Happiness Project Desciption
In this project we looked behind happiness and meaning and dug to the roots of it. In my essay I talked about how to find happiness and what happiness is to me. My essay is below. We really looked behind happiness by researching and watching many articles and videos. It was hard work but it finally paid of when we got to create our art piece.
When you think of happiness you think of that bolt that flies through your body for a certain amount of time. This bolt can last a while or it can be there for a moment and gone in the next. We have all experienced these moments more than once, but what really is happiness and what does it mean. Even though we all experience happiness, As an individual I believe the meaning of happiness comes from the happiness of others. This means that the things you do to make others happy is where you find your own happiness.
While everyone has experienced a sense of happiness in their lives, to be able to find happiness in your life is through a meaningful life, together as a nation.
As we grow up we all experience a sense of happiness, this happiness can come from almost anything. As an individual I believe that the best way to maintain that happiness is through a meaningful life. In the article There’s More to Life Than Being Happy, Emily Smith says, “Leading a happy life, the psychologists found, is associated with being a "taker" while leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a "giver." (Smith.)After reading this quote almost all of us can relate to it and most of us have experienced it. Say it’s Christmas and everybody is opening presents I’m sure we are all happy with all the things we got but you also happy because you gave something to someone and they liked it. One of my personal experiences with this was actually for a project. My friends and I got together to do a project on world hunger so we decided to help out at the Manna Soup Kitchen one day. As most of us know we are always or usually happy with our friends but when we decided to help out around the community and be a “giver” it wasn’t just our friends that made us happy. This was a great way for us to pursue happiness while maintaining a sense of meaning in our lives.
Because we are humans we all want happiness, but most of us don’t strive for it. Happiness is something we all want so why not always be striving for it? I found out that in my own life I haven't really found the meaning behind happiness, and that I haven’t been able to achieve that true happiness. This could be because my expectations are too high and I think happiness will just come to me. In the Ted Talk The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains, “When everything was worse it was actually possible to have experiences that were a pleasant surprise.” (Schwartz.) As an individual this quote really stood out to me because it shows how we live nowadays. The world is slowly moving in the direction where no one is satisfied, where even when you receive a gift you aren't happy. I remember asking my dad what he used to get for Christmas and he replied with things like an orange in his stocking, stuff that we would get and not be happy. This project has taught me that happiness can come from the littlest things. I believe the biggest way for me to achieve happiness in my life is through the helping of others. This can even be very small things like helping out at the Manna Soup Kitchen with my friends, or helping my grandpa out with his computer. Even though these things are little they can really make you and them happy.
As an individual we all want happiness, but what about as a nation. According to the OECD Better Life Index, The USA ranks seventeenth in overall life satisfaction. This was really surprising to me because I tend to feel happy with where I live, though many others may not be. Even though it is impossible to keep everyone in our nation happy my opinion towards a happier society is to do the little things around us. Yes we still need to focus on our economy, jobs, education etc. But I believe if we focus on things that other “happier” countries focus on like environment, work-life balance, and housing together we would be a much happier country. While not everyone is as kind as others, I understand that if we start to change the way we think and act towards others, we can start to change the way we are as a nation and how happy we are. Because happiness is fifty percent genetics there is still a lot of room to manage your happiness. In conclusion if we start to change how we think and act towards each other and ourselves we can start to change how happy we are as a nation.
To sum up, happiness is not only that feeling you have, that bolt of rush. Happiness is meaning, being a giver, helping others. Though one question still remains. How do you influence a culture that seeks happiness? As I said above I believe one of the biggest ways to find happiness is through meaning in life and if you show that meaning in culture it can really influence the happiness within that culture. Without happiness in our culture there is no culture so another way to influence the happiness within it is to be able to do the “little” things. Above I talk about how if we are able to do little things in our community and help one another out, I believe to be able to find happiness will be much easier. Finally for a culture to seek happiness we need to change how we become happy. Because fifty percent of our happiness comes from our genetics, a lot of how we think and act determines how happy we are. If we can start to change how happy we are individually we can start to change how happy we are as a culture. In conclusion the next time you help someone out who needs it or give someone a gift, feel happy because you are following a meaningful life.
