Human beings throughout different eras and centuries venture towards achieving happiness. Regardless of where one is in society, they work hard to make it better for themselves and those around them. Some find happiness in being wealthy, others find happiness in personal relationships, and there are those who find happiness in worldly pleasures — however, a common denominator for such individuals is the view and search for a fulfilling feeling that would result from actions motivated by personal satisfaction. As such, this paper seeks to criticize and analyze the assumption of happiness from the perspectives below. However, the analysis encompasses scientific findings and research in the field hence the presence of both factual and verifiable sources from different articles. In the end, it does matter what one finds; they will either be happy or sad; however, the call is to utilize whatever little time one has to be as happy as possible.
Literature Review
The idea of happiness is central to how human beings experienced and grew in their self and is not limited to the present; instead, it goes back centuries into the past. As promoted by the Greek philosopher Aristippus in the 4th century, life’s goals require maximization of the totality of one’s pleasures. Happiness is not limited to a particular field; preferably, it is present in the political, economic, and social systems. However, research in the field has always failed with the majority failing to recognize whether a particular model should utilize objective or subjective assertions (Nettle 2005). Happiness is subjective; however getting a definitive answer of what to discuss pales in comparison to what happiness entails. As such, different books and articles exist on the topic with a majority failing to concur on the definition of happiness. Each group holds their ground in asserting different notions and beliefs on happiness. Hence, despite having scientific analysis in place, questions still arise ( Segal, 2017) . Below is an analysis of existing literature and a comparison of how it relates to arguments from the article.
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Do Not Insist on The Best
According to the article, there is no need for one to insist on the best. Rather, decisions have to be in place the moment the criteria are met. As such, instead of analyzing the intricacies involved in a particular system, face value should be enough to determine whether something is beneficial or not. The same echo is present in Medvedev et al.’s (2017) arguments. As per their assertions, happiness definition follows a bottom-up approach where happiness is a summation of negative and positive feelings amassed over time. As such, the happy people do not emphasize or detail the goodness or badness of a feature; rather, they acknowledge what is present without considering the future impacts ( Doig, 2001) . Both arguments caution against taking precautions against incidences that have not happened yet, and instead, endeavor to promote incidences of happiness at the moment.
Fake It Till You Make It
Feelings and actions are interrelated. Hence, at the moment one is feeling low, it also guarantees them to opt for options in which they remain happy. As such, being aware helps nurture and promote the feeling of happiness. Ng (2015) uses biological evolution in explaining this concept of happiness. The capability of enjoyment or suffering lies in the human mind, hence as long as the thought exists in the brain, the chances of one feeling low are rare. As such, happiness is preconditioned on the thought of one being conscious of the feeling. Such thoughts are maintained by energy; therefore, keeping thoughts active in one’s mind increases their levels of consciousness. Being aware affects the different activities of an organism, fits that only work to explain the process of faking a condition to trick the mind into believing the essentiality of the condition ( Kimmings & Grayburn, 2015) . As such, by faking happiness, the mind adapts to the thought and works on elevating activities that promote the faked feeling, which ends up making people happy.
Don’t Treat the Blues with A Treat
While choosing some things to do is easy, dealing with consequences often leads to regrets. However, the pleasure that lasts a minute leaves a lot of questions with people wondering whether such pleasure is valid or it is merely faux. However, the arguments brought forth by Cummins (2016) helps one understand the concept of Affective Circumplex. The theme involves division of the brain into two orthogonal and bipolar axes upon which lies the satisfaction and lack of satisfaction. Incidences of lacking satisfaction leave regrets and melancholy while satisfaction entails understanding and progressing one’s beliefs ( Zimbardo, Sword & Sword 2012) . However, the emphasis lies in the actions, in that, while rushing to make a decision may be a good idea, living with the consequences of such an idea could be disastrous. Hence, it is up to the involved parties to ensure good decisions are made. Through such practices, some become happy while others become sad.
Stop Nagging
Life is about appreciation and nagging does not promote gratitude. Instead, it encourages the idea of not appreciating what one has. As per the article, people will never be perfect; rather, one has to concur to the fact that such differences are essential to retaining one’s diversity. As such, being grateful for what one has is the ultimate goal and aspiration that anyone should hold. The same view is presented in Emmons’ (2007) work. Scientifically, gratitude does not fall in the aspect of easy classification; preferably, it is a depiction of emotions, virtue, personality trait and response to coping. Therefore, by recognizing and acknowledging the existence of diverse opinions and being okay with the differences, one gets a chance to remodel their lives to fit better the satisfaction levels leading to happiness ( Thaler & Sunstein, 2008) . By appreciating what life has to offer instead of nagging or complaining about the failure of life to be fair, one learns to deal with the uncertainties while at the same time promoting a sense of belonging.
Conclusion
In conclusion, life is not all a bed of roses; instead, it comes with various challenges. Society has different ways of dealing with stress and having a single way of determining whether one is happy or not is unrealistic. As per the Chinese assertion, life is about Ying and Yang, hence wherever there is sadness, happiness also exists. However, it is up to the individual to precondition their minds to move and act in ways that promote the idea of happiness. The article offers insight on different assertions, and surprisingly, all of the claims can be backed by scientific findings and calibrations. As such, it is easy for one to either choose happiness or sadness. The universal belief, however, is everyone does want to be happy, and regardless of where they are in life or their achievements in life, the belief that they can be happy keeps them working towards that dream.
References
Cummins, R. A. (2016). Happiness is the right metric to measure good societal functioning. Society , 53 (3), 273-277.
Doig, J. C. (2001). Aquinas's philosophical commentary on the Ethics: A historical perspective . Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, c.
Emmons, R. A. (2007). Thanks! How the new science of gratitude can make you happier . Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Kimmings, B., & Grayburn, T. (2015). Fake It ‘til You Make It . London: Oberon Books.
Medvedev, O. N., Siegert, R. J., Mohamed, A. D., Shepherd, D., Landhuis, E., & Krägeloh, C. U. (2017). The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire: transformation from an ordinal to an interval measure using Rasch analysis. Journal of Happiness Studies , 18 (5), 1425-1443.
Nettle D. (2005). Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile. OUP Oxford.
Ng, Y. K. (2015). Some conceptual and methodological issues on happiness: lessons from evolutionary biology. The Singapore Economic Review , 60 (04), 1540001.
Segal, L. (2017). Radical Happiness: The Search for Moments of Shared Joy . Verso Books.
Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2008). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness . New Haven: Yale University Press.
Zimbardo, P. G., Sword, R. M., & Sword, R. K. M. (2012). The time cure: Overcoming PTSD with the new psychology of time perspective therapy . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
