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And yes, it goes over the 1-2 minute criteria listed on the rubric, however, I got my point across and didn't just recite a script, which I will gladly sacrifice points for.

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PBL Presentation for video - Google Slides.webm

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Simply a reverse of the typical idea of accepting/loving yourself in order to find love, it's actually simply a matter of finding someone who cares about you, and you can find the ability to love yourself.
Honestly, it does seem incredibly true, though I haven't found love, finding someone who makes you feel as though you are worth something does improve your outlook on life.

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There is a psychological myth going around that you have to love yourself before someone else can love you. The real truth is that many people learn to love themselves by first being loved by another.

If you never had a loving family, it's more difficult to build healthy self-esteem. Appropriate affection from another person may be the magic touch you need to actually believe that you are loveable. When someone you admire gives his or her heart to you; it makes you feel cherished and in turn you learn to love yourself.

I know a number of people who were only able to develop self-love after someone who made them feel worthwhile came into their lives. For many, this love blossomed into a healthy and life long relationship. For others, it was an experience that put them on a path to finding their true purpose in life.

In many support groups one of the things that helps a person to recover is that the group loves the individual until he or she can love themselves. This is also one of the ways in which therapy helps individuals to heal from depression, loss and addiction.

On the other hand, we all know people who are in love with themselves (they're called narcissists). When someone is totally self-absorbed, he or she many not have room in their hearts to care for another human being. When looks, power or charisma begin to fade, many people with this issue find themselves very depressed and very alone.

If you put yourself before all others and ignore the needs and feelings of those closest to you, you'd better get a grip and change your behaviors before your loved ones take a hike. It's very difficult to keep giving love to someone who seldom or never returns it.

For those people who are still struggling with loving themselves, getting reassurance and support from a loving partner is very important in the healing process. Reminding someone who is struggling with self-acceptance that he or she deserves to be loved is a true gift from the heart.

If you have to continually ask your partner if he or she loves you, or if your partner is never able to take in the love you have to share, both of you may want to seek some additional support. If you let the pattern continue, your relationship will not have the strength to or ability to grow.

Trusting that you are loved may be difficult for someone who has suffered a trauma or significant loss. For those people I suggest patience and persistence. I believe that the heart only has so much room and if it's filled with hurt, there is less room for love. Love actually pushes out the sadness in our hearts, so by letting it in you not only get to feel the wonderful gift of being loved by another, you also get to release some old pain you may be holding on to.

Remember the story of the princess and the frog? We can all turn into something charming when we let ourselves be loved.

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There is a psychological myth going around that you have to love yourself before someone else can love you. The real truth is that many people learn to love themselves by first being loved by another. If you never had a loving family, it's more difficult to build healthy self-esteem.

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A little interesting video that was found through the recommended bar on YouTube, it led me to the discovery of Daoism. Focused on being accepting to life as it comes to us, it focuses on the 'Dao' or the 'path'. Much like how the seasons come and go on their own, our lives must not be rushed, and every moment appreciated. All things take time, and so letting the world do what it must, and allowing yourself to flow in much the same manner leads to life rewarding you with the gift of happiness.

This also seems like a solid connection as to why Gatsby was never truly happy in the entirety of the novel. Life appeared to have wanted Daisy and Gatsby to not be together, leaving Gatsby dead by the end of the novel because he attempted to push at the barriers that life had imposed. However, this also brings in the idea of consequences and awareness, as Gatsby's selfish desires also cost the lives of Myrtle, and i a way George, seeing as he killed himself after exacting 'revenge'.

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A little look into one of the purest souls that ever graced the world, Bob Ross is an example of what true happiness looks like when it's achieved and channeled into life. He's a kind, positive and patient man who loved to share the joy of painting with the world, and did so with a smile, and truly wholesome lessons. A staple quote being, "There's no such thing as mistakes, just happy accidents."

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Bob Ross - Happy Accident (Season 11 Episode 13)

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Though it's not research, you'd have to have a cold, dead heart to not at least smile at animals doing something silly. It's just good, wholesome clips for a fun little time.

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NO DOUBT, you will LAUGH SUPER HARD! - Best FUNNY DOG videos

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Love, and how Happiness is the Love of Life.

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Love, and how Happiness is the Love of Life.