When you think of happiness you think of that bolt that flies through your body for a certain amount of time. This bolt can last a while or it can be there for a moment and gone in the next. We have all experienced these moments more than once, but what really is happiness and what does it mean. Even though we all experience happiness, As an individual I believe the meaning of happiness comes from the happiness of others. This means that the things you do to make others happy is where you find your own happiness.
While everyone has experienced a sense of happiness in their lives, to be able to find happiness in your life is through a meaningful life, together as a nation.
As we grow up we all experience a sense of happiness, this happiness can come from almost anything. As an individual I believe that the best way to maintain that happiness is through a meaningful life. In the article There’s More to Life Than Being Happy, Emily Smith says, “Leading a happy life, the psychologists found, is associated with being a "taker" while leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a "giver." (Smith.)After reading this quote almost all of us can relate to it and most of us have experienced it. Say it’s Christmas and everybody is opening presents I’m sure we are all happy with all the things we got but you also happy because you gave something to someone and they liked it. One of my personal experiences with this was actually for a project. My friends and I got together to do a project on world hunger so we decided to help out at the Manna Soup Kitchen one day. As most of us know we are always or usually happy with our friends but when we decided to help out around the community and be a “giver” it wasn’t just our friends that made us happy. This was a great way for us to pursue happiness while maintaining a sense of meaning in our lives.
Because we are humans we all want happiness, but most of us don’t strive for it. Happiness is something we all want so why not always be striving for it? I found out that in my own life I haven't really found the meaning behind happiness, and that I haven’t been able to achieve that true happiness. This could be because my expectations are too high and I think happiness will just come to me. In the Ted Talk The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains, “When everything was worse it was actually possible to have experiences that were a pleasant surprise.” (Schwartz.) As an individual this quote really stood out to me because it shows how we live nowadays. The world is slowly moving in the direction where no one is satisfied, where even when you receive a gift you aren't happy. I remember asking my dad what he used to get for Christmas and he replied with things like an orange in his stocking, stuff that we would get and not be happy. This project has taught me that happiness can come from the littlest things. I believe the biggest way for me to achieve happiness in my life is through the helping of others. This can even be very small things like helping out at the Manna Soup Kitchen with my friends, or helping my grandpa out with his computer. Even though these things are little they can really make you and them happy.
As an individual we all want happiness, but what about as a nation. According to the OECD Better Life Index, The USA ranks seventeenth in overall life satisfaction. This was really surprising to me because I tend to feel happy with where I live, though many others may not be. Even though it is impossible to keep everyone in our nation happy my opinion towards a happier society is to do the little things around us. Yes we still need to focus on our economy, jobs, education etc. But I believe if we focus on things that other “happier” countries focus on like environment, work-life balance, and housing together we would be a much happier country. While not everyone is as kind as others, I understand that if we start to change the way we think and act towards others, we can start to change the way we are as a nation and how happy we are. Because happiness is fifty percent genetics there is still a lot of room to manage your happiness. In conclusion if we start to change how we think and act towards each other and ourselves we can start to change how happy we are as a nation.
To sum up, happiness is not only that feeling you have, that bolt of rush. Happiness is meaning, being a giver, helping others. Though one question still remains. How do you influence a culture that seeks happiness? As I said above I believe one of the biggest ways to find happiness is through meaning in life and if you show that meaning in culture it can really influence the happiness within that culture. Without happiness in our culture there is no culture so another way to influence the happiness within it is to be able to do the “little” things. Above I talk about how if we are able to do little things in our community and help one another out, I believe to be able to find happiness will be much easier. Finally for a culture to seek happiness we need to change how we become happy. Because fifty percent of our happiness comes from our genetics, a lot of how we think and act determines how happy we are. If we can start to change how happy we are individually we can start to change how happy we are as a culture. In conclusion the next time you help someone out who needs it or give someone a gift, feel happy because you are following a meaningful life.
Artist Statement
Artist Statement
I remember in elementary school I built a birdhouse, once I put it up I loved seeing all the birds come into the yard. Recently the birdhouse broke. So for my happiness art piece I painted another one. I chose to create this because it reminds me of my childhood. I strived for happy colors. The quote I chose to put on my work is, “A bird isn’t worried of the branch breaking because trust is not on the branch but on her wings. I chose this quote because to me it means to always believe in yourself.