What Makes Life Meaningful: Happiness is not Only Pleasure

The first examination of happiness gave satisfaction to a pleasant life, characterized by a majority of positive emotions, joy over sadness and a predominance of an optimistic mood compared to bad mood. This vision of happiness did not effectively explain people's lives, as nearly 50% of them reported feeling low mood characterized by negative or unpleasant emotions. Does this mean that they have been sentenced to an accident? With the previous idea, it was like that. The researchers realized that the idea of happiness that was only related to positive emotions was narrow and left many people outside. Okay, but what makes life meaningful? That is the question of this essay.

What can we say about people who claim to live a life filled with rewarding work, of great importance, but their mood is neither happy nor optimistic? Are not they happy? Or parents who work hard to barely keep their children and with dedication and dedication make them professionals, despite their lives, characterized by rigor, little room for pleasure and little chance of lasting joy? They are not happy either?

The True Idea of Meaningful and Happy Life

Conceptually, the idea of happiness was small, because being synonymous with pleasant life reduced many different aspects that made people happy. As Martin Seligman puts it, positive psychology is currently focused on the theory of well-being and the promotion of human development, rather than the happiness orientation it had at the beginning of 2000. Indicators of well-being and human development are associated with individual flowering. relational and social.

The idea of human well-being and prosperity contains the five dimensions of Selmaman PERMA's model (P for positive emotions, E for involvement or delivery, R for positive relationships, M the lowering of meanings and A for the performance). Happiness would be one of P's indicators, positive emotions and their sweet taste of pleasant life, joy, clarity, expansion and optimism.

What is interesting is that there are people who have an average value of positive emotions, who are not particularly happy, who have a relatively stable and even flat mood and a personal perception of a high level of welfare. That is to say, with regard to PERMA, they present few positive emotions and, at the same time, a high level of execution, meaning, meaningful relationships or achievements.

Concentrate on people with a high degree of dedication to others, where what they do goes beyond the self and the fruit of their action serves and benefits others, but in their daily lives, there is no too many positive emotions. For example, a person in charge of a foster family for orphans who work as surrogate mothers. Or those who feel they have a mission to fulfill in the world through the exercise of a profession or a profession that we particularly like, although they feel obliged to do so, which makes them a day of boredom, although they are accused of a transcendent meaning. Or this entrepreneur who is obsessed with the search for wealth in himself and who does everything to achieve it, despite his life, can be difficult, alone and unpleasant because of the ascetic view of life itself.

Happiness does not come only from a pleasant life. This is one of its components and probably not the most important. The perception of well-being and personal growth has more to do with a meaningful life, that is, a life dedicated to transpersonal goals that go beyond oneself, with relevant and well-maintained social relations, and a project of a clear life. as regards the meaning in construction.

There are many more people who take the path of a meaningful life than people who feel comfortable. The best thing to do is that the two go together, but that the well-being comes mainly from a meaningful life, from the social sense of the task itself, from a transcendent interpretation of the roles we play in the outside world and building empathic bonds with others

Conclusion

Who is happier, someone with a pleasant life and little devoted to others and the senses, or someone who works with difficulty, dedication and conscience, even if his life has little pleasure and positivity? At the end of the day, who will feel better in life? Personal well-being is characterized by a meaningful life, rather than simply a life of positive emotions and selfish pleasure. It would only move in the hedonistic line. Service, dedication to others and empathy are the traces of a rewarding life, whether it is work, family, meaningful relationships or achievements. Human flowering is much more than positive emotions. It is an action that has meaning, meaning, service, dedication, gratitude, compassion and empathy. From me to others, with love. 

References

1. Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410-421.

2. Ryff, C. D., & Singer, B. H. (2008). Know thyself and become what you are: A eudaimonic approach to psychological well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9(1), 13-39.

3. Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want. Penguin Books.

4. Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., Aaker, J. L., & Garbinsky, E. N. (2013). Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(6), 505-516.

5. Steger, M. F. (2009). Meaning in life. In S. J. Lopez & C. R. Snyder (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 679-687). Oxford University Press.

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6. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The 'what' and 'why' of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227-268.