I just got back from college. I'm not having the best day, but it's fine...
I just turned in the second longest writting assignment I've ever done.... 2184 words.... not as bad as my 25 page journal for Humanities: The Modern World class last term, but long nonetheless..
I just wanted to share it, and see what you guys think.
It may sound weird in some parts due to the fact that I couldn't use the word "you", and I'm sure a few of you will find some of your grammatical pet peeves. There are a lot of parenthetical citations too. You've been warned
It's about achieving personal happiness. I'm not posting my abstract by the way.
............
Personal Happiness: A Journey Filled with Ambiguity
Happiness is never stopping to think if you are. (Quote by Palmer Sondreal) This quote describes just a small step to achieving personal happiness. Finding personal happiness isnt the easiest task in the world, but the guidelines are very flexible. This allows for a person to find happiness in many styles and forms. There is nothing written in history that can truly teach one how to achieve happiness because finding happiness starts with oneself. Finding personal happiness requires following a complex set of guidelines that allow for one to be complex, find a meaning, a calling, and to heighten his or her focus.
Why are we here? What is something that can be passionate in life? What activities allow for a person to be completely focused? Questions like these have been a part of many thinkers lives, but these questions can never be solved by just one book or statement. Even the worlds most powerful minds in psychology are yet to find the unified answer to personal happiness. In the preface of the book Flow (written by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi), the author states that giving tips about being happy is nearly impossible since finding happiness lies within oneself (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991). It is nearly impossible that one quote (or even one book) could make everyone a happy person.
The fact that finding happiness is so broad leads to only one thing that thinkers, writers, and psychologists can write about: guidelines. The idea of finding happiness is broad one, but there are some general procedures that can be done to find happiness in all of us. Happiness has a very special place in our hearts, but unfortunately, we have reached a time that is filled with lies, slander, anger, failure, and so many other negative things. Humans, however, have devised several ways of overcoming these unexpected instances, and finding enjoyment in their lives regardless of restrictions that may cause one to lose his touch with being happy. Over time a person who deals with a life that he or she dreads can find meaning and excitement, and improve his or her outlook.
The first step to finding personal happiness is to learn how to disengage oneself from society. Cutting oneself off from the society around them isnt the key, but the world cant dictate a persons every move. Balancing both is necessary in going down the hierarchy. A person must learn to keep his or her individuality, but not be detached so much that the have become a social deviant. Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi talks about complexity in his book Flow. To be complex (he says), one must combine two processes.
The first process he talks about is called differentiation. It is described in the book Flow as an advance toward being independent. It is separating oneself from others (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991). As a person journeys into happiness, it is imperative that he or she goes through this. If a person lets society completely control their thoughts on happiness, then the happiness that is given off will only be a reflection of what others consider happy, which (depending on the severity of the situation) can lead to wasted attempts at finding happiness, or wasted aspirations in life.
Complete deference has to the potential to be a bad thing as well (and can lead to egotistical thoughts), so one must also appeal to society to some extent. This process (by which one connects with others) is known as integration. Finding a way to balance both integration and differentiation is important in the evolution of finding personal happiness. Whether a person integrates to compare his or her opinion (or opinions) on happiness with others, or to find someone to share happier thoughts with, integration must at least be considered when brainstorming personal happiness.
The term complexity always seems to have a connotation of difficulty and complication. While this may be the case, this incidence can be stopped. If people learn how to balance differentiation and integration in a form that is substantial, then becoming complex is a simple task. An example of complexity would be a car engine. It has many components that are separate (differentiation) that perform their own functions, but the parts are also very sensitive in a way that allows them to be in touch with the other parts (integration) of the engine, for it to work properly (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991).
The second guideline in achieving personal happiness is to find meaning. We all have an intricate genetic makeup that makes us different from each other. This may be factual, but this doesnt mean that we have completely gathered our identity. Purpose is the next step in the evolution of finding personal happiness.
