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Akbar Faruqi - Unit 4 KWL - Student Template*

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What makes you happy survey(Google Form Responses Spreadsheet)

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What makes you happy survey(Google Form Responses Spreadsheet)

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After conducting a survey of what makes people happy many of the answer choices had varied depending on the age group. Most people from all groups had put down that relationships with friends and family makes them happy. This is because when being with friends and family one can open up and be themselves around them. Secondly,  Most people under the age of 16 had said that money brings them happiness while  people over the age of 16 had said that their job had made them happy. This relates to my Anatomy teacher because he was pressured into becoming a doctor while he wanted to be a teacher. He did what he loved and he followed his passion of becoming a teacher, despite what his family had said about him. To this date he still walks into class without any regrets. Most of the people over the age of 16 had not even put money down as one of their things that make them happy. This relates to our discussion in class because we had talked how younger people tend to use money that is earned by someone else, so spending is no problem for them.  While older people make wiser decisions when spending money because they tend to earn it and they need to buy necessities.

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Connection with my Anatomy teacher, Mr. Java.

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Connection with my Anatomy teacher, Mr. Java.

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My human anatomy teacher, Java, spends time every week into giving his students advice for whats to come in the real world. He calls this, Character building sessions and he tells us advice, personal experiences, and what he has learned in his life so we could be successful in the future. During semester 1, one of our sessions was focused on happiness. This lasted the whole period and we focused on things that made us happy. First and foremost he tells us that his family makes him happy. He loves his wife, daughter, brothers and parents because they had always been there for him when he faced trouble.But One story that had stuck out to me is when he was contemplating on whether to become a teacher or a doctor. He told us that his family disagreed with him because he chose to be a teacher and not a doctor. This is because in his Persian culture being a doctor was favorable than becoming a teacher because doctors had a higher income. Despite the backlash he received from his family. He wanted to be a teacher because he loves doing it and money was not a problem for him.To this day he still has a positive attitude in class everyday which shows that doing what you love can achieve happiness. This story contradicts the fact that money brings happiness because my teacher could have been a doctor and make more money than a teacher, but he wouldn't feel happy and he would feel regretful.

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Can money really bring happiness?( Connection with the Great Gatsby)

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Can money really bring happiness?( Connection with the Great Gatsby)

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This image has figure which seems to be sad or depressed while there are huge sacks of money. This can connect to our world right now because there are many celebrities that have a lot of money but they battle with depression. A couple weeks ago a famous music producer, Avicii had died from suicide due to depression. His net worth was $85 million and society thinks that he must have been having the best time in his life. But in reality, this money didnt mean anything to him because he still couldnt obtain true happiness.

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Asking my brother, Amaan Faruqi, of what makes him happy. ( Video Interview)

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Asking my brother, Amaan Faruqi, of what makes him happy. ( Video Interview)

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After asking my brother of what makes him happy he tells us that his hobbies make him happy. He tells me that he likes to play hockey because it allows him to use strategies. Also he loves to play video games because he gets to play with his friends and it makes him happy everyday. But most importantly, his friends and family make him happy because they are always their for him and he likes to spend time with them. I asked him if he thinks that money and expensive things make him happy, he tells me no. He says that some people who don't have enough are satisfied with what they have. His statement relates to the social experiment we saw in class because a homeless man had taken only a couple dollars from the mans jacket. The person with the money asked him to take more, but he was already satisfied with what he already had.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Can religion and spiritually bring happiness to someone?(Youtube video)

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Can religion and spiritually bring happiness to someone?(Youtube video)

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Chris Hall who is the narrator of this video tells us how religion and spirituality can bring happiness to people. I was interested into looking into religion because I have talked to and I have seen interviews in which religion has allowed people to seek answers and it had also given them guidance into how to prosper in the world. Chris Hall talks about how religion is beneficial to some people. He tells us that we form a sense of community when you are with the same religious followers because people feel united and happy that there are people just like them. Also religion connects people to their inner-selves through the process of prayer or meditation. This can explain why most people in the world are adherents to a specific religion because it brings tranquility and forms communities.

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How Religion and Spirituality can bring you Happiness

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My brother had said that people who are less fortunate tend to be happy with what they already have. This relates to Santiago in The Old Man in the Sea because even though he was not a successful fisherman he still maintains a positive mindset when doing so. This shows that by doing what he loves that its easier to acquire happiness.

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At first I had thought that money and materialistic things brought happiness, but I was wrong. After reading multiple articles, conducting interviews, conducting surveys and looking at videos I had learned that relationships with people and doing what you love is what mainly allows one to feel happy.

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This quote exemplifies the fact that by having good relationships you will be much happier than ever. It talks about how if you were happy in a negative relationship then how would you feel if you were happy in a positive relationship. By having a good relationship one will achieve true happiness. This can be evident in the Catcher in the Rye.

