Hembree 1

Devin Kyle Hembree

Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1102-021
November 10, 2015

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The world was once full of mysteries. Full of questions waiting to be answered. As time
has passed, mysteries were solved. Questions were answered, and from those answers sprung
new questions, new mysteries. People used to find what lies hidden beyond the horizon the most
mysterious, but with the creation of the internet, all of humanitys knowledge of this vast world
is now at the tip of our finger. If someone is riddled with a question, all they have to do is google
it and their mystery will be solved. However, there is one question that google doesnt quite
satisfy. What is happiness? When one types this into the all-knowing search engine, the results
are as follows: happiness: (noun) the state of being happy. That isnt much of an answer.
Since google failed to answer my question, I decided to take another approach.
Throughout history, mankind has continuously pursued happiness; which caused me to believe
that there was no better place to look, but through history. However, I have always heard
History is written by the victor, but there can only be a victor if there is a war being fought. No
clear victor can be produced from peace. Therefore, one can conclude that history is not usually
written in times of peace and happiness. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a famous German
philosopher, wrote:

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One may contemplate history from a point of view of happinessbut history is not the
soil in which happiness grows. The periods with happiness in them are the blank pages of
history (McMahon xi).
It wasnt until I read this quote that I realized that, once again, I was searching in the wrong
place. Happiness cannot be found in the past.
Though happiness cannot be found in the past, I feel that some history can be used as a
tool to guide you towards happiness. For example, ancient Greek philosophers often spent years
of their lives contemplating happiness and the purpose of life. One philosopher, Epicurus, spent
his entire life trying to figure out what makes people happy. He found there were only 3 things
needed by an individual to achieve happiness. The first is friends. Friends play an extremely
important role in happiness. I have found this statement incredibly true. There was once a time
when I suffered from depression, due to the culture shock from moving off to college. During
this time, I did not have the support system from my family that I was used to. I recall always
hearing well you cant choose your family. Although this is true, I always felt there was the
line: but you can choose your friends, missing from the end. After surrounding myself by my
close friends, in hopes that they would lighten my spirits, I began to see good again in a world
that I thought was full of evil. Being surrounded by people that understood me and genuinely
cared about me gave me hope during a time that I felt hopeless.
The second piece of advice that Epicurus gave, was to follow your own career path, even
if it did not provide a life of luxury. He believed that individuals felt happier when working
alone, or in small groups with the intentions to help others, rather than in an enterprise devoted
towards gaining wealth. Though I cannot speak through my own experiences on the topic, I have
always heard this preached at students that are trying to decide on a career. Lastly, he claims that

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you must find the calm in yourself, rather than relying on ones environment for serenity. What
he means by this is to meditate and self-reflect so that you can find peace internally, rather than
search for it in a world full of chaos.
Epicurus was not the only ancient Greek philosopher to focus on happiness though. There
was also Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who all have different opinions on the requirements of
happiness. Socrates was the first person to propose that happiness is obtainable through human
effort. He believed that to obtain happiness, one must look past the mind and listen to the soul.
Many of his teachings centered on morality. In order to live a happy life, one must also live a
moral life. This concept was passed down to his famous pupil, Plato. Plato claimed that the man
whose plan for happiness involves only himself is the closest to obtaining it. He felt that people
should not rely on others for happiness, because it is something we can only find in ourselves.
However, Platos pupil, Aristotle, had a different opinion on happiness. Aristotle believed
happiness must be an activity rather than a state of the soul (McGill 4). Although he did
believe that happiness was discovered internally. It was his philosophy that there are eleven
virtues needed in order to be happy. Each of these eleven virtues had two extremes, and to be
happy you have to find the balance of each one. For example, courage is the balance between
cowardice and rashness.
These ancient Greek legends of philosophy all had a wide variety of beliefs. The
problem arises how philosophers who give very different definitions of happiness can be
talking about the same thing, and if they are not talking about the same thing, how can they
disagree- how can there be a controversy?(McGill 5). Despite their different opinions of
happiness, each philosopher had one theory in common. Each believe in some sort of balance
between the mind and the heart.

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In order to obtain happiness, I believe you must find the balance between the mind and
soul. You must be capable of properly perceiving the world around you and process it using your
mind. Yet you must also use your heart and soul to decide on how you choose to will enjoy it.
This balance is what everyone is searching for. It is something that takes a great amount of
practice and will power, in order to train yourself to perceive things differently than how you
normally would (assuming you are not currently in a state of true happiness).
This concept of perception relates back to some of Jonathan Haidts philosophies: Our
life is the creation of our mind, and we do much of that relation with metaphor With the wrong
metaphor we are diluted; with no metaphor we are blind (Haidt 181). This is very accurate in
my opinion, because it depicts life in a sense that it can only be depicted through metaphors, and
he does so with a metaphor. He then continues to discuss the importance of these metaphors.
Haidt is claiming that these metaphors are self-created perceptions of how we believe life to
be. By saying that the wrong metaphor will dilute us, he is stating that with the wrong opinion
of what life is, we will find ourselves lowering our potential for obtaining happiness. When he
states that with no metaphor we are blind, he means that living without any beliefs or values
will only cripple any attempt of finding happiness.
The division of mind and heart, or soul, is a fairly common concept that has been around
for centuries. Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, claims that modern
society has trained people to think more mechanically. After the invention of the automobile,
people began to relate the mind to the driver of a car. I agree with this, however I would say it
has probably escalated further since the invention of computers. Society is training people to
process thoughts the way a program runs on a computer. By doing so, I feel that people are