Mapping out a personality is an important part of finding purpose. It makes everyone in this world different from the other. How do people describe each others personality? The dictionary is a book that has hundreds of thousands of words and definitions. Of that staggering amount, nearly 2800 of the words printed are personality traits and variants. That leaves humans with a long list of experiences that will mold the lump of clay that is a persons thoughts and perceptions given over time, into the intricate blend that makes up ones persona.
Personality is the sole thing that can make or break a persons individuality. Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi stated in an interview that humans can have so many personality traits that make them creative and unique, as long as two do not oppose one another (The Well of Creativity, 1996, section 6, para. 3). Think about personality hypothetically. Each person can have between five and about 700 personality traits (given that each trait has an opposite, and each trait listed in the dictionary has two or so synonymous terms). The number that encompasses all the possible combinations of personality traits is so large that every organism with intelligent thought in the entire world can have any one of the combinations for itself!
Finding meaning may sound complicated, but because it is so open it is not too hard once a person starts their journey. Finding meaning can lie within so many things. Whether a middle-aged male finds meaning belonging to a group of younger adults, or an elderly woman finds purpose through the years of knowledge she has accumulated, feeling significant in the world we live in can vary immensely.
Finding belonging is important in finding meaning as well. Interacting with others is not a requirement per se, but it is quite helpful in finding meaning. The family that one is born into is the most important group that one must interact with and is the group one must try his best to interact with. Many psychological and physiological disorders can surface from a lack of interaction with family. That is why it is important for people to bond with their respective families, as well as other people (if it is deemed necessary) to aid in finding meaning.
The next step to finding personal happiness is to find a calling. Humans are born with the ability to admire and be attracted to outside forces. The evolution of man has brought on many stimuli that can be perceived on many levels. One might have a hobby, object, action, setting, scene, group, and many other stimuli that could be considered a calling. Finding this calling is just one step away.
There are many things in this world that can be considered a calling. Religions, groups, sports, leisure, pleasure (very ineffective when it comes to finding flow, but it is acceptable), and enjoyment are just a few examples. All the materials we see may not be made because it was someones calling, but anyone who produced the walls of the Empire State Building or the windows of the Sears Tower has some emotion towards the substance they made, and a percentage of those people are sure to have a passion for the result. One must look for the sole thing (or set of things) that appeals to them the most.
Since there are many things that can be a calling, there are also many relationships with the calling that can be applied. Religious people may have a direct passion to the symbol they pray to while nymphomaniacs are accustomed to the wild feelings that show up during their times of intimacy. Developing thoughts about the calling one has chosen is effective in strengthening the connection between his soul, and their calling. Its not advised that a person thinks about this every second they are engaged in the calling chosen, but it might be helpful if a reflection on why a calling was chosen is thought about on occasion.
The final step in achieving personal happiness is the icing on the cake: finding Flow. Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi has written many books on this phenomenon. Flow is described as a realm in which a person is completely focused on the outcome of an instance in his or her life (Csikszentmihalyi, 1998). The beauty of Flow is that perfection of the task at hand is not required. Flow is a heightened stage of focus.
We all wish we had easy lives, lives where resources are infinite and decisions are a thing of the past. The truth is no one can get away from obligations at some point in his or her life. Thats where flow comes in. When a persons finds their calling, flow is gathered over time. It allows the emotional strife of living in this world to go away temporarily. When a person is in a state of flow, his or her perceptions of time, fatigue (if it is demanding), homeostatic balance (hunger, sleep, thirst) are temporarily stopped. Here is an excerpt from Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyis book The Evolving Self in which he describes an artist and his creation:
When a painting was beginning to get interesting they could not tear themselves away from it; they forgot hunger, social obligations, time, and fatigue so that they could keep moving it along. But this fascination lasted only as long as a picture remained unfinished; once it stopped changing and growing, the artist usually leaned it against a wall and turned his or her attention to the next blank canvas. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1994)
When someone finds flow, life is lived like a painting rather than just a simple response to the stimuli of the world (Farmer, 2003, section I, para. 3).