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This article focuses on why we feel happy when we are meditating and connecting with our inner selves. One of the main reasons on why this happens because people feel a sense of tranquility and relief. Meditation allows one to detach them selves from emotions and stress and they feel euphoric and relieved. Meditation also releases healthy hormones in the body which allows one to feel happy.

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Let's face it: When you're not happy, everyone knows it.

And if you think about it, most of the events, people, and situations that cause you unhappiness in life, are due to change. Change is inevitable, and it's everywhere. The casual Friday policy at work changed, so say goodbye to your jeans until the weekend. Your preschooler came home with head lice, so there goes your relaxing evening watching Law and Order.

While, as much as you watch what you eat, you're not losing those last ten pounds as quick as you'd like - thanks to a metabolism that has slowed down in recent years. Yet, as many things surface in your life that surprise, startle, or downright bum you out, meditation can offer a way for you to take the change in your life, and make it work for you - not against you.

No matter how much we try to avoid change, we can't run from it - its surfaces in every aspect of our lives. The good news is, meditation can create an opportunity for acceptance and the embracing of change and create happiness where you thought it could never exist.

Detach and Release - When Emotions Take Over in Your Relationships

Meditation allows you to increase your happiness by detaching from your emotions, instead of becoming consumed by them. For example, if you recently broke up with a long term partner after years of an intimate relationship, and you find your mind is constantly 'going' with negative chatter - blame, guilt, anger, frustration and the 'he said, she said' that often arises from a good relationship gone bad, meditation strengthens your mindfulness, which enhances your ability to detach and have a clear, fresh perspective on the past.

Science of meditation and happiness

Studies have shown that when you meditate, you tune into a consciousness that isn't always possible when you're living in a mindless state. For example, if a co-worker or spouse is yelling at you, what's a natural first reaction? To yell back, become silent, or at the very least, be defensive. After all, what's their problem? It's easy to blame instead of stepping back and taking responsibility for your part in the argument when someone else is yelling and acting as if we are the only one to blame.

But, when you meditate, as clinical studies from UCLA have shown, you have the ability to think more rationally, logically and from several perspectives. (In other words, you're able to detach with heightened reasoning skills and awareness.)

Lastly, meditation can allow you to develop a serene calmness, which can help you to cool down and communicate more effectively in your relationships. And as everyone knows, the quality of your relationships offers a direct correlation to the happiness in your life. Better communication equals better quality of life. So breath deep, meditate and enjoy the benefits it brings!

Good Health Makes You Happier

A 2005 study demonstrated something staggering - those who meditated have a stronger, and thicker cortex (the part of the brain that processes emotions, attention and sensory awareness), and the more they meditated, the thicker the cortex grew. Although scientists don't know the in's and out's regarding why meditation affects the brain, study after study shows that happy people can become even happier through meditation, and anyone can increase their gratitude, sensory perception, youthful exuberance and passion for life by starting with an easy five minute meditation to their day. Perk yourself up first thing in the morning by sitting still, breathing in and out, and focusing on 'being' instead of 'doing'.

You can't change the world. You can't change other's opinions of you. But, you can change how well you interpret the change that's happening, and become more focused, and more capable to handle anything that comes your way through regular meditation. With EquiSync®, you can experience super-pleasurable, highly-beneficial states of deep meditation quickly, safely, and easily.

Access the limitless benefits of meditation quickly, safely, and easily: Get started with EquiSync®

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Why Meditation Makes You So Happy: Embrace Change In Your Life

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Let's face it: When you're not happy, everyone knows it. And if you think about it, most of the events, people, and situations that cause you unhappiness in life, are due to change. Change is inevitable, and it's everywhere. The casual Friday policy at work changed, so say goodbye to your jeans until the weekend.

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It seems only natural that happiness should flow from having more money. Even if they don't admit it, people still behave as though it were true. More money means you can have what you want and do what you want. The house you dream of? It's yours. The new car you desire? Here are the keys. The freedom to enjoy your favourite pastimes? Here's your racket, the court is down there, just past the pool.

So the puzzle is this: why do social scientists consistently find only moderate relationships between having more money and being happy? Some have even suggested that this moderate connection might be exaggerated. In reality money might have very little to do with happiness at all.

Most puzzling, though, is that people often seem aware at some level that money won't make them happy. And yet they continue to work away earning money they don't objectively need.

First, though, let's look at the three reasons money doesn't make us happy:

1. It's relative income that's important. As I've noted previously, money is relative. It turns out we don't mind so much about our actual level of income, so long as we're earning more than other people around us. Unfortunately as we earn more money we're likely to be surrounded by richer people so we often end up failing to take advantage of the positive comparison.

