Fit-budd

MINDSET: On Happiness

What is happiness?
Happiness is that feeling that comes over you when you know life is good, and you can’t help but smile. It’s the opposite of sadness. Satisfaction is a sense of well-being, joy, or contentment. The “pursuit of happiness” is something this country is based on, and different people feel happiness for various reasons.
In his book “Happiness Hypothesis Mr. Jonathan Haidt discusses happiness in chapters 10 and 11.

Ch.10: Happiness comes from between
Haidt discusses “the meaning of life,” making the distinction between a purpose for life and use within life. Love and work give a sense of meaning to life. A study by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Howard Gardner, and William Damon established the concept of “vital engagement,” which characterizes work with the most sense of purpose. “Cross-level coherence” within one’s self and life are also vital, coherence between the physical, psychological, and socio-cultural levels. Religion is an evolved mechanism for creating this coherence.

Ch.11: On balance
Haidt concludes by arguing that the old idea of Yin and Yang turns out to be the wisest idea of all. We need, he writes, the perspectives of ancient religion and modern science; of east and west; even of liberal and conservative. “Words of wisdom do flood over us, but only by drawing from many sources can we become wise.”