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In summary, happiness is not possible 100% of the time, but we must persist regardless. Life is made up of the ups and downs, the causes and effects, none of which are within our control as human beings. To be truly happy is to accept the flow of life, and love what comes out of it, be it good or bad. Moving on through the bad, and cherishing the good things allow us to be accepting, and that mood not only allow you to be happy, but it allows other to be happy.

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Happiness is best achieved through living an ethical life. A good life is a happy life. Good relations and taking responsibility not only make a happy life possible; they are happiness itself.

But good people aren't always happy. Why? Because goodness is an ideal state; it something you aim at, a kind of moving target. Happiness may be achieved but mostly it is occasional and fleeting. Conditions change and you aim again. Even the best archer doesn't always hit the bull's-eye. External conditions make it easier to achieve happiness. For example, an archer is more likely to hit a target if she uses the best-made bow than if she used a poorly made bow. No one, though, has everything that is needed-peaceful times, perfect health, a just society, loving parents, caring teachers.

No one can be happy all the time. But you can approach happiness with a good family, a good friend, a good government, good enough possessions, and adequate health. The great archer with the inadequate bow will oust the incompetent archer with the latest and best equipment.

I accept Goethe's comment, "I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming."

Happiness, while not possible all the time, is possible at least some of the time. More than that, you can look back on your life and say that you were happy. Happiness is the overall assessment of your life, not the episodic moments. It's Seurat's pointillist picture from a distance, not the dots up close.

True happiness is the gentle pulling away from yourself by which you find a better self that can prosper. Loving the right things and loving them in the right way is the key. Ethical relationships make it more likely than not that as you look back on your life you will be able to say, "I have lived a good life."

Still, there is something about happiness that is independent of virtue. This is the happiness that is found in the joy of existence, the delight in simply being. This can be experienced either with others or in moments of solitude. Which form it takes, I suppose, is a matter of temperament. Individual dispositions and upbringing will lead people to find happiness in different ways. Some are, by nature, social, others more solitary. I may find happiness in the company of people while you may prefer a walk in the woods. You may enjoy the quiet of a good book, or perhaps it is the conviviality of the dinner table you seek. Some love cities, others the countryside.

But whichever way you find happiness, it is always accompanied by love, for happiness is ultimately the love of life, the celebration of living. The mark of happiness is that you are sensitive to the world around you, that you acknowledge your dependence upon your surroundings and that you are filled with loving-kindness.

You want to take care of that which you love, and you are solicitous toward it. The person who finds happiness through love is the person who can be trusted to bring happiness to others. This is the meaning behind Lao Tzu's aphorism, "The person who loves the world as his own body may be entrusted with the empire."

There are those who possess everything they claim to have wanted but still aren't happy. They think they can be happy yet indifferent, happy while independent. The truth is the opposite: happiness requires gratitude and an acknowledgement of interdependence with that which is around you. More wealth doesn't make you happier; deeper and better relations do.

The places of happiness are infinite, the sources never-ending. And you inhabit those places not because they have been pursued but because you have opened your heart and have allowed them in.

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Happiness is best achieved through living an ethical life. A good life is a happy life. Good relations and taking responsibility not only make a happy life possible; they are happiness itself. But good people aren't always happy. Why? Because goodness is an ideal state; it something you aim at, a kind of moving target.

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Answering my two questions. (Sort of) 4/30/18 

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Answering my two questions. (Sort of) 4/30/18 

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Q1. How do we achieve true happiness?
A1. At this moment, it seems that achieving true happiness is as simple as being gracious and altruistic, giving more than taking, being kind to others or even simply smiling. Limiting stress by spending time with good friends allows people to amplify good moments to create stronger emotions, and finding outlets for negative emotions (anger, sadness, etc.) like videogames or sports allows you to spend more time as a positive person.

Q2. What is 'True Happiness'
A2. True happiness is a feeling of being at a state of contentedness, being proud of what you have socially and physically, and being at a state where you can have a genuine smile about what you've done. It's overpowering regrets and bad decisions with positivity and altruism, being gracious and giving your time and money to others to allow them to achieve what they need. Happiness is giving without expecting anything in return, it is the reward for being kind.

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I can't relate to this post...

