiness and he believes you achieve happiness through love and again you see a change in situation and the change of happiness. In both articles we see how surroundings and changes in situations affect our pursuit of happiness and way it is gone about to gain happiness. Although they experience this pursuit of happiness differently they are all effected by the change in the environment. As well the change in environment either effected them positively or negatively depending on their backgrounds, this is how they determined if the change in their situation would impact them negatively or positively.
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