Some people struggle, believe it can happen overnight or believe the search for happiness is never ending. Every person desire to have a fulfilling and happy life. When personal thoughts, actions, and words work in harmony, the person can be said to be happy. Happiness can be defined as a mental feeling which is characterized by satisfaction, love, contentment, pleasure, or even joy. Such people report fewer instances of negative emotions such as anger, anxiety and sadness. Traditionally, happiness is considered an evanescent and elusive thing both external and internal experiences. Every person experience happiness in different periods in their lifetime such as during birthdays, life achievements, in our families, and other positive life occurrences. On the contrary, people also go through episodes of sadness in their lives such as after the death of a loved one, illnesses, and other undesirable events of life. There are many ways that a person can strive to improve their levels of happiness in the modern world.
Happiness can be boosted through pleasure, meaning, and also engagement. Increasing personal pleasure levels as well as positive emotions are some of the ways that can help a person boost their happiness. According to the past research, any person can intensify their positive emotions of the past by refining forgiveness and gratitude, the present emotions through mindfulness and savoring, and finally, the future emotions by constructing optimism and hope (Seligman, Parks, and Steen). However, this concept is limited by the fact that an individual’s emotions operate within a range which is determined by a person’s genetics. As a result of this, positive emotion is not the only determinant for happiness and so every person ought to have a broader conception about the concept.
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Happiness can be brought about by higher gratification levels. Gratification usually entails full engagement and involvement. Since gratification has no known shortcut, its pursuit requires us to draw on personality strengths like social intelligence, creativity, perseverance, beauty, and excellence as well as the sense of humor (Seligman, Parks, and Steen). The hunt for gratification, however, comes with unpleasant emotions. The final route to happiness is often through the efforts to belong to a certain service that goes beyond an individual. Such services include family, community, goodness, higher spiritual power, and justice. Such services give meaning to life since it certifies a certain longing for a purpose in life. Any person who uses these routes to achieve happiness is known to achieve a full life with greater satisfaction levels.
According to past research, there are some demographic differences in regard to happiness. Women are more likely to be happier than men. Research conducted at the University of Minnesota among identical twins showed that every twin had an inherent gene for happiness which determined their level of happiness in life (Brooks, 5). Genes account for half of the reasons why some people are happier in life than others. Other studies indicate that isolated events such as securing a dream job account for 40% of people’s happiness. Although these events bring fair levels of happiness, the impacts of such events usually last for a shorter period of time (Brooks, 7). Despite long-time goals taking a longer period of time to meet, the happiness that comes along usually dissipates after a short period of time. An individual should chase four main values such as community, family, work, and faith to boost the genetically determined levels of happiness that cannot be altered with. Rewarding work, other than money can be a great source of happiness especially through integrating a person’s passion to skills, enabling an individual to create their own valuable lives and those of other people. Brooks concludes by saying that any person should commit their lives into the family, community, meaningful work, and faith for them to become happy in life (Brooks, 17). Sharing of happiness can only be facilitated when people strive and struggle for a free enterprise to make every person around them access their blessings.
Jennifer Senior argued that life contentment is usually defined and remembered through an individual’s experiences of lows, highs, and how they come to an end. Many people are believed to be happier if they are more religious, younger, smart, attractive, and if they are in a happy marriage (Senior, 425). However, a lot of studies have confirmed these findings to be wrong and they go far beyond to illustrate that social status cannot be used to measure an individual’s levels of happiness. According to Jenifer Senior, people who live in better areas are much happier and that all the other factors are just indicators of whether a person is or not happier with their life. If a person is surrounded by close friends and family, they are most likely able to live a happy life (Jenifer, 4). According to him, sadness and happiness are part of every person’s life. The two interact with each other to keep any person’s emotions balanced and stable. Excessive happiness can hinder a person from recognizing the sadness in their lives and make a person believe that nothing is wrong with their issue. On the contrary, a lot of sadness can make a person have dark thoughts which can consequently lead to depression and lack of appreciation of the happiness around. Every person, therefore, has the mandate boost their pleasure levels and create their own happiness by having positive memories in their mind.
In conclusion, happiness is just a changeable state other than a trait which lasts for a shorter period and so everyone has the right to be happy. The main routes to achieving happiness according to this essay are increasing positive emotions, gratification levels, and involvement in certain services in the community, family, and society at large. Genetics play a vital role in determining a person’s levels of happiness. However, people cannot be happy or sad all the time. Both sadness and happiness are important to create emotional balance in any individual. A person is advised to make adjustments in their life in order to increase and live a happy life. For instance, one should adjust the way they use their money to enable them to become happy in life. As a result, sadness is acceptable in a person’s life if they have the happiness to balance it. Happiness is very vital since it promotes the achievement of individual’s goals and other gives human beings the potential to change their own lives and those of other people.
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