I'm kidding of course. Friendship, as a whole, is a way of having fun with other people and sharing good moments with others. I've found that when I'm sad or stressed, talking to others allow me to become less stressed or sad. The post says relatively the same thing, being sociable allows people to funnel out negative emotions as well as amplifying positive emotions.

Looking back upon previously read material, it seems this was the reason behind Holden Caufield's melancholy and eventual mental breakdown in "The Catcher in the Rye." He had no true friends that he could be himself around, whether it be caused by the social issues generated by the death of his brother, or not. As such, all of his anger, sadness and stress built up inside him, eventually leading to him attempting to fight the pool of negativity with alcohol. Poor kid even wanted a prostitute just so he could have a chat.

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In layman's terms, getting high grades creates stress, and stress reduces overall happiness. As a student, I can't agree with such a 'fact' seeing as I don't stress myself out with due dates or work effort, simply because I plan my day out. A lack of happiness due to school stress seems to mainly be created due to consequence of laziness and procrastination.

This may also be why Holden was able to have a kind of happy-go-lucky attitude in the beginning of Catcher, as he wasn't too stressed behind the idea of getting good grades, thus pushing off his mental breakdown/issues until his later realizations.

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With the stress of finals upon many high school (and middle school!) students, I'm hoping we can pause for a moment to put it into perspective.

Because the statistics on teen stress, my friends, are scary.

Like most parents, I want my children to succeed in school, and I'd like them to go to college. More than that, I want them to be engaged and passionate learners-not just in school but for their entire lives.

But when you look at the studies of college-bound kids with high GPAs, the picture is not rosy.

It's a portrait of chronic stress and sleep deprivation, pressure and depression-not one of passionate and joyful learners.

It seems that succeeding in school might not be a "happiness habit." Consider that in a study of kids from high-performing California high schools, 70 percent of the students "often or always feel stressed by their school work, and 56 percent reported often or always worrying about such things as grades, tests, and college acceptance."

Although some level of stress can, of course, be motivating or even healthy, chronic stress like what these students describe is very damaging to their developing minds and bodies. A quarter of the students in that study struggle with depression, and 7 percent had recently cut themselves, which people sometimes do to make emotional pain physical. Nearly half reported experiencing three or more physical symptoms of stress in the past month, such as headaches or stomachaches, that they attributed to their academic pursuits.

Many kids use drugs and alcohol to cope; one student said, "When I feel especially stressed out, I feel like intoxication is the best way out."

It isn't just kids from that California study, either, nor is it just high school students. Nine to 13-year-old kids say they are more stressed by academics than anything else, including bullying or family crises like death or divorce. In addition:

* The number of kids and teens being treated for depression has doubled in the past five years; a quarter of teenagers felt "sad or depressed every day for two or more weeks" at least once during the previous year.

* Suicides, particularly among girls, are on the rise. Among tweener girls ages 10-14, suicides were up 76 percent between 2003 and 2004; among teenage girls ages 15-19, suicides increased 32 percent. In 2007, 15 percent of kids "seriously considered attempting suicide;" seven percent actually attempted to kill themselves at least once. Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among kids ages 10 to 24.

* Twenty percent of students at two Ivy League schools report "purposely injuring themselves by cutting, burning, or other methods."

There are other significant signs that we are pushing our kids to the brink.

For example, 5.5 million kids and teens are treated for sports injuries every year; one study indicates that about 50-70 percent of these injuries are attributable to overuse. Kids will get hurt playing sports, yes-but they'll get hurt more often if we are pushing them too hard.

Another indicator that we are pushing our kids too hard is that the kids themselves report being exhausted. Teenagers need 9.25 hours of sleep per night, but the majority average only seven hours, and 25 percent get six hours or less. Younger kids are exhausted, too: first through fifth graders need 10-11 hours of sleep at night, but only 29 percent actually get that much.

Equally disconcerting is the fact that most teens resort to cheating in their quest to get ahead. Ninety-five percent of high school juniors and seniors say they cheated on a test, and 90 percent of middle schoolers admit that they have cheated. Kids feel that they need to cheat-rather than learn -in order to do well in school.

I probably don't need to say this, but I will: Cheating doesn't feel good. It makes kids feel badly about themselves, even when they don't feel especially guilty. Learning, on the other hand, does make kids feel good.

