Definition Essay On Happiness

Even before I open the door, I am greeted with the warm and welcoming scent of my mom preparing a dinner. Ingredients like garlic, hot pepper, and ginger form a chaotic, but exquisitely unifying smell that tricks me into opening the door to my house even when I still want to play with my friends. As soon as I grab the cold and rusty handle with my tiny hand and twist it open, an unexplainable burst of almost euphoric sensation wraps myself around as if someone were to throw a huge sheet of blanket right on top of me. I walk in. Enjoying the strangely exciting feeling, I hear a news reporter in the television mumbling about adult things, occasional but clear sound of my mom chopping her ingredients away, and the loud sound of my friends still

However, it raises a question: what is happiness and how can one achieve it? People don’t need a formal description of happiness since everyone knows it when they feel it. We often use this feeling to describe a range of positive emotions such as joy, comfort, and gratitude. However, it’s crucially important to understand that even though pleasure is sometimes considered as a positive emotion, it should be not be confused with happiness. According to Kenneth Benjamin from Happiness International team, happiness is achieved when one’s life fulfills one’s needs and gives one that lasting sensation. Pleasure is very momentary. Pleasure is a feeling that comes from something external such as eating a good meal, buying a whole bunch of new clothes, making love, and so on. While pleasure can be categorized as a form of happiness, happiness cannot be considered as pleasure because if one continues to give oneself pleasure over and over again through a long period of time, one will adapt and turn pleasure into a routine. So when the external pleasure is gone, so does one’s pleasure. No good meal, no pleasure. On the other hand, happiness allows one to enjoy eating a good meal, but not necessarily require them constantly or find the need to change it up every once in awhile in order to feel happy