Preview

Three Keys to a Happy Life

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
635 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Three Keys to a Happy Life
Three Keys to a happy life Everyone wants to live a happy life. But where does happiness come from? Buddha said "Life is a creation of the mind." Shakespeare put it this way when he said "There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Therefore, the first key or the most important key to a happy life I would say is Positive Thinking.
Maybe all of us have heard of this famous question: is the glass half-full or half-empty? An optimist observes what is in the glass – the full half, because he focuses on what he has. On the other hand, a pessimist observes what is not in the glass – the half empty because he focuses on what he doesn’t have. When we always think of what we don’t have and what we are losing, we never feel happy. Furthermore, negative thinking can take a lot of time and too much emotional energy, which absolutely does not lead to a happy life.
In addition, positive thinking makes us have a feeling of excitement about something pleasant or exciting that we know is going to happen. Such a feeling is anticipation. No matter what our circumstances are, if we have something to look forward to, we bring happiness into our life well before the event actually takes place. In fact, sometimes the happiness of anticipation is greater than the happiness of the actual experience itself. With this in mind, we may say if the future holds no pleasant promise - it's very hard to be happy.
However, sometimes unrealistic anticipation may get us lost. So we need to simplify in order to stay positive. This is my second key to a happy life – simplification.
Every day we often rush through things, trying to get them done, trying to finish as much as we can. We pass quickly through one destination and then move into the next. At the end of each day, we’re probably too exhausted and too stressed out to even notice the simple things that can make us happy. For example, maybe some of us have such experience. When we travel to the other cites or countries with

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Everyone's goal in life is to be “happy”, they go out of their way to fulfill temporary pleasures. But what is very ironic is that striving for this possession filled happiness, many become sad, weary and give up on their dream of so called “happiness”. The article written by Darrin McMahon “In Pursuit of Unhappiness” , goes over this issue in great detail. Achieving true happiness is nearly impossible in the way we try to maintain it.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Exploring Optimism Psy220

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Optimism may be harmful when an individual only focuses on the “bright side” of life ignoring negatives or “realities” one can be taken off guard by unhappy moments in life. Simply being unprepared or unable to cope effectively with these negative events causes stress to one’s mental health. These negative events can make a person resentful and may cause the individual to isolate themselves from others. People who always look…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women in the 1800s

    • 1410 Words
    • 6 Pages

    But hey, just look on the bright side. I mean it’s always darkest before the dawn. If you dream it, you can do it. Watch. No? Oh well. America today is decidedly and unwaveringly optimistic, we are positive thinkers. Positive thinking is defined by one of its leading advocates, Dr. Charlene Proctor as “the process of choosing positive emotions to create an outlook that translates into a new or better-chosen reality.” In short, our thoughts and attitude can affect the course of the outside world, so we should strive to be positive to reap positive outcomes, while stifling negativity for the opposite reason. We praise the optimist while shunning the pessimist. But the question is does every cloud have a silver lining? In order to show positive thinking as the dangerous paradigm that it is we will first examine the causes of positive thinking, move onto its effects, and then finally round out with solutions.…

    • 1410 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Epicurus vs Epictetus

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages

    To begin we must understand that there are many types of happiness. Happiness that come from pleasures such as eating tasty food or taking warms baths. Happiness that comes from engagement, for example trying something challenging and succeeding in doing so. Happiness that comes from meaning, in other words being religious and belonging to a higher being. Last but not least happiness that comes from accomplishments, achieving a lifelong goal or dream. As you can see there are many different ways to be happy and if you are living happy then you are living a good life.…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Remaining positive during tough times not only helps to overcome challenges, but it also helps people’s health in the long run. According to a contributor from Forbes, “Pessimism is trouble because it's bad for your health. Numerous studies have shown that optimists are physically and psychologically…

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Now this is a topic on which there's solid psychological evidence, much of it gathered by Seligman. Psychologists have tests that determine whether you're an optimist or a pessimist, according to your feelings about the setbacks and victories in your life.…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I had always been an optimistic individual and tended to lean towards the “bright side” to every situation. I realized that I was responsible for my own happiness and dwelling on the negatives would only serve to cut down on my happiness and limit the scope of my experiences.…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    References: OPTIMISM, PESSIMISM, AND HEALTH. (2004). In Encyclopedia of Health and Behavior Management, Sage. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/sageeohabm/optimism_pessimism_and_health…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Optimism can be both a positive characteristic and a negative depending on how a person applies it to their life. One might think that optimism is solely a positive characteristic, but this is not always the case. Optimism may be described by researchers as a personal trait, this is termed dispositional optimism. In this perspective of optimism a person has an expectation in which a person will have more positive events and a small amount of negative events that will have to be dealt with at times. Another view of optimism is called explanatory style, in which the focus is more on how a person might explain a negative event in a way the keeps them positive. Optimism also can be a negative thing in such aspects of unrealistic optimism. In this aspect of optimism expectations are often so high for a positive outcome that they defy reality. This can easily be described with an example of a person who thinks that they will win the lottery, when in reality the odds are stacked against them. A person with this type of thinking might commonly say that “It won’t happen to me”, when in reality it is more than possible. Optimistic people tend to be healthier and less stressed, and deal with life’s stressors more productively as compared to a pessimistic outlook on life. Hope is another aspect of optimism that can have a positive bearing on one’s life. Hopefulness can create more flexible thinking adding to one’s ability to solve problems. It also builds self-motivation, and reinforces the benefits of optimism. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary online defines hope as cherishing a desire with anticipation. One can see how optimism and hope are different yet interrelated. Were optimism is more expectation that more positive events will occur as compared to negative, or one’s perspective for how they explain negative events. Defensive pessimism also might sound like a negative perspective, but can be beneficial in one’s life when applied positively. Positive Psychology defines…

    • 382 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What is happiness? Sometimes we do not clearly understand. Happiness is not far away but it exists all around us every day for hours. Why we always have to looking for it? According to ‘The Geography of Bliss’ by Eric Weiner, the writer has traveled around the world to look for the true meaning of happiness. There are many reasons that make us happy such as money, cars, houses...which are all kind of the materials. There are few people realize that the happiest period of time is the moment in which we live. Life, which contains many challenges, difficulties and adversities. How to best adapt to this life is to accept the reality and believe in yourself. By themselves, each of us, in any circumstance, to know the feel and find their own happiness.…

    • 206 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What does it mean to be truly happy? This is a complex question to which different people most likely have very different answers. There are so many different factors included in true happiness. Certain people may say that they need security and stability to be happy. Some are only happy when they are successful. Others would say their family or friends are what make them happy. To me, the most important ingredient of happiness is simply connection to other people. Without this, I believe that true happiness is impossible.…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Negativity is the number one enemy that is against positivity. So much positive thinking can lead a person to be weak physically and mentally. The author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, says that “ positive thinking has become a sort of allergy to anything negative.” (Newcomer). People believe that…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alchemy Of Suffering

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Finally, we have to go with the opportunity and be creative to make ourselves as well as others around us happy. This little stop, look, and go method can revolutionize ourselves to be grateful and in turn happier…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Optimism and Health

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Optimistic people are said to “anticipate the best possible outcome (Merriam-Webster, 2009).” This statement portrays how optimistic people approach life. Many studies have been conducted to determine whether optimism can actually lead to better physical and psychological well-being. Essentially, optimists are said to see the glass as half-full instead of half-empty. They are able to find something positive in any negative situation that they may encounter. In this paper I will analyze several instances of how optimism can affect both physical and psychological health.…

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Happiness

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages

    more likely to be happily married in middle age (Harker & Keltner, 2001). In one study,…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays