Happiness and Meaning Project
“Around 40% of our happiness is unaccounted for and is well within our power to purposely strive to manipulate the forty percent to make ourselves happier.” - Martin Seligman
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In the Happiness and Meaning project we worked to find what happiness is and how we can achieve genuine, lasting happiness. To leap into this project we read the book Brave New World, a dystopian fiction that shows what "happy" society looks like. After reading this book we had a Socratic Seminar in order to discuss how the book tied to happiness and what we can take away from what the book discussed. Then we began to learn about positive psychology and what meaning has to do with happiness. To round off the project we each wrote an essay and created an art piece to convey our knowledge about happiness and its pursuit.
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Happiness Essay
Ava Stills
Happiness
Section 2
The Equation of Life
In life the achievement of happiness cannot be achieved without struggle and sacrifice. In the book, Brave New World they had an easy life, nobody struggled in their society. This lack of struggle in the community and in the individual lives made it so there was no true happiness, only the false happiness that came with soma, the drug they took. Books like Brave New World, movies such as I Am and Happy, and reading articles all all assisted in the realization that happiness is a two step equation. You must find a “why” plus a “how” in order to achieve meaning, and with this meaning you must you must add in the elation of fighting for your happiness, which in the end will come to the answer of the achievement of happiness. The achievement of happiness comes with the discovery of individual purpose and drive, challenging yourself and overcoming obstacles, and pushing the next generations in order to achieve change and ultimately happiness.
To achieve happiness you must find a motivating factor to use in order to find meaning, along with happiness. In the article “There’s More to Life than Being Happy” by Emily Esfahani Smith a strong quote, originally from Viktor Frankl, read, “...He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how”.” It is talking about if you have a driving force, a motivating factor, you will be able to withstand almost anything in order to reach that drive. If we want to achieve happiness we must start with finding meaning. To start our pursuit of meaning, we must find our “why”. Each of us needs to figure out why we do things and what we are doing it for so we can fight through and work to meet our end goal of finding happiness. Victor Frankl once said such a simple yet meaningful quote in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, the quote was, “One must have a reason to ‘be happy.’” In the achievement of happiness you must find your reason. These reasons are what can make or break your pursuit of happiness. To fight for happiness with nothing you desire the happiness for is almost to fight for nothing at all. Happiness is the goal for many, but we first must find our reasons for our happiness in order to persevere and achieve it.
In our society we must be able to fight and overcome challenges if we truly want happiness. In order to find meaning and eventually happiness we must push through. This idea is illustrated greatly in the quote, “...Those who found meaning in the most horrendous circumstances were far more resilient to suffering than those who did not,” from the article “There’s More to Life than Being Happy” by Emily Esfahani Smith. When people are able to figure out why they do things, they will be able to endure more and push harder to fight for the achievement of happiness. Finding the “why” in situations will help greatly when achieving happiness and meaning becomes more and more difficult. In the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley there is a character named John. John was raised in a society in almost complete juxtaposition of the “new world.” In the end of the book John cannot handle the effortless false society that he moved into, in his rage fueled by what society did to him he says, “‘What you need is something with tears for a change. Nothing costs enough here.’” In the society that he became involved with there were no challenges, which in turn means that there is nothing to work for. The society is elementary, they have nothing with difficulty which means that there is no meaning, and without meaning there is no real happiness. To achieve happiness we must be able to push ourselves and open ourselves to risks in order to fight for meaning, leading us to happiness.
Happiness is not a guarantee for the next generations, which means that we as a society need to change in order to be able to create opportunities for happiness for future generations. In the documentary Happy it was stated that, “Around 40% of our happiness is unaccounted for and is well within our power to purposely strive to manipulate the forty percent to make ourselves happier.” With this knowledge we are able to manipulate our environments and our lives to make us happy. We must spend some of our time shaping our society in order for not only our current generation but also future generations to achieve happiness. We have the power to change our values and our lives to create more happiness all around. In a Ted Talk, “The New Era of Positive Psychology”, Dr. Martin Seligman spoke about the current state of psychology and what we can do to change that. He stated when discussing how to improve today's psychology that, “If we can, in the next decade or two, increase the pleasant life, the good life and the meaningful life, it will be good enough.” This statement from Dr. Seligman is further agreeing with the concept that we must find a driving force and be the driving force for the next generations if we want to be able to push them to find meaning that many of us can use to find happiness. Meaning is something we must push the next generations to strive for in order to change and find meaning in the adaptation to the change, and finally achieve happiness.
In our lives we are only exposed to a small fraction of our happiness that we can manipulate. With that small amount of happiness in all of us we must find a way to influence our society. Our small amount of control can help to shape the future generations if we change what we value in our world today. In our society if we valued emotion and connection more than material objects we would be able to create a changed society with more room for the strive for happiness. In society we are setting up the future generations for a life with little to no struggle. Without this struggle for change and to influence their society the next generations will have no challenge. With no challenge, there will be no meaning, and without meaning comes a lack of happiness. We must find meaning and drive in our society today to be able to influence changes to achieve happiness tomorrow. To solve our equation of life we must find our ‘why’ to be able to fight through the ‘how’ if we ever want ourselves to find the answer, meaning and happiness.
