There is a saying which says that the grass is always greener on the the other side of the fence. It is emphasizing the idea that we like to think that if we were in some different circumstance or situation that we would be happier than we are now in our current situation. I was thinking about this saying, and I agree that we do think this. But why? In essence, we are postponing our happiness to some future date when we can just simply be happy now. I think what happens is we become jealous of what other people have and their situation.
In college readiness, we watched a video called Happy, it was about people and how they find happiness. It was really interesting and I found it weird how scientific happiness really is. The gist of the story was basically this: we are ultimately in charge of how happy we are. Basically, it said that, to be happy, all you really need to do is spend time with family and do things that you love to do. It talks about something called “flow”. Flow is basically when you are so focused in something that you enjoy that you are completely content. Usually things involving flow are hobbies or sports. They are activities that you can do almost anywhere. One person experience flow when they had dinner with their family every week. Spending time with other people is good and allows us to experience flow.
One thing that I like about the video was a little fun fact it had in it. It said that the difference between happiness of someone that makes $5,000 dollars a year and someone that makes $50,000 is great, but the difference in happiness between someone who makes $50,000 and someone who makes $50,000,000 is pretty much negligible. This proves that money does buy happiness, but only to an extent. People always feel that if they had more money they would be happier, but this fact shows that we can be very happy even if we aren’t rich. Most of the activities that allow us to experience flow are not expensive at all.
Another thing that the video pointed out was that we have become a very competitive society. We compete in sports. We compete with other people. The video said that we are a lot happier when we work together with other people rather than when we compete against them.
So, in conclusion, we should all choose to be happy now and not wait for some future circumstance that might not even come to be. Why wait? The grass is not always greener on the other side. Being super rich, does not make you happier. Being happy is pretty simple and doesn’t need to be complicated or hard to do. We do not need to compete with each other or be jealous because of what some other person has.
That video really was interesting. It does outline a lot of the reasons why that most people simply aren’t happy. Instead of “the grass is greener on the other side,” I like the one that J. Cole used, which is, “the grass is always greener where you water it.” Which basically means, you can find happiness where ever you can if take the time to find the good in it. I think that goes hand in hand with the whole money analogy about happiness.
ReplyDeleteThe song by J. Cole entered my mind instantly when i started to read this, and just like Gabriel mentioned "The grass is always greener where you water it." I like how you pointed out that we choose our happiness and we either allow ourselves that feeling or we starve ourselves from it. There are so many simple, tender mercies in our lives that can bring us joy if we but look for it. This is a great reminder for all of us, especially myself, with the fact that my happiness and ultimately how I decide to live depends on my choice. Being happy is a much easier way to live, so that is what i will choose! :)
ReplyDeleteI loved watching this video in that class, it really did speak to me. I always like to think when something like school gets hard that once I'm in college the subjects will be more interesting making me more motivated. Then I know in college I will think that it will all be better when I get that job. Then after the job I guess we all have kids or a mid life crisis. All of that scares me. Because, it seems like an easy slippery slop of denial of happiness for a lot of my life. So, to make my life happy in the now I am now going to get a snack at Mcy D's. :-D
ReplyDelete