Psy225 Happiness

Happiness Paper

Arlene Renay Ramos

PSY/225

May 20, 2019

Robert Dawson

Happiness Paper

What is happiness? Well, happiness is defined as; an inner quality. It is a state of mind. If your mind is at peace, you are happy. If your mind is at peace, but you have nothing else, you can be happy. If you have everything the world can give - pleasure, possessions, power - but lack peace of mind, you can never be happy. This paper will discuss the views of this student regarding the video, Positive Psychology.

Bhutanese Views

In the video, Ann-Marie MacDonald stated that “hundreds of years ago, Thomas Jefferson declared the pursuit of happiness a human right.” She believes that the feeling that most people relate to happiness is actually just an emotion, a type of contentment and or pleasing feeling and she also believes that one can learn to understand how and that insight will brighten up ones life, and relates these emotional responses and beliefs to positive psychology.  The Bhutanese culture contains a very intricate view of happiness.

One aspect of happiness for the people of Bhutan involves embracing unhappiness as a part of human consciousness.  The Bhutanese structure of happiness promotes that the mind openly accepts the reality of fear, pain, and misery.  When it does this, it is able to advance the volume to understand these elements as a natural part of existence.  Energy of the Bhutanese is not spent in fighting these realities.

GNH has been created by Bhutan as an alternative indicator for GDP as a tool to measure progress or development. The level of GNH for an individual and for Bhutan as a country are determined through measures in nine domains. The Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH research’s nine domains are all based on well-being research determining their link to well-being and happiness. The nine domains are; Psychological well- being, health, time use, education, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience and living standards.

The things that this student found the most interesting were that the people openly accept the reality of fear, pain or other negative aspects of life and emotion, which in turn seem to help them work through them and remain content and not put them directly into a negative mindset. These people genuinely focus on happiness first and let the rest happen the way it is meant to, and deal with whatever comes accordingly.

The good life as reflected in Bhutanese and American culture has been greatly influenced by changing political and socio-economic climates.