Is there any difference between Happiness in Life and Meaningful Life?
What thing matters the most? Happiness in life or Meaningful life?
Happiness is a feeling. It is a positive feeling. It is favorable and cheerful. A normal feature of a feeling is being temporary or temporariness. It does not last for a long time. In other words it is not permanent. When you get a salary increment as an employee you will get the feeling of happiness. After one or two hours, or one or two days that feeling of happiness gets finished. When you meet a loved one after spending some time away, you become happy. That happiness tends to diminish and then go from you within a short time.
Happiness is a sense of useful life. It is a realization of a purposeful life. If the meaning of happiness is a sense of useful life it is not a fleeting feeling. It is not a passing thing and that lasts for a very long time or forever (until the person lives).
According to Harris (2007), the word ‘happiness’ has two very different meanings: (1) a feeling: a sense of pleasure, gladness or gratification, and (2) a profound sense of a life well lived.
According to Yacobi (2015), happiness is localized in time, as it is a fleeting state of mind, whereas the good and meaningful life is extended in time, since it also relates to the past and the future, and thus it is valued as a whole.
Happiness is a feeling. It is a positive feeling. It is favorable and cheerful. A normal feature of a feeling is being temporary or temporariness. It does not last for a long time. In other words it is not permanent. When you get a salary increment as an employee you will get the feeling of happiness. After one or two hours, or one or two days that feeling of happiness gets finished. When you meet a loved one after spending some time away, you become happy. That happiness tends to diminish and then go from you within a short time.
Happiness is a sense of useful life. It is a realization of a purposeful life. If the meaning of happiness is a sense of useful life it is not a fleeting feeling. It is not a passing thing and that lasts for a very long time or forever (until the person lives).
According to Harris (2007), the word ‘happiness’ has two very different meanings: (1) a feeling: a sense of pleasure, gladness or gratification, and (2) a profound sense of a life well lived.
According to Yacobi (2015), happiness is localized in time, as it is a fleeting state of mind, whereas the good and meaningful life is extended in time, since it also relates to the past and the future, and thus it is valued as a whole.
Henarath H. D. N. P Opatha has written an unbeatable response; I don't think I'll manage anything as profound. I agree with happiness as being a temporary feeling that is brought on by the present. But to add my thoughts on the subject regarding the more long term interpretation; I link it with meaningfulness, having purpose and the satisfaction that ensues. I revisited Michael Steger and colleagues who discuss in depth the meaning of life at the start of their paper:
Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(1), 80.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230887670_The_Meaning_in_Life_Questionnaire_Assessing_the_Presence_of_and_Search_for_Meaning_in_Life
This is the resulting questionnaire:
https://backend.fetzer.org/sites/default/files/images/stories/pdf/selfmeasures/PURPOSE_MEANING-MeaninginLife.pdf
I think a meaningful, purposeful and satisfying life results in the type of happiness that is not the fleeting feeling (although this may also ensue) but the longer term meaning discussed by Henarath H. D. N. P Opatha
Very best wishes, and may readers experience both types of happiness today,
Mary
https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/meaninginlife.pdf
his is the resulting questionnaire:
I appreciate the response of both Henarath H. D. N. P Opatha and Mary C R Wilson
Well, you can have a meaningful life but still be unhappy...
Best try to have a meaningful life and be happy...
Just in case your life is not meaningful - still try to be happy...
If you feel your life is pointless or without meaning, look for your meaning and make it pointful.
However if that makes you happy or not is your decision...
According to Paul Dolan happiness is a blance between pleasure (feeling good) and purpose (feelings of fulfillment and meaning)
Happiness in Life not always lead to meaningful Life or vice versa. Best way to search meaningful life through happiness.
Happiness can be addresed as a combination of pleasure and meaningful life. I accept that pleasure - feeling good, smiling and thriled - is quite different than purpose and meanin.
Life doesn't require any meaning other than itself. In fact, life is the source of meaning for anything else. How joyful and alert someone lives, or in other words, how full-fledged is someone living, is equivalent to their level of happiness. Joyfulness + alertness = happiness = quality of life
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