Topic > What Makes Life Meaningful: Happiness Is Not Just Pleasure

IndexThe True Idea of ​​a Meaningful and Happy LifeConclusionReferencesThe first examination of happiness gave satisfaction to a pleasant life, characterized by a majority of positive emotions, joy over sadness and a predominance of an optimistic mood over a bad mood. This view of happiness did not effectively explain people's lives, as nearly 50% of them reported feeling low in a mood characterized by negative or unpleasant emotions. Does this mean they were doomed to an accident? With the previous idea, that was it. Researchers realized that the idea of ​​happiness linked only to positive emotions was narrow and left out many people. Ok, but what gives meaning to life? This is the question of this essay. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay What can we say about people who say they live a life full of rewarding, highly important work, but their mood is neither happy nor optimistic? Aren't they happy? Or parents who work hard to barely support their children and with dedication and dedication make them professionals, despite their lives, characterized by rigor, little room for pleasure and little chance of lasting joy? They're not happy either? The very idea of ​​a meaningful and happy life Conceptually, the idea of ​​happiness was small, because being synonymous with a pleasant life reduced many different aspects that made people happy. As Martin Seligman states, positive psychology is currently focused on the theory of well-being and the promotion of human development, rather than the happiness orientation it had at the beginning of 2000. Indicators of well-being and human development are associated with individual characteristics flourishing . relational and social. The idea of ​​human well-being and flourishing encompasses the five dimensions of Selmaman's PERMA model (P for positive emotions, E for involvement or delivery, R for positive relationships, M the lowering of meanings and A for performance) . Happiness would be one of the indicators of P, positive emotions and their sweet taste of pleasant life, joy, clarity, expansion and optimism. What is interesting is that there are people who have an average value of positive emotions, who are not particularly happy, who have a relatively stable and even flat mood and a personal perception of a high level of well-being. That is, as far as PERMA is concerned, they present few positive emotions and, at the same time, a high level of execution, meaning, relationships or significant results. Focus on people with a high degree of dedication to others, where what they do goes beyond themselves and the fruit of their actions serves and benefits others, but there are not too many positive emotions in their daily lives. For example, a person responsible for a foster family for orphans working as surrogate mothers. Or those who feel they have a mission to fulfill in the world through the exercise of a trade or profession that we particularly like, although they feel obliged to do so, which makes them a day of boredom, although they are accused of a transcendence Sense. Or this entrepreneur who is obsessed with the pursuit of wealth in himself and who does everything to achieve it, despite his life, may be difficult, lonely and unpleasant due to the ascetic view of life itself. Happiness doesn't just come from a pleasant life. This is one of its components and probably not the most important. The perception of well-being and personal growth has more to do with a meaningful life, that is, a life dedicated to goals, 11(4), 227-268.