The Art of Happiness - Pursuing

The ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ may have been a quite famous movie, but in real life, the pursuit of happiness does not help. Thinking too explicitly about happiness may prove to be counterproductive. The individual involved in a mad and conscious race for happiness may end up not being happy at all. One study found that people who listened to good music experienced far more happiness than those people who were deliberately asked to feel happy after listening to the same music. Goals are achieved by prioritizing them. Similarly, if happiness is one’s goal, it should be achieved by assigning it a priority.

Happiness can be associated to sensory pleasure, which is felt during parties or night-outs or camping. Some people also see happiness as a feeling that gives them a feeling of being superior to someone else in their life. The feeling of abundance is also equated to happiness by many people. It is a condition when life feels perfect with all its imperfections. It is important to define happiness. A person who aims to be happier must not be obsessed with happiness.

No Pursuit of Mediums

The pursuit of happiness leads a person to indulge in the pursuit of mediums to attain happiness. A person finds earning money, power and fame as the ways to attain happiness and this is what leads to the path of destruction. The moment a person becomes physically and mentally comfortable and is no longer obsessed with the attainment of happiness that is the moment one becomes happy.

A study by researchers at University of California, Berkeley, has found that those who seek happiness not by prioritizing it, but by pursuing it, are the ones who feel lonelier and more depressed. The tendency to monitor one’s happiness leads one to compare one’s state of mind to the ideal state of happiness which one has created for himself or herself. This is the reason why pursuing happiness blindly does not help much.

Hence, it is far more important to prioritize and not pursue happiness.