Living Miserable and Loving it is not in Accordance with Happiness Theories - Essay Example

Living miserable and Loving it is not in Accordance with Happiness Theories Happiness sometimes referred to as joy, can be well-defined in so many ways. The fact about happiness is that it lacks a straight forward answer as to what it is and what it entails. There are various things that make one happy. Yu can also look at someone and tell whether that person is happy. Another element about happiness is that it is hard to hide happiness. It is, therefore, easy to tell when somebody is happy or not. Therefore, it is stress-free to tell when someone is faking happiness. Faking happiness does not last for long. Philosophers have tried their best to write and research about happiness. Hey have used two views to discuss happiness. Firstly, philosophers view happiness to a state of the mind. This means that everything starts from the mind. Therefore, one can choose either to be happy or not. It is essential to take charge of the mind and strive to be happy. Secondly, happiness is viewed as a state that a person chooses to follow or lead (Angner, 2010). The life of a person can be controlled by the person himself. Therefore, a person is in charge of his emotions. It is also about choice in this case. One can choose to follow the way of happiness or unhappiness. On the other end, everything has a consequence. After choosing to follow the way that will lead to unhappiness, there are consequences that follow such a choice. Consequently, when one chooses to be happy, there are also consequences that follow the choice. The consequences that follow the choice to be happy are positive while the consequences that follow the choice of being unhappy are negative. A state of mind is more psychological. One can choose to have a positive emotions and feelings. Being miserable is not a god state to be in. If anyone likes to live in such a state, then this person is living in betrayal and pretense. He is not ready to face the situations around him head on. On the other side, a person has chosen to follow this path. This is because, according the finding of the philosophers, we have the freedom to choose out feelings and emotions. Living miserable live is a choice. The person in this case is aware that this state is happening to him. Subsequently, the victim is just but ignoring the state. Ignorance may not take forever. There will be moments when a person will get fed up of the state and look for help. Therefore, there is no way one can love to live a miserable life (Alexandrova, 2005). There are numeral philosophies that pertain happiness. These theories support the fact that there is no way someone can enjoy being miserable. The first theory sees happiness as a result of all positive circumstances that take place in daily life. This includes a good job, family, health, finances, security and other aspects. These aspects do not lead to a miserable life. Everyone in life enjoys having all these things that lead to happiness. With finances, one can buy every necessity that they need. When anyone gets to buy everything that they need, and then they are able to live happily and comfortably. A good job can pay the good salary. The person enjoys doing the job because it pays well. Therefore, no miserable life is depicted here. When one as a good family, a person has all the moral support that he needs. He has a family to always go home to, people to provide support and people who can be relied on. Therefore, miserable life is not part of this too. Good health will keep one happy. No one loves pain since pain takes away joy. Therefore, this theory does not support living miserable at the same time loving such a life. The second theory is about how an individual views and perceives the world. In relation to happiness, it is a state that depends on personal evaluation, circumstance and perception. This also brings the aspect of the state of mind. Happiness depends on ones perception about happiness. When you perceive happiness to be a good thing, and then it would something that anyone would go for. Human beings have been found to do something that they enjoy and benefit from. Therefore, if someone finds happiness as something that is enjoyable, than a person will live to seek happiness. On the other side, perception can be negative. When one perceives something to be negative, then the person will not go for such a thing. The person may choose not to be associated with such a thing by ignoring it. Therefore, one can choose to ignore happiness and do anything possible to avoid it. Since happiness is a good thing, he person will not disregard it for a long time. One can choose to be miserable but it won’t last for a long time. It is therefore important to unlearn such a behavior and choose to be happy. Actually, it is easier to choose to be happy than choosing to live a miserable life. There is also a danger in choosing to live miserably. One is prone to danger and suffering (Alexandrova, 2005). The third theory is successes and stressors theory. This theory perceives happiness as something that is a balance between negative and positive experiences that one has experienced all along. It is majorly focused on experiences. Therefore, happiness comes about the issues that human beings go through. It is one thing to go through an