Discussion on The Importance of The Pursuit of Happiness

Money, attractions, love even religion is a basic human desire that flesh craves and unfortunately always wants more and more. Can we ever say we reached our ultimate goal of happiness? Or is it a question that will remain a mystery? Pursuing happiness is like a abyss, no matter how deep you seek , the bottom is nowhere near to be found because we just go deeper looking for what we long.

Religion being one of the oldest things known to exist to man; it’s been practiced by countless amount of people and even studies have shown to prove an individual may find a sense of happiness through this method. Sally Quinn emphasizes that “Religion is a sure route to true happiness” and supports her belief with the help of Catherine Sanderson, a psychology professor who strongly believes religion gives the sense of meaning, well being and comfort. That being said people who follow religions feel their best self and radiant good vibes and seek to help others even be a more productive person. Sanderson concludes, its not what you believe but more in the vibe of feeling fulfilled from social support. Fulfillment can come from a large spectrum of things; feeling the importance or care from other people like kids or friends to being involved in a community event . What most religion ideas share from the core is how one can better improve themselves . Religion is a game changer, it can change a man very quickly by their way of thinking in the matter of a single decision if they’d like.

We live in a world where society has made money the heart of our happiness, because without it we would practically cease to exist. For example, in order to eat, we need money, in order to have a home, we need money, therefor money is what keeps us alive. But how much money do we really need to survive? Seems like the more we have, the more we want. Money may gives us the means to survive but it can also break us. In the article by ‘Why more money won't buy you happiness,” by Dan Saligman, he states “What the data suggest is that a raise is like a martini. It induces optimism, and it elevates the spirit - but only temporarily.”

Money is a temporary fix, it can give us the things we need, even the things we don’t, but the happiness is only temporary because after some time the materialistic things get old, but the time spent making that money, working the long hours, we lose part of who we really are as individuals, but most importantly we lose time with our loved ones. Money can gives us the basic needs such as food, shelter, and security but is it really worth risking the time we get with our loved ones? Society has become so dependent on money, that it has turned into an obsession, causing fights and breaking families apart, to the point of loneliness.

A study by Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton (2010) in the article “Experientialism, Materialism, and the Pursuit of Happiness” found “that higher income brings a higher level of emotional well-being, which they correlate with happiness, and a higher level of life satisfaction.” Just as money is the answer to many of our basic needs, it is also the answer to a comfortable life without stress, but it’s also a very lonely one. Even Though the study says that money correlates to happiness, it is a temporary fix happiness because there is more to life than living a luxury life. Happiness can be whatever an individual makes it, but with every decision and pleasure comes some sort of sacrifice. It may be worth living a life of luxury, not having to deal with the stress of bills and mortgage, and the additional financial struggles, but every decision comes at a price, and there are certain things that money cannot buy.

Is happiness an endless filling mug, does it only come from small time satisfactions? When will it feel like enough? Same questions are constantly asked but the same answer wont work for everyone since happiness is different from one another and unfortunately is not as easy as clapping your feet three times together, it must be found individually.

All in all wherever a person's “happiness” comes, it should be from the desires they long for. That being said whom evers pleasures should be respected as its their personal pursuit to happiness. Even if it never seems close to a hands grasp one should always continue to strive to keep looking. If you stop looking then what’s living?