There are many things in the world today that can make you feel bad. But what can lift your spirits and make you feel good when you need it?
Share why if you wish.
Category: Happiness
Can You Change Your Default Happiness?
If you rank your normal level of happiness on a scale of 1 to 10, can you increase that number? Can you change your default happiness?
If you think about the people you know, you can probably divide them into the camp of “happy people” or “unhappy people”. That is, people who naturally tend to be happy, regardless of what is going on around them. Or those who seem grumpy as a default setting.
Sure, everybody goes through roller-coasters of emotion, when good things or bad things happen. And of course, the mood someone has on any particular day is subject to events in their life. However, there are some people that seem to naturally have a smile, while others naturally have a scowl.
And you might even feel this way about yourself. You might think that life is good, or you might feel like you can never catch a break. And, of course, how you feel about yourself may or may not match up with how others see you.
So then the question becomes: can this aspect of your personality change? If life always gets you down, can you exercise some sort of emotional muscle to improve the amount of happiness you experience? If one bad thing after another happens, can a naturally cheerful person become a grump?
If change is possible, then what can we do to make that change happen for the better? What can we do in our everyday life to increase how happy we tend to be?
Related questions: Is happiness the most important purpose in life? Why do we put up with unhappiness? How does technology influence your emotions? What is the right amount of emotion?
What Makes Something A Human Right?
Politicians and philosophers sometimes talk about a human right, a right we humans have merely due to our existence. But what makes that so?
The U.S. Constitution details a few of these rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. At other times, individual rights like housing, health care, fresh air and clean water, and others have been mentioned.
The idea is that these are inalienable rights, that is, rights that confer on us as soon as we are born. They do not have to do with our status, our job, our family, or any other external factor. We have them because all people have them, regardless of race, gender, class, country of origin, or any other factor.
Of course, this is an ideal, or an aspiration. As a society, we believe individuals should have these things. But of course, there have been many times in many places throughout history where human beings have not had these rights.
Including the in the United States. Despite what the U.S. Constitution says, historically rights were not given evenly to people based on race and gender. That has evolved and changed over time. But today there are efforts underway to remove some of these rights for some accused of criminal behavior, or others who have questionable immigration status.
Fundamentally, it begs the question: what makes something a human right? Why did life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness make the cut, and others didn’t? Is health care a human right? How do we decide? And if we can have differing opinions, and if we, as a society can change our mind about it, is it a right that we are born with?
Related questions: Is health care a human right? Does nature have rights? Do animals have rights? Personal rights or public safety?
What Brought You The Most Enjoyment This Year?
As the year comes to a close, it is common to look back at the high points. What brought you the most enjoyment this year?
This last year (like any year) had some difficult moments. Ongoing wars, complete with atrocities, were hard to watch, yet equally difficult to look away from. The presidential election seemed to drag on forever. Natural disasters happened with alarming regularity. And so on.
When so many negative things happen, it can be tempting to focus solely on them. It was a bad year, you might say, because so many bad things happened.
However, that approach is short-sighted. While it is true that many bad things occurred, it is also true that many good things happened as well. Over the course of an entire year, it has to be the case that many things, good and bad, are bound to happen.
And remembering the good things is important! Even if — and maybe especially if — more bad things than good happen, it is necessary to remind yourself that there is good in the world.
Next year will be filled with both good and bad things, too. It very well may be the case that there will be more bad than good then, as well. In order to withstand an onslaught of bad news, a positive outlook, filled with hope, is essential. An excellent way to get a positive outlook is to think back on all the good things that happened.
With that in mind, what are your personal high points? What were our collective high points? What brought you the most enjoyment this year?
Related questions: Are you worried about the coming year? What news from the last year made you optimistic? Why don’t you know what makes you happy? Optimistic or pessimistic?
Are You Happy With What You Studied In School?
Fairly often, the subject you study in school is not what you use in your career. Are you happy with the subject matter you studied?
Share why if you wish.