issue and another thing to come out of that issue victoriously. It is important to understand that issues and stress is part of life. The approach that we take towards the stressing issue is what matters. People should therefore choose to remain happy even after stressing moments (Almeder, 2000). When someone chooses to let issues to oppress them, then this implies that the person will live a life of miseries, which then leads to miserable life. Additionally, ignoring issues can either lead to miserable or a happy life. There are petty issues that all of us go through every day. Some of these things should be ignored because they are there to take away peace. For instance, there are people who carry their moods to the office. These people want to extent their moods to the others. In such a situation, it is important to let the people be as well as ignoring their moods. Letting such people influence your day will lead to happiness. It is therefore important to choose your happiness the person’s mood. Consequently, there are issues that cannot be ignored. For instance, when one is dismissed from work, it is not easy to ignore that. It is therefore important to cool down and try to relax. Facing the issue head on helps a lot. It helps to healing quickly as opposed to when one ignores the issue. Therefore, happiness will be achieved easily is someone is ready to move from a state of rigidity to a state of self-acceptance. This is the state where you accept that the situation actually happened. The best thing here is to forgive yourself if you contributed to the state then move on. Moving on is the path to getting happiness back (Almeder, 2000). The fourth theory declares that we are all born to be happy. This clearly shows that we are not born to live a miserable life. Living happily is therefore innate. It is a natural thing that we are born with. For illustration, when a baby is born, the baby starts to laugh at will. No one teaches the baby how to laugh. As the baby grows, he learns to choose when to laugh or stay happy. This basically shows that we have been created to be happy. This is a chance that we should seek to embrace and choose to be happy always. This theory opposes living miserably. We are not born to be miserable; we are made to be happy. Therefore, anyone who chooses to be miserable is not utilizing the chance that we have been given to stay happy (Alexandrova, 2005). Though we are born to be happy, life is full of difficulties that come to take away that happiness. When we allow such situations to take over, and then we are allowing the situations to carry away what naturally belongs to us, happiness. It is important to face situations in an open mind with our focus being on achieving success. Open mind always should have a positive approach to the issue. When you embrace a positive approach as well as an open mind, we will be able to learn from all the issues in life. Learning involves getting new perspectives about approaching the issue. This means that; one can have all the skills needed to overcome any issue that is related to the one that has been overcome. The person is also in a position to help others to overcome such issues. Consequently, facing issues with a negative mind contributes to living miserably. Therefore, this theory still, does not support living miserably as well as enjoying such a life. The fifth theory sees happiness be a basic temperament that is learned early enough in life. As mentioned earlier, a baby chooses when to laugh and when to cry. It is the obligation of parents to train their children to remain happy no matter the situation. Parents should teach their children to approach every issue with a positive attitude. It should also be made clear that trouble is fragment of life and that it is easy to overcome. Such a child will grow to be strong even when waves come. Subsequently, when a child is trained to face issues softly, the child will not learn to be strong nor develop a positive attitude. It is such a child who will train himself to love trouble and enjoy living a miserable life. A child’s mind is very vulnerable. Whatever that child learn, he will stick to it and believe that it is the right thing to do and follow. Therefore, there is a probability that the child will love trouble and train to live a miserable life, which he will enjoy. Therefore, the ball lies on the parent’s goal, to teach a child to face issues open-mindedly as well as with a positive attitude (Angner, 2010). Conclusion From the above facts, there is no way you can choose to stay miserably and at the same time enjoy such a life. One must strike a balance to live happily since we are born to be happy. The theories of happiness do not support the issue of staying a miserable life. The theories therefore, encourage everyone to love a happy life and live happily. It is also a choice. We have been allocated the freedom of choice whereby, we can choose to either be happy or miserable. References Alexandrova, A. (2005). “Subjective Well-Being and Kahnemans ‘Objective Happiness’,” Journal of Happiness Studies, 6: 301-324. Almeder, R. (2000). Human Happiness and Morality, Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Press. Angner, E. (2010). “Are subjective measures of well-being ‘direct’?” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 89(1): 115–130.   Read More