Our world is full of many different forms, types of material and spiritual concepts. One of them is happiness. This is an internal state that can be of varying degrees of intensity: joy, pleasure, bliss. The satisfaction experienced by a person can be quiet, calm. Delight, bravado are expressed by a strong storm, covering the lucky one with his head.
To each his own happiness
Dreams, desires, preferences and customs of people are so different that for each individual the essence of happiness will be different, and sometimes it will be the exact opposite of the joy of the rest. So, for one person, a jump from a bridge on an elastic band causes a flurry of emotions, unbridled glee, and for another - horror and fear. Someone finds ecstasy in courage, in dangerous work that allows them to show the strength of their character, for others, an extreme situation is worse than you can imagine.
There are many people who believe that the essence of happiness lies in a responsible attitude to life and others, for them the most important thing is work, social activities, and a positive opinion of society. But just as many individuals striving formomentary pleasure for oneself alone, to idleness, entertainment.
Many women dream of having simple happiness, "feminine", which lies in the presence of a hearth, a full-fledged family, he althy children and creating comfort. But in our time, we can observe careerist girls, feminists and childfree ladies who absolutely do not want to have children and find their happiness in their absence. Great joy can come from food or drink, luxuries or trinkets, pleasant touch or the absence of pain. A fan of massage will dream of bodily pleasures for days on end, and a pathologically ill person will dream of a complete lack of sensations in the body.
Philosophical concept of happiness
Thoughts about happiness are not new. The search for the meaning of life and eternal joy has been tormenting humanity for a long time, and does not lose its relevance today. The ancient philosophers of ancient times, in understanding the essence of this sensation, were divided into two areas: hedonistic and eudemonistic. The first considered momentary pleasures, sensual pleasures as happiness and saw in them the purpose of life and the motives of human behavior. The latter were inclined to believe that the essence of happiness lies in the complete achievement of some aspiration, and the presence of a positive assessment from the outside is obligatory.
Exaggerating, one can imagine how some adherents of one ancient direction indulge in bodily pleasures all day long, stay in idleness, while others are in constant search, in working on themselves and the measure of their happiness, they see success in work and science, its assessment people. Theseopposite directions have not lost their freshness over the past centuries. And today you can see how there are disagreements between supporters of two opinions about happiness. Sometimes even in the same family, right?
The beginning of a new era, the era of Christianity, was marked by the emergence of a new, evangelical understanding of the source of happiness. The fundamental thesis is “love is happiness”. Only humility, acceptance of what has befallen a person, sacrificial love for loved ones are true Christian happiness. It comes to those who sincerely sacrifice, give themselves and accept all trials with love. Otherwise, according to this philosophy, happiness is either impossible or false.
Happiness Medicine
Medicine is an exact science and does not tolerate philosophy. The essence of happiness, according to medical professionals, is the presence and influence on the human body of a certain set of hormones: serotonin, endorphin and dopamine. Each of these hormones affects a person differently and causes different sensations.
So, for example, endorphins cheer up, do not allow fear and fatigue to prevail. Serotonin also gives a good mood, but adds physical activity, the desire to move and brings pleasure from this. Dopamine motivates to action. With a lack of any so-called happiness hormone, a person experiences discomfort, lethargy, loss of strength and a bad mood.
From the point of view of scientific psychology…
Scientific psychology sees other reasons in the source of happiness. She calls happiness the harmony between the four spheres of human life: he alth, family, work and peace of mind, that is, complete satisfaction of the individual. If there is a balance between these four components in the life of an individual, then he experiences happiness, according to psychologists.
Summarize
So what's really going on? What is the essence of happiness? I think all of the above. We can safely agree with the philosophers of antiquity and specialists of the modern world, with medical workers and psychologists, with career women and mothers, with the rest of humanity, for whom the whole beauty of happiness is in its diversity, opposition, versatility and vivid manifestation. The most important thing is that happiness is everywhere, that it surrounds us from birth to death, which does not bypass any inhabitant of the globe.