Happiness Artist Statement
For my art piece I chose to go big. I decided to create giant tissue paper flowers. I used tissue paper, moss ribbon, and light casings to bring my idea to life. These flowers were created to represent the symbiotic relationship between struggle and happiness. In life flowers go through the process of surviving many environments and conditions. In the end they are usually picked to bring happiness. I chose to physically use this idea of a flower and its struggle to represent my thoughts. The roots of my flowers are there to represent the struggle. In their lives it's a struggle to place their roots and keep hold. In our lives we struggle with making connections and finding things to hold onto and love. I wrote some aspects of life on the roots as well. The flowers themselves are representations of happiness. The bloom is a payoff for struggling through the seasons and placing roots. In my sculpture the flowers are representing reward. They are the reward of happiness that comes with the overcoming of struggle. In total these tissue paper flowers are the representation of all of the stages of happiness, roots of struggle, stems of growth, and finally the bloom of happiness.
Materials; Pastel tissue paper, fluorescent light bulb casings, modge podge, moss ribbon, recycled paper bags
Happiness
Section 2
The Equation of Life
In life the achievement of happiness cannot be achieved without struggle and sacrifice. In the book, Brave New World they had an easy life, nobody struggled in their society. This lack of struggle in the community and in the individual lives made it so there was no true happiness, only the false happiness that came with soma, the drug they took. Books like Brave New World, movies such as I Am and Happy, and reading articles all all assisted in the realization that happiness is a two step equation. You must find a “why” plus a “how” in order to achieve meaning, and with this meaning you must you must add in the elation of fighting for your happiness, which in the end will come to the answer of the achievement of happiness. The achievement of happiness comes with the discovery of individual purpose and drive, challenging yourself and overcoming obstacles, and pushing the next generations in order to achieve change and ultimately happiness.
To achieve happiness you must find a motivating factor to use in order to find meaning, along with happiness. In the article “There’s More to Life than Being Happy” by Emily Esfahani Smith a strong quote, originally from Viktor Frankl, read, “...He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how”.” It is talking about if you have a driving force, a motivating factor, you will be able to withstand almost anything in order to reach that drive. If we want to achieve happiness we must start with finding meaning. To start our pursuit of meaning, we must find our “why”. Each of us needs to figure out why we do things and what we are doing it for so we can fight through and work to meet our end goal of finding happiness. Victor Frankl once said such a simple yet meaningful quote in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, the quote was, “One must have a reason to ‘be happy.’” In the achievement of happiness you must find your reason. These reasons are what can make or break your pursuit of happiness. To fight for happiness with nothing you desire the happiness for is almost to fight for nothing at all. Happiness is the goal for many, but we first must find our reasons for our happiness in order to persevere and achieve it.
In our society we must be able to fight and overcome challenges if we truly want happiness. In order to find meaning and eventually happiness we must push through. This idea is illustrated greatly in the quote, “...Those who found meaning in the most horrendous circumstances were far more resilient to suffering than those who did not,” from the article “There’s More to Life than Being Happy” by Emily Esfahani Smith. When people are able to figure out why they do things, they will be able to endure more and push harder to fight for the achievement of happiness. Finding the “why” in situations will help greatly when achieving happiness and meaning becomes more and more difficult. In the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley there is a character named John. John was raised in a society in almost complete juxtaposition of the “new world.” In the end of the book John cannot handle the effortless false society that he moved into, in his rage fueled by what society did to him he says, “‘What you need is something with tears for a change. Nothing costs enough here.’” In the society that he became involved with there were no challenges, which in turn means that there is nothing to work for. The society is elementary, they have nothing with difficulty which means that there is no meaning, and without meaning there is no real happiness. To achieve happiness we must be able to push ourselves and open ourselves to risks in order to fight for meaning, leading us to happiness.
Happiness is not a guarantee for the next generations, which means that we as a society need to change in order to be able to create opportunities for happiness for future generations. In the documentary Happy it was stated that, “Around 40% of our happiness is unaccounted for and is well within our power to purposely strive to manipulate the forty percent to make ourselves happier.” With this knowledge we are able to manipulate our environments and our lives to make us happy. We must spend some of our time shaping our society in order for not only our current generation but also future generations to achieve happiness. We have the power to change our values and our lives to create more happiness all around. In a Ted Talk, “The New Era of Positive Psychology”, Dr. Martin Seligman spoke about the current state of psychology and what we can do to change that. He stated when discussing how to improve today's psychology that, “If we can, in the next decade or two, increase the pleasant life, the good life and the meaningful life, it will be good enough.” This statement from Dr. Seligman is further agreeing with the concept that we must find a driving force and be the driving force for the next generations if we want to be able to push them to find meaning that many of us can use to find happiness. Meaning is something we must push the next generations to strive for in order to change and find meaning in the adaptation to the change, and finally achieve happiness.
