Atlantia Aquarian

Happiness Essay
Section 1
Happiness and Meaning
Happiness is important to us as individuals, primarily because people like to have the
feeling of emotions and happiness. In the movie Happy, the author Roko Belic talks about how
you can create happiness within yourself by having family and friends, appreciating what lies
within yourself, having personal growth, doing things you like, having flow, helping others, not
focusing on money. There are other things that are as important as these values. Happiness can
come from meaningful actions which make life feel important, thinking critically followed up
with action, and accepting human feelings to motivate us to make the community happier.
Meaning has an important role in happiness. One of the ways meaning can tap into
happiness is by making people feel like they have a reason in life. In the article Theres More to
Life Than Being Happy the author Emily Esfahani Smith states, leading a happy life is
associated with being taker, while leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a giver,
happiness without meaning characterizes a relatively shallow, self-absorbed or even selfish life.
(Emily Esfahani Smith). Without meaningful actions, life feels less important. Living a life with
meaningful actions can make you feel more connected to yourself, makes you feel good and
makes you feel worthwhile. Meaningful actions makes you grounded and connected with the
world. In the movie I Am, filmed by Tom Shadyac, one of the interviews talked about how happy
he is when he goes to Mother Teresas home for the dying. He helps people that are dying, sick,
starved, and are in need, helping these people make him happier and it makes him feel like he
has a meaningful life. If more people went to a place like Mother Teresas to help and support
people in need,they would feel good about doing it. This kind of happiness comes from the heart
and will give them a meaningful life.
I have learned that I can actively work toward happiness in my life by working to
overcome any challenge. In the film I Am, the Dalai Lama states that critical thinking followed
with positive action can help create value in life. For example, when I feel stuck doing my
homework, I use critical thinking to come up with options to solve my problem, then I chose the
one I think will be the best and the one that will meet my needs. After I complete a challenge, I
feel more self respect and the people around me respect me, too. The movie I Am quoted Albert
Einstein, saying you cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You
must learn to see the world anew. It takes an open mind and perspective, as well as critical
thinking and positive action to bring you happiness. Being aware of a problem and knowing how
to solve it personally makes me happy. Not only can it make me happy but the feeling of
finishing something that took a lot of time and energy and critical thinking is one of the best
feelings.
What we need to do as a nation to make our society a happier place is to tap into our
human reactions. Feelings such as love, passion and connection can motivate us to make a
happier society. In the movie I Am, Rumi is quoted, if youve opened to love, you're helping,
people you know and have never seen. This openness is very important for change and peace in
the world because that is the first step to a happier society. I am a part of a group of people that

volunteers at Adaptive Sports. All the volunteers who choose to help those who cannot ski by
themselves could have went to free ski, but instead they placed a higher value on showing their
care, support and love to an unknown disabled person. The sense of joy that comes to
contributing to another human's well being is the base of a healthy society. Gandhi quoted in the
movie I Am that the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. When
teachers enjoy his or her subject, that person's excitement inspires the students to learn and that
energy feeds back to the teacher and creates sification, for both the students and teachers. In
those human connections where people are able to satisfy their needs for meaning, purpose and
contribute to another humans well-being create happiness. When you start helping others, you
stop worrying and thinking about yourself because you are focused on what you can do to help
someone else. If we help others it not only with help others but it can help our community and
bring us together and we could enjoy each other because everyone would be happier.
In order to attain happiness you need to take action on these vitally important pieces of
finding happiness, there are some specific ways that we could use to help make this happen. For
one, the government can reinforce an educational policy for sophomores to take a year off of
traditional learning and do community service. Secondly, it would be a good idea to have
documentaries that are based on problems around the world spread on social media sites so
young adults can become more aware of the problems that need to be addressed. Thirdly, to get
more people to use critical thinking that is followed-up with action the government could make
more project based schools. I personally think this is a good idea because I come from a project
based school and the school uses critical thinking for almost everything. It will build very
important life skills and help prepare young adults for creating a happier future for themselves.
As Gandhi said, You must be the change you want to see in the world. (I Am)