Priya+Mansukhani+RP+Post+5

The topic that I am trying to discover more about is the fragility of happiness- what makes happiness so fragile, and how that is shown in our lives and ultimately affects us. So my main question is: what makes up the fragility of happiness, and how does that affect us in our lives? How is it shown throughout our experiences?

My working title: Nothing Lasts Forever or... Easy come, easy go

1__. **According to Halvorson**,__ in her article, How to Keep Happiness From Fading, she discusses how no matter how good happiness may feel, it never seems to last. Through this source I was able to find the root and the core of my topic. How happiness fades, and more puzzling, why it acts the way it does. I found that there is a scientific explanation for why happiness seems to be snatched away from us seemingly so fast- the moment we get it, is the moment it disappears. It is actually called the hedonic adaptation. No matter how good something may make us feel or give us happiness, we always end up returning back to where we began- a baseline. It doesn't last, why? Because when positive events occur, initially they are new and give us this new sensation- but over time, we become accustomed to them. The "high" they give us slowly dissipates till we are left with nothing yet once again. Fewer positive events seem to be happening, and thus, fewer positive feelings are felt. It all makes sense. I realized that happiness itself is not short-lived by nature. Rather, humans make it so because it is in OUR nature that we are continuously searching for the new and inexperienced with sometimes greed and hunger, without appreciating anything in the given moment or what we already have. We get bored too fast, too soon, and in the end, it is our own selves that lead to our sadness.

2. In the Secrets of Happiness, Meyers basically gave a general outlook on happiness. By reading this article, I was able to get a general overview on my topic- the psychology on the emotion itself and how it is experienced by people, before diving in to a specific aspect of its characteristics (transience). __**Basically,**__ it magnifies the traits that "happy people" have. Those who are happy tend to love themselves, are hope-filled, are out going and believe they can make their own destiny. **__However__,** although these traits do seem common in those who are content, I think it is too rigid of a description. There are people who can feel happiness if they lack one of these qualities or even all of these qualities. People are different in their personalities and characteristics and each form of happiness is unique to the individual experiencing it- which is why some of these traits may come and go, but they do not define happiness.

3. **__In addition to__** the opinionated articles, I also looked at scientific articles. In the article: What is happiness?, the scientific lens is used to view happiness. How people function and the way our bodies function results in some process that creates a baseline of happiness revolving around our nervous system. I think that happiness is something that is hard to define, but this article gives a good, overall, objective look at happiness and what it means when it isn't looked at as just an emotion but as a process. There are two sides to everything: facts and emotion, and this allowed me to see the hard core facts that all views and interpretations of happiness were based off of.

4. In another source, Flora discusses our pursuit of happiness. Everything in our lives revolves around this concept: to be happy, and it is a hunger that grows in our hearts. I enjoyed reading this article, even though it wasn't completely related to my research paper. I just used it to see the other applications and influences happiness has on us. Like, what makes it an emotion so desirable that people will spend the rest of their lives chasing after it just to feel it- even if it is so short-lived, which is the basis of my paper.