Prachi 2
Prachi N/A
Kate O’Neill
English 100F
November 28, 2018
Strategies of Increasing Happiness in Daily Life
The expectation and achievement of happiness is the foremost and a fundamental essential for all the creatures of the world throughout their daily lives. Happiness is anything that gives satisfaction, joy, and is hedonic. As per my opinion happiness can also be determined as being lucky, where anybody is lucky enough to help others. But many people struggle to make happening of happiness possible in their lives. As the definition of happiness vary person to person. Many people have an unclear and blurry visions of the routes to the happiness. It happens because of their incorrect assumptions of the ways of earning satisfaction. It is important to recognize the activities leading to happiness. In the essay I will be talking about the strategies to increase happiness in daily schedule of human beings. “Humans are extraordinarily prosocial, and research conducted primarily in North America indicates that giving to others is emotionally rewarding” (Aknim, Broesch, Hamlin and Vondervoot 788). Researchers have also progressively found that doing something purposefully is an effective way to gain personal happiness in long term. Researches got centred from “happiness-related research” (Rudd, Aaker and Norton 11) that one of the deliberately done activity is being prosaically active (Rudd et al 11). “Prosocial acts are designed to directly benefit the well-being of the recipient” (Rudd et al 12). According to me happiness can be gained by engaging in some prosocial activities such as helping, volunteering and sharing.
“The Secret to Happiness Is Helping Others” (Santi 1)
According to me, helping others is the key to my happiness. “There is a Chinese saying that goes If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody” (Santi 1). I personally feel satisfied by bringing smile on somebody’s face. For instance, giving donations and charities make me feel good. According to Rudd et al, he also mentioned that brain releases same type of enzymes while giving as while eating and enjoying (Rudd et al 12). Many researchers have agreed on the fact on finding satisfaction in easing other people’s life. Easing people’s lives is not just linked to one’s happiness but also it makes the helper “healthier, wealthier, more productive, and meaningful” (Santi 1). In the article “The Secret to Happiness Is Helping Others” by Jenny Santi, scientist mentioned a convincing information as the evidence of their research that giving is an amazing pathway for self improvement and to endure joy (Santi 1). Rudd et al in his article also mentioned about increase in the well being of the person giving with their act of giving. He supported his argument with an experiment performed by a group of individuals doing generous activities for one week continuing till six weeks. The profound result as per the article was the group performing are super happier than the people not in that range. The activities of helping others in any sort of way makes helper feel satisfied.
Volunteering- Most Effective Strategy to increase happiness
Volunteering is deliberately doing any kind of work. As per my perception, volunteering has always helped me boost my happiness. The satisfaction factor from volunteering also improves mental and physical health of volunteers. “The well-being of people is positively impacted when they volunteer” (Gadsby). Volunteering is not just a source of getting happiness but also a positive habit anyone can grow within. Volunteering for me is a simple approach to find our own interests and to grow new ones. Participating lifts self confidence and increases leadership skills as it provides the opportunity to replay the roles such as cooperating, leading, time managing and critical thinking that are essentials in any leader. It gives an achievement of fulfillment on doing useful for other people. My opinions on volunteering is that it is a great escape from my tiring daily routine. It is relaxing and enjoyable. “The actual work done by volunteers is often directly related to the health of the people, animals and organizations in the community. This improves the positive environment for all” (Gadsby). While volunteering one should also be able to have strong long last connections with co-volunteers. Committing your time as a volunteer causes you make new companions, grow your system, and lift your social era. Volunteering gives the chance to rehearse and build up contacts, since it is a meeting with a group of individuals with regular interests on daily basis.
Sharing plays a vital role in enhancing our own happiness
Sharing is one of the powerful tool of increasing happiness in our daily life. Sharing involves sharing thoughts, memories, affection, smile or even things like books without expecting and being selfish. Humans began to share as soon as they are able communicate. Since childhood I was taught to share all my belongings with my younger brother that made me feel happy and close to him. Sharing also helps in building healthy relationships with the beloved ones. I grew up sharing my chocolates with my brother to sharing my emotions with my mother and now sharing the apartments with my roommates. Sharing is taught in childhood as it goes along with us in the entire lifetime. Badlani in his article “Sharing Yourself” said “Sharing of yourself is not just giving, as it is more demanding. You perhaps do this every day with your loved ones, as that comes naturally and makes you feel good” (Badlani 7). A wise man has once penned that sharing is caring (unknown author). Sharing even sometimes involve sacrificing of what is yours and emphasises on “other-focused” (Sääksjärvi, Hellén, Desmet 623) activities. “A person who adjusts his or her behavior to fulfill the needs and wants of others, for example, by being altruistic and other-focused, has better chances of forming social relationships, and gaining benefits than a self-focused individualist” (Sääksjärvi et al 625). Sharing is not just a habit, but it can also be termed as a work, for instance, teaching is the sharing of knowledge. Humans relay on sharing for long term happiness.
Happiness is stated as the most crucial element of human beings and I can not think of my own happiness without acknowledging happiness of people around me. “It is commonly known in the positive psychology literature that people who want to increase their happiness ought to engage in so-called happiness-enhancing activities” (Sääksjärvi et al 623). Happiness according to me is solely related to how you treat people. Making somebody smile through helping, volunteering and sharing are the three utmost strategies to enhance happiness in daily life. Helping, volunteering and sharing are few types of pro-social activities, which means activities done with the intention of easing others. Pro-social behaviour helps in improving relationships, boosts my self confidence, enlightens the urge to see others happy with our own actions and at the last enhances happiness. “In sum, it appears that the tendency for prosocial acts to impact personal happiness is present across a wide range of contexts and behaviors” (Rudd et al 12). In the conclusion, making somebody smile will make you smile even more bigger and healthier.
Work Cited
Aknin, Lara B., et al. “Prosocial Behavior Leads to Happiness in a Small-Scale Rural Society.”
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, no. 4, 2015, p. 788. EBSCOhost,
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=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.431064885&site=eds-live&scope=site. Accessed 23 November 2018.
Badlani, Gopal H. “Share Yourself.” AUANews, vol. 20, no. 10, Oct. 2015, pp. 5–8. EBSCOhost,
ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d=a
9h&AN=110538604&site=eds-live&scope=site. Accessed 27 November 2018
Gadsby, Kathleen Taylor. “Volunteering: A Formula For Help And Happiness.” Forbes, 16
Oct.2017,
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Rudd, Melanie, et al. “Getting the Most out of Giving: Concretely Framing a Prosocial Goal
Maximizes Happiness.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 54, Sept. 2014,
pp. 11–24. EBSCOhost, doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2014.04.002 Accessed 23 November 2018.
Sääksjärvi, Maria, et al. “The ‘You and I’ of Happiness: Investigating the Long-Term Impact of
Self- and Other-Focused Happiness-Enhancing Activities.” Psychology & Marketing,
vol. 34, no. 6, June 2017, pp. 623–630. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/mar.21010. Accessed
23 November 2018.
Santi, Jenny. “The Secret to Happiness Is Helping Others.” Time.Com, Aug. 2017, p. 1.
EBSCOhost, ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login? url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?di
ect=true&db=bth&AN=124498848&site=eds-live&scope=site. Accessed 23 November
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