Clearly, our children are in great distress. We need to help them. While many kids are meeting the high standards for school success that we hold out for them, many of those same kids are sacrificing their happiness to do this.

Schools, of course, need to change their homework and testing policies. It sounds like a tall order, but it is possible. For evidence, look no further than Challenge Success, a research-based program that has shown measurable success in helping schools reduce student stress and support their physical and emotional well-being.

This program works. Kids who participate in it actually do better in school, even when they spend less time doing homework and less time worrying about their grades.

Not all kids are suffering, and we'll do well to understand why. For example, students at The Thacher School, in Ojai, CA, show remarkable physical and emotional health despite intense preparation for college. (Disclosure: I'm on Thacher's board.)

The Thacher culture is dramatically different from the cultures of stress and cheating found among most college-bound kids. For this reason, I think it is important to take a close look at the places where kids aren't exchanging happiness for elite college admission.

Parents also play a very important role in making changes. Next week, I will outline the three things I think are most important for us to do to help save our kids.

References: All of the studies I've referenced in this post are summarized on the Challenge Success website, where you can also find links to the full journal articles.

© 2011 Christine Carter, Ph.D.

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Greater Good wants to know: Do you think this article will influence your opinions or behavior?

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With the stress of finals upon many high school (and middle school!) students, I'm hoping we can pause for a moment to put it into perspective. Because the statistics on teen stress, my friends, are scary. Like most parents, I want my children to succeed in school, and I'd like them to go to college.

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Since I am someone who spends a good amount of my free time playing video games, I figured it would be a good idea to research it's impact on happiness. It seems like it's the same general concept as completing any sort of work, completion makes people happier, because accomplishing things gives a feeling of success, and success tends to make people happy. (Even if it makes someone stressed to no end. AKA Top 2 in Fortnite)

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The brain gain: why video games can make people happy

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Video games, whether violent or not, are a lightning rod for speculation and fear regarding their impact on children and adults alike.

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Defying the logic behind "Buying Happiness" 

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Defying the logic behind "Buying Happiness" 

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The common phrase of "Money can't buy you happiness" is something that we've all heard. However, this video challenges that idea by experimenting on spending money on yourself versus spending money on others, and in fact, it shows that spending money on other people makes people happy. In my opinion it makes perfect sense that generosity would make someone happier, as you are expending energy to make someone else happy, and from my experience, making other people happy makes me happier.

But this video also serves as a good focus for analyzing Gatsby and his lavish lifestyle. As even though he spent possibly thousands of dollars on lavish parties for everyone in his community, he seemed to defy the logic behind this idea, as he seemed unhappy as the sole target of his luxurious spending was not enjoying it. However, that is unconfirmed speculation, due to the fact that Gatsby's emotions and thoughts are not voiced within the book, only examined by our narrator Nick Carraway.

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Can money buy happiness? : Michael Norton at TEDxCambridge 2011

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Just a little look behind the actual biological science that generates the emotion of Happiness. Comfort foods generate Serotonin, and can make people feel better.

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As of today, I view happiness as an emotion related with being content, potentially due to pride in something, or from love or connections, but it, in the end, is an emotion controlled entirely by one's own mind. I believe it can be bought, it can also be earned, and it changes between people, by gender, or age, by race or by level of wealth. A rich man may seek to be happy through a more simple life, but a poor man may be happy with dreams of wealth. A woman may be happy by earning the love of a partner, but a man may be happy with earning materialistic things. Happiness, despite being an emotion, is varying and changing. That's what I believe before research, and while I'm also a 16 year old.

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Religion plays a big part in some people's happiness, and it seems that belief directly impacts/effects someone's journey towards happiness. I can neither affirm or deny that finding God can make someone truly happy, but the argument can certainly be made that it can help. Some people thrive off the belief that someone wants them to be happy. In my opinion, however, I don't connect with such beliefs.

Though mostly based on assumptions, it is possible to claim that religion was a source of happiness for the town of Salem in "The Crucible", both prior to and after the events of the witch trials. Though it did generate fear, it did allow them an idea as to where they would go after they would finish their work on the planet.

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Though the actual photo may be for a quick laugh, there is a good bit of truth in it. Being in control of your time, and in a sense, your environment/reality, seems to make people happier. A good example of such, when you don't have to wake up early for school on Mondays, that makes me happy.