Happiness

Jaime Sosa
Happiness
Being happy doesn't mean you're perfect. It just means you've decided to look beyond the
imperfections. (K.B Indiana)
At Harvard a very popular course and very successfully is about happiness. The course
is called "greatest happiness" and is dictated by Tal Ben Shahar. This course attracts 1400
students per semester and 20% of graduates take this course as an elective. Why is this
course very striking?
As human beings the subject of happiness is something that constantly addresses us as most
of the things we do in our daily lives we do in order to get some satisfaction, whether
immediate or future this way and although happiness is an ambiguous word because for
each of us this has a different meaning, is essential to recognize what makes us truly happy
in this life to work on it as soon as possible.
What is happiness?
As mentioned above happiness has a different meaning for each person, for one may be
obtaining a lot of money while others are spending time with his family. The Gestalt
psychotherapist Jorge Bucay describes happiness as follows: Being happy is to be serene
and this one you get when you're on the road that chose not when one does well in that
walked. Happiness is internal and cannot depend on external factors to obtain it. The
author of "Your happiness depends on your attitude" Cynthia Leppaniemi says that
happiness is actually a personal balance and should not be confused for being the whole

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time smiling. She explains in his book that it was difficult to achieve happiness but strives
every day to eradicate the areas in which she believes fails. Believing that happiness
consists in being all the time laughing, smiling, cheerful and happy makes this an
impossible goal. Happiness is considered a mood that is why it is believed that you can be
happy in the morning and evening angry, but really happiness should be a lifestyle where
they should learn to overcome frustrations light which generally have no importance for
these do not affect our mood and our health.
Happiness and genetics
Much of what are physically consists of genetic material inherited from our parents, this
applies from the physical aspects such as color of skin, eyes and hair to most chronic
diseases such as cancer and problems in the heart, but also our emotions and character are
partly inherited. The professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside
Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D. explains that most of us are born with a certain level of
happiness in which we keep most of the time and even when we think of anything
particularly good or bad we tend to return to the initial charge. So 50% of our happiness
depends on our genetics.
Happiness and money
The Mother Teresa of Calcutta one of those most dedicated to working with poor people
lived amidst the poverty of those she called the following because he said were so poor that
even were aware of all economic needs were and where she lived and worked with his
people called the city of joy which materially lacked everything and she said she breathed
joy in that town. Daniel Gilbert, Ph.D. author of Stumbling on Happiness says money is a
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tool that helps cover our basic needs, which to some extent gives us peace of mind and
takes away the worry of where we will sleep and eat tomorrow. But after we cover our
basic needs to make more money will not make us happier. The difference between a
person who earns 5,000 dlls to a winning 50,000 is dramatic, but the difference in a person
earning a winning 50,000dlls 50,000,000 is none. We live in a world where we believe that
the more possessions happier we are. According to psychologist Madeline Levine creator of
"the price of privilege" explains spend money may become a therapy that makes people feel
in a world in which the family, community and religion has failed. Buying is a way to
control our environment. Trying to have more material possessions can be a constant source
of stress and most of these things that we buy are actually a form to fill our inner void and
try to please or impress others. Returning to the percentages, the acquisition of material
objects only increase our happiness 10% marrow more things that humans do not really buy
these make a great impact on your happiness.
The other 40 percent
According to what experts previously accounted for 50% of our happiness is genetic and
the other 10% are our circumstances, in what could be included earn much money or
material things we can buy according to our economic level. The remaining forty percent is
what depends entirely on us, is something that we can control by the actions we take every
day. Something that is suggested is completely avoid routine because if we all do exactly
the same day we become automatons and this will make us feel that we are unhappy people
and that our life is unexciting and boring.
Psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, Ph.D, Claremont Graduate University,
explains that in one study that conducted began to analyze people doing activities for the
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simple pleasure of it, without them receive no pay or social status, but only because these
liked to. In this study the so called "Flow" is what each person experiences when he does
something he likes, this can be used during sports, play an instrument or even while you
work. People are happier experience the "Flow" more often.
We live in a competitive society we believe we must always show that we are better than
others, where we believe that only the strongest survive what we call social Darwinism, but
the reality is different. The professor of neuroscience P. Read Montage, Baylor College of
Medicine explains that we are social beings and we live to help others, our body releases
dopamine, a substance that makes us happy, if we feel we do something for someone we
feel we are doing something good and that a certain part we are helping to create a better
world and this produce us great happiness.
In conclusion we can say that happiness is to be satisfied with ourselves, that our
happiness does not come from what we have but what we are. Fifty percent of our
happiness depends on ourselves after our needs we have to look that make us happy, which
is our passion because it will determine our happiness for the rest of our lives. These
experts explained to us the importance of being happy and how easy it can be to obtain this
if we work a little bit on it.

References

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Claudio Naranjo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VZBPrWG_Ws.

Happy Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDkv6Mi8JrI.
Harvards Most Popular Course http://daringtolivefully.com/happier-tal-ben-shahar.
Jorge Bucay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCF0m9BCixk.
Price of Privilege https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h13Y6QNdwWA.