In order to find flow, one must first find an activity (or object, setting, and so on) that allows for full attention. Then skill has to be developed over time. Csikszentmihalyi has displayed figures and graphs that show the relationship between skill and attention to the activity. Each graph displays one correlation: In order to be completely focused, a persons skill has to be at a level with the activity that is balanced in the middle, so that they are not stressed and anxious due to lack of skill, or bored because of their powerful abilities (Strong, 2000, section 3, para. 6). That is not to say one is to develop their skills to a level that makes them feel comfortable, but leading the pack isnt always the answer. It may feel rewarding to be in complete control, but if there is no arousal, boredom can set in, and focus of the situation that is supposed to put a person in flow can be lost.
This phenomenon has been studied for many years. Buddhist and Taoist monks have made this a major component of their spiritual development (Flow (psychology), 2006). Csikszentmihalyi believes very much that he is not the first to discover this and makes it a habit to indicate this. Flow is also referred to as being in the zone in the sports world (Flow (psychology), 2006).
Finding flow may not sound easy, but with the right situation, it can be quite simple. There are many tips that can be written to help induce flow. One of them is to find enjoyment in the activity. The activity should have sides (whether it is appealing or unappealing), which can give a person the second wind they might want to influence the outcome of a situation in his or her favor.
That is one reason why pleasure is mildly ineffective in finding flow. Although some can find flow in pleasure, pleasure is not generally effective in finding flow. Pleasure does not contribute to the outcome of a situation, and does not yield a sense of achievement (Farmer, 2004, section 2, para. 6). Some people, however, can still find flow in pleasurable activities. It is just uncommon.
Another tip to help a person find flow is the fact that the situation must require some skill. The fact that one must be skilled in order to do a task commonly is a way to draw them in. The person may not even approve of the activity he or she is performing, but the fact that it is disapproved of can make a person try harder at tipping the scales in a favorable direction. As pleasure usually is not effective in finding flow, television is also something that is rarely involved in flow. The fact that watching television requires little skill is the reason it is ineffective in generating flow.
Finding happiness can be easy if these steps are taken. The trip will be filled with some stagnancy and some times of stress, so one must be prepared. It all begins with the background on what it is to be happy, and moving down the hierarchy into Flow. Anyone can find flow: All it takes is a little commitment, and a lot of time.
I just turned in the second longest writting assignment I've ever done.... 2184 words.... not as bad as my 25 page journal for Humanities: The Modern World class last term, but long nonetheless..
I just wanted to share it, and see what you guys think.
It may sound weird in some parts due to the fact that I couldn't use the word "you", and I'm sure a few of you will find some of your grammatical pet peeves. There are a lot of parenthetical citations too. You've been warned
It's about achieving personal happiness. I'm not posting my abstract by the way.
............
Personal Happiness: A Journey Filled with Ambiguity
Happiness is never stopping to think if you are. (Quote by Palmer Sondreal) This quote describes just a small step to achieving personal happiness. Finding personal happiness isnt the easiest task in the world, but the guidelines are very flexible. This allows for a person to find happiness in many styles and forms. There is nothing written in history that can truly teach one how to achieve happiness because finding happiness starts with oneself. Finding personal happiness requires following a complex set of guidelines that allow for one to be complex, find a meaning, a calling, and to heighten his or her focus.
Why are we here? What is something that can be passionate in life? What activities allow for a person to be completely focused? Questions like these have been a part of many thinkers lives, but these questions can never be solved by just one book or statement. Even the worlds most powerful minds in psychology are yet to find the unified answer to personal happiness. In the preface of the book Flow (written by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi), the author states that giving tips about being happy is nearly impossible since finding happiness lies within oneself (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991). It is nearly impossible that one quote (or even one book) could make everyone a happy person.
The fact that finding happiness is so broad leads to only one thing that thinkers, writers, and psychologists can write about: guidelines. The idea of finding happiness is broad one, but there are some general procedures that can be done to find happiness in all of us. Happiness has a very special place in our hearts, but unfortunately, we have reached a time that is filled with lies, slander, anger, failure, and so many other negative things. Humans, however, have devised several ways of overcoming these unexpected instances, and finding enjoyment in their lives regardless of restrictions that may cause one to lose his touch with being happy. Over time a person who deals with a life that he or she dreads can find meaning and excitement, and improve his or her outlook.
