Express your thoughts Freely.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

I often sit and wonder what constitute happiness.

Is it money?

Is it personal triumph?

What about morality?



Maybe society depicts the meaning of happiness?

For some people happiness comes in the form of finding a meal a day weather it comes from the garbage, or from an aid who decided that they want to look good n television giving back. However for people like this happiness to me has the most genuine meaning.

So I turn to my co-worker Dawind George and asked him, what makes you happy? This is what he said.

“Anything that I can do to make my mom enjoy life to the fullest and to make her feel proud about, will make me happy and the same goes for the rest of my family”
How ever he failed to mention one simple thing about himself and it makes me think. Why do we as human seem to focus on others and try to make others happy.( is it just in our nature or is it just the way we were raised as caregivers) while not paying much attentions on what really makes us happy as an individuals!

In order to get a females perspective on it I turned to a female Co worker and asked, what makes you happy? .she replied saying!

She replied at first saying she don’t know, seconds later she shouted freedom. I am like what aren’t you free, don’t you live in a democratic nation.

So she though about for a few minutes and said.

“Travelling Getting out of New York, going to Jamaica and the rest of the world”
So I said ok, and asked “are you Jamaican” she replied “no I just love the country, I am a southerner.

As for me growing up as a kid all I wanted was cars bikes and a big house to live and allot of girls to me at the time that was going to make me happy. However I have come to realize that the true meaning of happiness has bin so societal driven that happiness now, has a different meaning to everyone.

When I look at the children of Africa and see when the get a place of food the smile on their faces it restores to me the true meaning of happiness. which to me is that once you have life, food and shelter and a family that’s loves and cares for that should be enough.

Ages 3-12


Them I took it on myself to ask, when do we start knowing if we are happy or not as for me it’s when I was in high school, seeing all the other kids with gadgets that I did not have and wearing the latest shoes bags and coats.

But it came to my mind that it might be rancor, but them I say no! It could not be.

So I came to this conclusion that happiness is learned and society has allot to do with what people perceived as being happiness.
This is evident in so many places; just by watching the movies, I hear my two little cousins saying I want to be like Miley or Nick from a Disney picture.

I would really like to hear what you think and, need to hear the disagreement and also the agreements.

I finally got twitter fallow me at(twitter.com/jackostain)

6 comments:

OmegaRadium said...

Happiness is defined differently by everyone, because everyone's situation is unique. Look into "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs," it provides a basic concept/structure of what it is that we humans need to be happy.

As we acquire the items within a level in the pyramid, we being to crave those on the next level. It isn't a flawless theory, but it does put our endless wants into perspective.

Unbreakable said...

I don’t think one needs to self actualized to feel happy, according to Maslow, "the full realization of one's potential is what he terms self-actualized the highest level on his prism. According to his theory human keeps going and going until they feel they reach their full potential. So tell me this now omega, have you ever felt that you have reached your full potential? I have never felt I did my best and I always saying I could have done better. However I have been happy and I am yet to self-actualize.

I still hold my point that happiness has been influence by society, every bit we achieve we want to get to the next level, to be accepted in a group. When do we separate self-actualization from greed?

Adina Renée. said...

this post had me thinking about a bunch of different things but hapiness is achieved when a person in content with every aspect of themselves and their lives.

Adina Renée. said...

this is kissmyairs from twitter.

~*Miss A*~ said...

I think everyone perceives happiness differently. Happiness for me is doing something that makes a difference….even if it only makes a difference to 1 person, spending time with my family & my friends, and having a drink when I get stressed out! LOL

OmegaRadium said...

I believe our "Full potential" is constantly shifting forward as we learn and grow. Yes, there have been times where I feel I've reached full potential, but having reached it allows you to grow even further.

This means I've achieved happiness, but happiness is fleeting.