Pursuit of happiness
What is happiness and what are its important ingredients? I asked in the similar manner to one of the teacher of our college from psychology department! And she offers some insights; one of them is hedonic happiness, which is how positive one feels moment-to-moment. to measure this type of happiness people are asked about the emotions they feel in their life , according to her too many psychologists equate happiness with life satisfaction .to measure this people are asked about how satisfied they are with their life . in addition, they are asked whether they wish their life was different or would trade their life with someone else’s as these indicate low life satisfaction . She added that life satisfaction is closely related to the third view of happiness, desire fulfillment. Economists often equate happiness with fulfillment of desires which means whether one is getting what one wants. The last is eudemonia which is if people are flourishing in all life domains .
To be honest , “personally I am hedonist to me my happiness is defined by how much positive vs negative emotions one experiences ,
This is not to deny the importance of economic well-being. Climbing out of poverty , people typically experience an increase in the happiness levels but plateau after a certain threshold . once the basic human needs are meet a lot money doesn’t make for a lot more happiness ,in fact it may lead to more stress , let us take a example our many friends have been migrated to metropolitan and mega city’s in search of high payable wage jobs ,and roughly their wages get doubled , by moving from countryside . yet they are less happy then the friends who are staying in the locality , because urban life which involve fewer friends ,more discrimination and more insecure life ,is perhaps intrinsically unhappier .
“YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR HAPPINESS. SPEECIALLY I WOULD FOCUS THREE THINGS – A SENSE OF CONNECTEDNESS (EG-CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS) COMPETENCE (FEELING THAT YOU ARE GOOD AT SOMETHING) AND AUTONOMY (HAVING SOME CONTROL OVER YOUR LIFE) ARE CRITICAL TO WELL BEING.
HAPPINESS THEORIES
#MONEY AINT EVERYTHING—Once the basic needs are met more more money doesn’t mean more happiness
#SOCIAL BONDS---Strong friendship and family bonds give a significant boost to happiness level
#MARITAL BONDS---- People in happy, committed stable relationship is happier than other
#SELECTIVE MEMORY ---Happy people don’t waste their time dealing on unpleasant things
#BELIEF IN GOD----Religious people are generally found to be happier than the non –believers
#COMPARISON EFFECT---Your status relative to others can have a big impact on your sense of well-being so stop comparing
HOW MONEY CAN BUY HAPPINESS
- BUY EXPERIENCE INSTEAD OF THINGS
- SEND MONEY TO HELP OTHERS INSTEAD OF YOURSELF , FULLFILL SOMEONES BASIC NEEDS THAN YOUR LUXARIES
- BUY MANY SMALL PLEASURE INSTEAD OF FEW BIG ONES
- PAY NOW CONSUME LATER DELAYING GRATIFICATION HELPS
- STOP GETTING COMPETTETIVE ABOUT SHOPPING
GITA
The idea of happiness as a state of mind , independent of pleasure or pain ( such and dukh) has been dealt with in the gita , the gita also devides happiness into three types
- Satvik happiness achieved through meditation
- Rajasik happiness that is dependent on victiories or results and
- Tamasik happiness created by laziness ,sleep and irresponsibility
UPANISHAD
wile the gita differentiates between sukha and ananda , the chandogya Upanishad uses the word such to define happiness or bliss , it says truth is subject to science , science is subject to study , study is dependent on respect , respect depend on concentration , which in turn depends on happiness . and happiness is brought about by knowledge of the infinite
