Essay About Happiness

Every day, people live with the expectation of finding happiness, also considered as the search for well-being. People work hard to make their lives happier. Nevertheless, some people make mistakes in their path to happiness and end up unhappy. Other people might wonder why, but the truth is that they all have different beliefs and ways of describing well-being. Individuals have different definitions of happiness. In my opinion, happiness can be defined as the mental state that causes people to feel good about themselves. Happiness is not necessarily what we believe because our expectations and experiences in the universe shape our opinion of happiness, and we often form misconceptions about happiness. Furthermore, we each have our different approach to pursuing happiness, and it is difficult to pinpoint the precise source of our mistakes and errors along the way. Few people find lasting happiness or well-being because of the many misconceptions we have about how happiness is attained.

A common misconception many people have is that materialistic things would bring about our well-being. In the understanding of human science that happiness is the key task of life, growth in recognizing what happiness means has been slow. Many people around the world are distracted by the pursuit of money, fame, and materialistic possessions, and they believe that such spectacular things would make their lives better. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi recognized the psychological principle of flow, which is a strongly concentrated psychological state that promotes productivity, so he shares his research paper called “If We Are So Rich, Why Aren't We Happy?”. Based on his research, he indicates that “... The great self-confidence of the Western technological nations, and especially of the United States, was in large part because of the belief that materialism—the prolongation of a healthy life, the acquisition of wealth, the ownership of consumer goods—would be the royal road to a happy life” (Csikszentmihalyi 821). Certain things in life that are mentioned in the evidence raise one's greed and dissatisfaction, causing the person to become even more involved in such an endeavor. Moreover, humans consider that many factors can affect their happiness, but some of them already failed: both capitalist and communist policies could not succeed if material well-being leads to happiness, and the crew on the flagship of imperialist affluence is getting rapidly addicted to drugs to fall asleep, get up, remain thin, and escape exhaustion and depression because they think they can find their happiness from such fake factors. Furthermore, another research is the reason why materialistic things cannot connect with happiness. The lack of a possible relation between material well-being and happiness can be attributed to several factors: The rising gap between rich and poor makes even the middle-class feel impoverished… (Csikszentmihalyi 824). When people compare their earnings or possessions to someone else's, they become dissatisfied. More luxury desirable materialistic things do not always give happiness, but also give people pressure due to the comparison with others’ materialistic things. Materialistic things make people shine but not their emotions. The pursuit of materialistic things people want leaves no time for an individual to feel happy about material pleasures. 

Another common misunderstanding is that lots of free time makes people happier. Many busy Americans, especially those raising children, are stressed about time and wish they had more time to commit to leisure activities. All of us agree that our leisure time is valuable. A study has shown that people who are busy are happier than those who are inactive, regardless of whether their business is purposeful or not. According to the study named “The Effects of Being Time Poor and Time Rich on Life Satisfaction” by Marissa A. Sharif: “Ample time for discretionary activities may also decrease people’s enjoyment ... people are prone to hedonic adaptation, making them grow accustomed not only to live’s pains but also to life’s pleasures ” (Sharif 4). Happiness is not just about how much free time people have, but also when they have it. Having more free time does not increase our happiness level because it might get even worse by increasing pressure. Furthermore, keeping busy is more likely to make one happy achieving flow that is not about free time. As Ben Tal-Shahar mentions in the Happier, “if we do not ritualize activities whether working out in the gym, spending time with our family, or reading for pleasure, we don’t get to them… The most creative individuals- whether artists, business people, or parents have rituals that they follow. Paradoxically, the routine frees them up to be creative and spontaneous… different rituals, that can help you become happier” (Shahar 11). Happiness, on the other hand, is about being engaged in an activity, and at the time people may not even find it pleasurable but in retrospect, the busy routine is also where they get their happiness. Thus, even if many people in society are stressed about time and desire more time, people should realize that having more free time does not necessarily make people happier.

Happiness cannot be found elsewhere since it originates within people's minds and cognition. Humans should not exist in order to achieve happiness, but rather to build it in every moment of our lives. Regular happiness practice will confirm that happiness is a way of life rather than a destination. Although our minds are complicated and our subconscious is strong, we each have the ability to regulate our brains, and learning this will lead to a healthier and more well-being existence. Also, people ought to realize that happiness is not attained and maintained endlessly. None of the above examples and analyses are meant to imply that material benefits such as money, safety, luxury, and popularity are necessarily harmful to happiness. For sure, most people might continue to believe in happiness if they had more capital, good looks, or opportunities. What matters in achieving happiness are practices such as appreciation, generosity, empathy, and sympathy. Such human characteristics make them happy and spread pleasure around them. Every day, just being pleased and thankful for the smallest aspect of life would suffice to make you happy.