The first step to finding personal happiness is to learn how to disengage oneself from society. Cutting oneself off from the society around them isnt the key, but the world cant dictate a persons every move. Balancing both is necessary in going down the hierarchy. A person must learn to keep his or her individuality, but not be detached so much that the have become a social deviant. Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi talks about complexity in his book Flow. To be complex (he says), one must combine two processes.
The first process he talks about is called differentiation. It is described in the book Flow as an advance toward being independent. It is separating oneself from others (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991). As a person journeys into happiness, it is imperative that he or she goes through this. If a person lets society completely control their thoughts on happiness, then the happiness that is given off will only be a reflection of what others consider happy, which (depending on the severity of the situation) can lead to wasted attempts at finding happiness, or wasted aspirations in life.
Complete deference has to the potential to be a bad thing as well (and can lead to egotistical thoughts), so one must also appeal to society to some extent. This process (by which one connects with others) is known as integration. Finding a way to balance both integration and differentiation is important in the evolution of finding personal happiness. Whether a person integrates to compare his or her opinion (or opinions) on happiness with others, or to find someone to share happier thoughts with, integration must at least be considered when brainstorming personal happiness.
The term complexity always seems to have a connotation of difficulty and complication. While this may be the case, this incidence can be stopped. If people learn how to balance differentiation and integration in a form that is substantial, then becoming complex is a simple task. An example of complexity would be a car engine. It has many components that are separate (differentiation) that perform their own functions, but the parts are also very sensitive in a way that allows them to be in touch with the other parts (integration) of the engine, for it to work properly (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991).
The second guideline in achieving personal happiness is to find meaning. We all have an intricate genetic makeup that makes us different from each other. This may be factual, but this doesnt mean that we have completely gathered our identity. Purpose is the next step in the evolution of finding personal happiness.
Mapping out a personality is an important part of finding purpose. It makes everyone in this world different from the other. How do people describe each others personality? The dictionary is a book that has hundreds of thousands of words and definitions. Of that staggering amount, nearly 2800 of the words printed are personality traits and variants. That leaves humans with a long list of experiences that will mold the lump of clay that is a persons thoughts and perceptions given over time, into the intricate blend that makes up ones persona.
Personality is the sole thing that can make or break a persons individuality. Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi stated in an interview that humans can have so many personality traits that make them creative and unique, as long as two do not oppose one another (The Well of Creativity, 1996, section 6, para. 3). Think about personality hypothetically. Each person can have between five and about 700 personality traits (given that each trait has an opposite, and each trait listed in the dictionary has two or so synonymous terms). The number that encompasses all the possible combinations of personality traits is so large that every organism with intelligent thought in the entire world can have any one of the combinations for itself!
Finding meaning may sound complicated, but because it is so open it is not too hard once a person starts their journey. Finding meaning can lie within so many things. Whether a middle-aged male finds meaning belonging to a group of younger adults, or an elderly woman finds purpose through the years of knowledge she has accumulated, feeling significant in the world we live in can vary immensely.
Finding belonging is important in finding meaning as well. Interacting with others is not a requirement per se, but it is quite helpful in finding meaning. The family that one is born into is the most important group that one must interact with and is the group one must try his best to interact with. Many psychological and physiological disorders can surface from a lack of interaction with family. That is why it is important for people to bond with their respective families, as well as other people (if it is deemed necessary) to aid in finding meaning.
The next step to finding personal happiness is to find a calling. Humans are born with the ability to admire and be attracted to outside forces. The evolution of man has brought on many stimuli that can be perceived on many levels. One might have a hobby, object, action, setting, scene, group, and many other stimuli that could be considered a calling. Finding this calling is just one step away.
There are many things in this world that can be considered a calling. Religions, groups, sports, leisure, pleasure (very ineffective when it comes to finding flow, but it is acceptable), and enjoyment are just a few examples. All the materials we see may not be made because it was someones calling, but anyone who produced the walls of the Empire State Building or the windows of the Sears Tower has some emotion towards the substance they made, and a percentage of those people are sure to have a passion for the result. One must look for the sole thing (or set of things) that appeals to them the most.
