I've been giving this question a lot of thought recently, but I'm finding that really, there's no one set definition.
To me, happiness is a lot of things, for instance:
- Going to sleep to the sound of rain
- having a hot chocolate on a cold winter's day
- Getting a question right on a test, that I was sure I got wrong
- having a bit of a boogie to my favourite song
- (eh, that rhymed)
I could honestly go on forever, but I figured no one has that much time. So, I turned to trusty old Aristotle, who concluded happiness was the realisation of your potential. Or, the psychologist Bentham quite simple put it as "the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain." Take your pick, I guess.
But, the undeniable truth is that happiness is only one emotion amongst the many; sadness, anger and fear, to name a few.
But which is emotion is the best? Is there a "best emotion"?
If we were happy all the time, do you think we would really appreciate the feeling? Probably not, as we wouldn't have any negative emotion to compare it to. So, really happiness would become just a state of being, rather than an feeling. Now that just sounds wrong.
Also, if we were to eliminate fear from our lives completely, we probably wouldn't be able to react as quickly to any potential danger, making us, well, pretty useless.
What about guilt? Without this pain in the ass, we wouldn't be able to get over our pride and apologise to anyone.
Oh, and stress? Everyone hates that sucker. But, believe it or not, it actually motivates you to work harder (which in my case, is probably a good thing).
So, I guess I wouldn't say any emotion is the "best" emotion to experience. Too much of any emotion-like too much to anything- is never a good thing. However, when experienced in the right amount, they're all pretty good for you.
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| Is anyone else obsessed with these "happiness is..." photos?? |