2. Material goods don't make us happy. Acquiring things like houses and cars only have a transient effect on happiness. People's desires for material possessions crank up at the same, or greater rate, than their salaries. Again, this means that despite considerably more luxurious possessions, people end up no happier. There's even evidence that materialism make us less happy.

3. People don't shift to enjoyable activities when they are rich. People who earn more money don't spend their time enjoying themselves, they spend their time at work, in activities likely to cause them more stress and tension. This may be because of 'the focusing illusion'. When people think about earning more money they probably imagine they would use the money on recreational activities. In fact, to earn the money, they have to spend more time at work, and commuting to and from work.

The focusing illusion

These three reasons naturally raise the question of why psychological findings are so out of step with people's everyday experience. Surely if money doesn't lead to happiness, most people would have worked that out by now. So why do people still chase the mighty dollar/pound/yen like their lives depended on it?

People with more money and status are just more satisfied with their lives, not happier.Nobel-prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman and colleagues put forward the idea that the reason people continue to think money makes them happier is that chasing it leads to conventional achievements (Kahneman et al., 2006). Conventional achievements include things like getting that coveted promotion or being able to afford that big house - in other words things that say loud and clear: hear I am and this is what I can do.

So, when people ask themselves whether money brings happiness, they immediately think of the big promotion and the big house. They conclude that because they have these things, they must be happy. In fact, people with more money and status are just more satisfied with their lives, not happier (before you scoff at this think about whether you'd rather be satisfied or happy).

But how do we know people aren't happier with more money? Well, psychologists have a trick up their sleeves. That trick is called moment-by-moment sampling. The conventional way of asking people about their happiness is using an overall measure. There's evidence that this is inaccurate and ends up tapping satisfaction more than happiness. Instead psychologists have started asking people how they're feeling many times each day, in that precise moment, then adding up these reports.

Higher earners were more likely to experience intense negative emotions and greater arousal during the day.In one example of this type of research 374 workers at 10 different sites in a variety of different jobs were asked how happy they were every 25 minutes over a whole workday (Schnall et al., 1998). The correlation between happiness and income was so tiny, it wasn't statistically significant. Worse, higher earners were more likely to experience intense negative emotions and greater arousal during the day. These types of findings have also been seen in other studies on how earnings affect happiness.

It appears, then, that the focusing illusion might partly explain why we think money makes us happy, when actually it doesn't. This explanation, though, only goes so far. This is because many people know that a more high-powered job means more stress, and perhaps even understand that it won't make them happier, and yet they will still choose the money and the high-powered job. Why? To answer this question we need to zoom out from psychology to social theory.

No alternative to chasing money?

The question that Professor Barry Schwartz asks is why people focus on money to the exclusion of those things that are proven to increase happiness (Schwartz, 2007). Things like doing work that is meaningful to us or improving our social relations. The sad answer that Schwartz gives is that people do not see any alternatives. Everyone knows that it all comes down to money, and to say otherwise is to announce your naivety.

Where are the messages telling us that it's OK not to go all out for cash money? Barely audible.Sure, you don't have to live your life as though you worshipped the acquisition of money, but almost everything tells us we should do. Television, billboards, newspapers, other people: they're all screaming at us to get money. The effect of these messages is to 'crowd out' any other ideas we might have about how to live our lives.

Of course there are alternatives, but where are the role-models for these alternatives? Few and far between. Where are the messages telling us that it's OK not to go all out for cash money? Barely audible.

Money and happiness in a nutshell

So we end up with this: money doesn't make us happy on a day-to-day basis. We are, though, bombarded by messages telling us that we should value money and seek it out. So, like good members of society, we follow the convention.

What will make you feel happy right now?Acquiring money and status makes us feel satisfied with life. Through the 'focusing illusion' we convince ourselves that satisfaction equals happiness. Unfortunately it doesn't. Even though we appear to have everything, we are left feeling that something is missing, but are unable to identify what that thing is.

That thing is simply this: feeling happy. Right now. In the moment.

What will make you feel happy right now?

References

Kahneman, D., Krueger, A. B., Schkade, D., Schwarz, N., & Stone, A. A. (2006). Would You Be Happier If You Were Richer? A Focusing Illusion. Science, 312, 1908-1910.

Schnall, P., Landsbergis, P., Belkic, K., Warren, K., Schwartz, J., & Pickering, T. (1998). Findings In The Cornell University Ambulatory Blood Pressure Worksite Study: A Review. Psychosomatic Medicine, 60, 697.
→ Explore PsyBlog's ebooks, all written by Dr Jeremy Dean:
Schwartz, B. (2007). There Must Be An Alternative. Psychological Inquiry, 18, 48-51.

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The 3 Reasons Money Brings Satisfaction But Not Happiness - PsyBlog

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It seems only natural that happiness should flow from having more money. Even if they don't admit it, people still behave as though it were true. More money means you can have what you want and do what you want. The house you dream of? It's yours. The new car you desire?