What is Happiness?

During WISE class, we examined an an article that revisited the idea of happiness. Aristotle once said that above all else, men and women seek happiness, and everything we seek is only because we expect it to make us happy. Aristotle had a good idea going there, because I will admit yes, everything I do can be connected back to my own well-being an happiness, even things I don't particularly enjoy doing I do because I will supposedly reap the benefits of it later. For example, I don't exactly enjoy taking tests, and besides the fact that I have to, I take them because it is (supposed to) improve my grade, furthering my education and bringing me one step closer to graduating and being able to be on my own and free. As I said, it can all be connected somehow. But, the author of this article revisits this idea and adds his own interpretation: He states that when we are so occupied by something that we do not have to think of  how it will make us happy in the end, we are experiencing real happiness. The idea is called "flow", and you can't work for it, or try to find it, it happens on its own when one's skills and challenges are at an equilibrium.

This brings me to the first question: When do you feel the most happy? If I had to pick a situation above all others when I felt happy it would have to be when I was with my best friend. Just when we're together by ourselves we both seem pretty damn happy, and in those moments I am not thinking of anything else besides being with that person, I'm not even thinking about how happy it makes me until afterwards, in the moment I'm just feeling it and letting it happen. We don't have to entertain one another, we don't even have to talk to each other, there's just a sheer contentment that exists. True friendship is when you don't have to bore one another with small-talk, and you can both just shut up and live in the moment. Yet being around him is something I work hard to set up, we have to make plans to be able to hang out with each other, which arguably is me working towards happiness, so in some ways I disagree with the author, because happiness can be worked towards, all that matters is how you feel in the moment. Pictured on the right is me with my horse Annie, riding horses has always been another thing that distracts me from everything else in life and arguably brings me happiness.

In terms of my WISE project, I'm very content when I'm out in the field doing work with my partner, yet that takes a lot to set up, and can bring lots of stress. I guess that my challenges certainly do outweigh my skills in this situation because that's the whole point of a WISE project, earning new skills and using them to make a final product. To try and achieve more happiness in my project, I must work on improving my skills, both my investigation skills and WISE blogging skills etc. It was a lot easier earlier in the year when the deadlines were farther away. Anyways, I continue to seek happiness like the rest of the human race, and I'll probably never be able to really explain what it is, nor will I be able to tell you when I find it.