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forgetting how to listen to their hearts. They think so logically that they throw their emotions off
balance. An example of this would be overthinking. Overthinking is a term used when someone
over analyzes a situation resulting in a negative emotional outcome. On the opposite end of the
spectrum, you have those that rely too much on the heart. These people end up acting
impulsively upon raw emotion.
Let us revisit our original question: what is happiness? By looking at Haidts theory that life is a
creation of the mind, one could conclude that happiness is also a creation of the mind. This is due
to the fact that the average persons ultimate life goal is happiness. Knowing that happiness is a
creation of the mind makes it incredibly hard to define it, because each person has a different
perception of life. Therefore, each person has a different definition of happiness. However, there
are common factors found in the lifestyles of people who claim to be happy.
From my observations, I have found that one of the most important factors among happy
people is engaging in healthy relationships. There are several types of relationships that effect
happiness and I believe you need several of them in order to find the proper support system
needed to be happy. One example of the types of relationships I speak of is friendship, which I
have already mentioned. Another prime example would be a romantic relationship. A
psychological study was done by the Department Of Psychology at Wayne State University, in
Detroit. The study was intended to show how the quality of a romantic relationship could be used
to predict happiness levels. As a result of these studies, emotional security and companionship
were shown to be the strongest factors of romantic relationship qualities, which can be used to
predict happiness. The results revealed that there is a clear correlation between romantic
relationships and happiness.

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Im sure you have heard the saying money cant buy you happiness. I find this
statement to be very true, yet in our capitalistic society we are taught to value money and
possession over almost everything else. One way to demonstrate this point, would be to share
with you some of my own experiences of interacting with others. Im sure most people have
been asked at some point in their lives if you had three wishes that are guaranteed to come true,
what would you wish for? Every time I have heard this question asked, I have not once heard
someone answer I would wish for happiness. Instead, peoples answers often include some
large sum of money, or perhaps a life of luxury. That is not to say that people are greedy, but I
believe this represents how people have come to develop a materialistic view portraying
happiness as something that can be purchased.
The main issue with depending upon items such as money, is that they only provides us
pleasure, not happiness. Elliott Dacher mentions on his website that Pleasure, which is mistaken
for authentic happiness, is the experience of satisfaction and delight that we attribute to an
external stimulus (Dacher n.p.). Though pleasure is not the same as happiness, it does factor
into an individuals happiness levels. I feel that we need to surround ourselves with things that
please us, to aid us in obtaining the proper mindset needed to be happy. Without any pleasure in
our lives, we have little chance of being happy. However, we cannot solely depend upon any
particular pleasure, such as food, money or love to make us happy. Too much of a good thing can
be a bad thing. Once an individual begins to depend on a particular pleasure, the need for it
begins to consume the thought process, which in turn disrupts the balance of heart and mind.
Another issue I have found with depending upon external pleasures is that they are never
certain to be available to you. Sometimes in life, things change in the blink of an eye, and we can
suddenly be left without some of the pleasures we once depended upon. It is this chance of

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change that limits us from utilizing pleasures to reach a state of happiness. However, unlike
temporary pleasures, Authentic happiness is permanent. It does not rely on people, objects, or
experiences. It relies on a healthy mind and open heart. When we discover how to live in our
authentic self, happiness is found at this center of our being (Dacher n.p.).
After numerous hours spent reading about happiness, I have found no better definition
than one presented by Dr. Elliott Dacher, a medical doctor who left medical practice to begin an
in-depth study of the principles and practices of consciousness and health. He explains that
happiness is the experience of peace, delight, and joy that naturally arises from a healthy and
wise mind and a compassionate and loving heart. Its source is internal rather than external. If I
were to construct my own definition of happiness it would sound something like this: Happiness
is a word used to describe a state of righteousness that everyone seeks to acquire. It is a perfect
balance that leads to emotional harmony, where one chooses to keep a positive mindset and
continues to bestow love and kindness unto others.
Taking everything into account, we can conclude that happiness is, in fact, acquired
internally. Yet there are many external factors that contribute to happiness and can be used by an
individual to guide oneself towards happiness. Due to the fact that happiness is an internal
quality, it does not have a definite definition. Each person in this world must create their own
personal definition of happiness, and work towards their goal of obtaining it.

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Works Cited
Dacher, Elliott S. Enduring Happiness. elliottdacher. n.p., n.d. 10 November, 2015
McMahon, Darrin M. Happiness: A History. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005. (xi-xiii,
24-32,187-190) Print.
Dilman, I. "Happiness." Journal of Medical Ethics. 8.4 (1982): 199-202. Print.
Haidt, Jonathan. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. New
York: Basic Books, 2006. (3, 181-187) Print.
O'Malley, William J. The Pursuit of Happiness: Evolving a Soul. Allen, Texas: Thomas More,
1998. (87-94, 105-120,222-226) Print.
McGill, V J. The Idea of Happiness. , 1967. (3-10, 23-27) Print.
Demir, MelikAah. "Sweetheart, You Really Make Me Happy: Romantic Relationship Quality
and Personality As Predictors of Happiness Among Emerging Adults." Journal of
Happiness Studies. 9.2 (2008): 257-277. Print.