Since there are many things that can be a calling, there are also many relationships with the calling that can be applied. Religious people may have a direct passion to the symbol they pray to while nymphomaniacs are accustomed to the wild feelings that show up during their times of intimacy. Developing thoughts about the calling one has chosen is effective in strengthening the connection between his soul, and their calling. Its not advised that a person thinks about this every second they are engaged in the calling chosen, but it might be helpful if a reflection on why a calling was chosen is thought about on occasion.
The final step in achieving personal happiness is the icing on the cake: finding Flow. Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi has written many books on this phenomenon. Flow is described as a realm in which a person is completely focused on the outcome of an instance in his or her life (Csikszentmihalyi, 1998). The beauty of Flow is that perfection of the task at hand is not required. Flow is a heightened stage of focus.
We all wish we had easy lives, lives where resources are infinite and decisions are a thing of the past. The truth is no one can get away from obligations at some point in his or her life. Thats where flow comes in. When a persons finds their calling, flow is gathered over time. It allows the emotional strife of living in this world to go away temporarily. When a person is in a state of flow, his or her perceptions of time, fatigue (if it is demanding), homeostatic balance (hunger, sleep, thirst) are temporarily stopped. Here is an excerpt from Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyis book The Evolving Self in which he describes an artist and his creation:
When a painting was beginning to get interesting they could not tear themselves away from it; they forgot hunger, social obligations, time, and fatigue so that they could keep moving it along. But this fascination lasted only as long as a picture remained unfinished; once it stopped changing and growing, the artist usually leaned it against a wall and turned his or her attention to the next blank canvas. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1994)
When someone finds flow, life is lived like a painting rather than just a simple response to the stimuli of the world (Farmer, 2003, section I, para. 3).
In order to find flow, one must first find an activity (or object, setting, and so on) that allows for full attention. Then skill has to be developed over time. Csikszentmihalyi has displayed figures and graphs that show the relationship between skill and attention to the activity. Each graph displays one correlation: In order to be completely focused, a persons skill has to be at a level with the activity that is balanced in the middle, so that they are not stressed and anxious due to lack of skill, or bored because of their powerful abilities (Strong, 2000, section 3, para. 6). That is not to say one is to develop their skills to a level that makes them feel comfortable, but leading the pack isnt always the answer. It may feel rewarding to be in complete control, but if there is no arousal, boredom can set in, and focus of the situation that is supposed to put a person in flow can be lost.
This phenomenon has been studied for many years. Buddhist and Taoist monks have made this a major component of their spiritual development (Flow (psychology), 2006). Csikszentmihalyi believes very much that he is not the first to discover this and makes it a habit to indicate this. Flow is also referred to as being in the zone in the sports world (Flow (psychology), 2006).
Finding flow may not sound easy, but with the right situation, it can be quite simple. There are many tips that can be written to help induce flow. One of them is to find enjoyment in the activity. The activity should have sides (whether it is appealing or unappealing), which can give a person the second wind they might want to influence the outcome of a situation in his or her favor.
That is one reason why pleasure is mildly ineffective in finding flow. Although some can find flow in pleasure, pleasure is not generally effective in finding flow. Pleasure does not contribute to the outcome of a situation, and does not yield a sense of achievement (Farmer, 2004, section 2, para. 6). Some people, however, can still find flow in pleasurable activities. It is just uncommon.
Another tip to help a person find flow is the fact that the situation must require some skill. The fact that one must be skilled in order to do a task commonly is a way to draw them in. The person may not even approve of the activity he or she is performing, but the fact that it is disapproved of can make a person try harder at tipping the scales in a favorable direction. As pleasure usually is not effective in finding flow, television is also something that is rarely involved in flow. The fact that watching television requires little skill is the reason it is ineffective in generating flow.
Finding happiness can be easy if these steps are taken. The trip will be filled with some stagnancy and some times of stress, so one must be prepared. It all begins with the background on what it is to be happy, and moving down the hierarchy into Flow. Anyone can find flow: All it takes is a little commitment, and a lot of time.