In our lives we are only exposed to a small fraction of our happiness that we can manipulate. With that small amount of happiness in all of us we must find a way to influence our society. Our small amount of control can help to shape the future generations if we change what we value in our world today. In our society if we valued emotion and connection more than material objects we would be able to create a changed society with more room for the strive for happiness. In society we are setting up the future generations for a life with little to no struggle. Without this struggle for change and to influence their society the next generations will have no challenge. With no challenge, there will be no meaning, and without meaning comes a lack of happiness. We must find meaning and drive in our society today to be able to influence changes to achieve happiness tomorrow. To solve our equation of life we must find our ‘why’ to be able to fight through the ‘how’ if we ever want ourselves to find the answer, meaning and happiness.
Happiness Artist Statement
For my art piece I chose to go big. I decided to create giant tissue paper flowers. I used tissue paper, moss ribbon, and light casings to bring my idea to life. These flowers were created to represent the symbiotic relationship between struggle and happiness. In life flowers go through the process of surviving many environments and conditions. In the end they are usually picked to bring happiness. I chose to physically use this idea of a flower and its struggle to represent my thoughts. The roots of my flowers are there to represent the struggle. In their lives it's a struggle to place their roots and keep hold. In our lives we struggle with making connections and finding things to hold onto and love. I wrote some aspects of life on the roots as well. The flowers themselves are representations of happiness. The bloom is a payoff for struggling through the seasons and placing roots. In my sculpture the flowers are representing reward. They are the reward of happiness that comes with the overcoming of struggle. In total these tissue paper flowers are the representation of all of the stages of happiness, roots of struggle, stems of growth, and finally the bloom of happiness.
Materials; Pastel tissue paper, fluorescent light bulb casings, modge podge, moss ribbon, recycled paper bags
reflection
This project has helped me grow as student in a multiple ways. Firstly during this project I realized that happiness is not material objects. They may bring some joy but it is not a permanent feeling. This means that I should instead of connecting most with material goods, I should put the effort into building connections with others. I also grew in my perspective. In the beginning I felt that happiness was very simple and easy to achieve but as I learned more I realized that there must be struggles and sacrifices in order to achieve happiness. I know understand that when people are truly happy they have certainly experienced manny things to achieve it and that I should not judge them. This project has really helped me understand myself and others.
This summer I am going to do a few things to be more happy. First of all I am going to work to achieve a sense of meaning. I help teach art to little kids and get them creative. I feel that working and helping these young kids find a creative outlet will help me find meaning by helping others.I feel that this sense of meaning will help me to step forward in achieving real happiness. Secondly, I plan to develop strong bonds and connections. I am a person who is either fairly quite or very outgoing. I attend a summer camp in Massachusetts with fellow diabetics and I plan on using my outgoing personality to maintain and create more strong connection with people who understand many of the struggles in having diabetes. These connections will help build a strong support system to help me achieve happiness. I hope that over the summer I will be getting out and active in my community in order to put down my phone and reach out. I will put people and places before my technology. I feel that this will help increase my happiness. I hope and will strive to keep up with these plans in order to maintain happiness.
My biggest takeaway from this project is that there is no happiness without struggle. Over this project I have realized that with the bad many times there is a silver lining. This is the happiness that comes with struggle. In a society without the struggle for progression and change we would be unable to push ourselves and experience failures in order to find happiness. We must be able to struggle and fail if we want to push ourselves and find our true happiness.
This summer I am going to do a few things to be more happy. First of all I am going to work to achieve a sense of meaning. I help teach art to little kids and get them creative. I feel that working and helping these young kids find a creative outlet will help me find meaning by helping others.I feel that this sense of meaning will help me to step forward in achieving real happiness. Secondly, I plan to develop strong bonds and connections. I am a person who is either fairly quite or very outgoing. I attend a summer camp in Massachusetts with fellow diabetics and I plan on using my outgoing personality to maintain and create more strong connection with people who understand many of the struggles in having diabetes. These connections will help build a strong support system to help me achieve happiness. I hope that over the summer I will be getting out and active in my community in order to put down my phone and reach out. I will put people and places before my technology. I feel that this will help increase my happiness. I hope and will strive to keep up with these plans in order to maintain happiness.
My biggest takeaway from this project is that there is no happiness without struggle. Over this project I have realized that with the bad many times there is a silver lining. This is the happiness that comes with struggle. In a society without the struggle for progression and change we would be unable to push ourselves and experience failures in order to find happiness. We must be able to struggle and fail if we want to push ourselves and find our true happiness.
