Have you ever asked yourself if it possible to measure happiness? Well, scientists say they actually can. “The Sciene of Happiness”, by Mark Rudin, is a quite interesting article that explains some of the techniques used to measure pleasure. The measuremnet is based on asking people “How happy are you 1-7, 1-10?”. According to Professor Ed Dienner (University of Ilinois) this technique produces real and vaild answers. However, I believe that if a person is happy or not depends on an extensive number of reasons. This would mean then, that to measure happiness is a more complicated task from what the article suggests. Although the results of the technique are not very convincing for me, the article goes through some other interesting ideas related to happiness and its connection with other aspects of life.
The article states that happiness “leads to a long life, health, resilience and good performance”. In other words, the consequence of happiness is a better life. The validity of this statement is commonly accepted by people since it is believed that there are strong links between happiness and helath. At the same time, it is understandable that the happier the person, the stronger the person will be to face life, solve problems and do hard-work. The reason for this is simply the fact that difficult situations seem easier when you confront them in a good mood.
Professor Daniel Kahneman (University of Princeton) argues in the article that “there is evidence that being richer isn’t making us happier.” Most people agree that money does not have such power of bringing happiness to our life. Eventhough we sometimes confuse the terms, we all know that to be happy and to be wealthy are not the same. Those words can appear to be synomyms sometimes. When this happens, when we confuse happiness with being rich, we generally fall in nonsensical comparisons with other people. The problem is that when we compare ourselves with others we realize that there might be things that we still haven’t achieve in life. Or we realize that are people richer and in a better social status than us. In this way, comparision can end up making us feel unhappy. As the article suggests, the best thing to do is to choose objectively with whom we compare ouserlves and about what.
A third interesting issue the article discusses is that “there is no one key to happiness but a set of ingredients that are vital. Among them, family and friends are believed to be the most important ingredients. Not to be alone is paramount for every human being. We all need company and to feel supported. As important as those ingredients is the belief in something bigger that us no matter which your particular religion may be. This gives meaning to human life and gives an answer to many existencial questions that haunt us from time to time. Finally, the author of “The Science of Happiness” also remarks the importance of having enjoyable goals in life and the positive influence that working on those goals may have on people’s search for happiness. Every person needs to feel that their life develops for a reason. We all need to have goals and to feel that we are in the world to accomplish an aim and not just because a mere biological condition enables our existence. In other words, we need to feel that we are more than simple living beings and that there’s purpose in our life other than just to born, grow, reproduce and die.
The aim of every human being is to live and not just simply to exist. We need to get involved with other people and to be connected, and not to live in isolation. We need to plan our future and find the way to achieve that plan. In simple terms, we need to construct our happiness. And this means to live in a permanent seek for this ephemeral state. It is this characteristic of not lasting forever that makes of happiness such a difficult aspect of life to measure. At the same time, it is precisely that same characteristic what pushes, and should push, our constant search for it. Beacuse happiness lasts just a moment, we have no other choice than to live in a permanent search and construction of it.
The article states that happiness “leads to a long life, health, resilience and good performance”. In other words, the consequence of happiness is a better life. The validity of this statement is commonly accepted by people since it is believed that there are strong links between happiness and helath. At the same time, it is understandable that the happier the person, the stronger the person will be to face life, solve problems and do hard-work. The reason for this is simply the fact that difficult situations seem easier when you confront them in a good mood.
Professor Daniel Kahneman (University of Princeton) argues in the article that “there is evidence that being richer isn’t making us happier.” Most people agree that money does not have such power of bringing happiness to our life. Eventhough we sometimes confuse the terms, we all know that to be happy and to be wealthy are not the same. Those words can appear to be synomyms sometimes. When this happens, when we confuse happiness with being rich, we generally fall in nonsensical comparisons with other people. The problem is that when we compare ourselves with others we realize that there might be things that we still haven’t achieve in life. Or we realize that are people richer and in a better social status than us. In this way, comparision can end up making us feel unhappy. As the article suggests, the best thing to do is to choose objectively with whom we compare ouserlves and about what.
A third interesting issue the article discusses is that “there is no one key to happiness but a set of ingredients that are vital. Among them, family and friends are believed to be the most important ingredients. Not to be alone is paramount for every human being. We all need company and to feel supported. As important as those ingredients is the belief in something bigger that us no matter which your particular religion may be. This gives meaning to human life and gives an answer to many existencial questions that haunt us from time to time. Finally, the author of “The Science of Happiness” also remarks the importance of having enjoyable goals in life and the positive influence that working on those goals may have on people’s search for happiness. Every person needs to feel that their life develops for a reason. We all need to have goals and to feel that we are in the world to accomplish an aim and not just because a mere biological condition enables our existence. In other words, we need to feel that we are more than simple living beings and that there’s purpose in our life other than just to born, grow, reproduce and die.
The aim of every human being is to live and not just simply to exist. We need to get involved with other people and to be connected, and not to live in isolation. We need to plan our future and find the way to achieve that plan. In simple terms, we need to construct our happiness. And this means to live in a permanent seek for this ephemeral state. It is this characteristic of not lasting forever that makes of happiness such a difficult aspect of life to measure. At the same time, it is precisely that same characteristic what pushes, and should push, our constant search for it. Beacuse happiness lasts just a moment, we have no other choice than to live in a permanent search and construction of it.
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