Question

Needing to write a one page paper on how to stay happy naturally

Answer 1

Dan Gilbert’s views on happiness involve the questions of why people are happy or why people are not happy. Natural happiness means getting what we want. Synthetic happiness means not getting what we want and adapting our circumstances and thoughts so we can be happy. Dan Gilbert argues that synthetic and natural happiness are the same thing even when people believe that natural happiness and synthetic happiness are different and that synthetic happiness is inferior to natural happiness. For example, a person who won the lotto and a person who lost their leg can be equally happy in life. The reason for this is that people adapt their thoughts in accordance with their environment. However, freedom of choice can be detrimental to synthetic happiness. Gilbert’s experiment on paintings showed that those people who had a choice on which painting to keep were less happy with their choice compared to those who did not.

Ricard’s view involves the habits of happiness. Ricard argues that there is state of mind that is conducive (generosity, consciousness) or adverse (grasping, hating, aversion, clinging) to well being. Since the state of minds is fleeting, there are natural antidotes to mental states and emotions that obstructive to our well being. People have to look for inward causes instead of fixating it to outward causes. Ricard’s view on happiness is similar to the Buddhist notion that we can train our minds to be happy. By recognizing afflictive emotions and mental states, people can influence themselves not to cling to material possessions

Ricard and Gilbert’s view are similar in that they both believe that happiness can be cultivated. However, the way in which happiness cultivation is different according to them. Gilbert believes that happiness stems from external stimuli and the environment that the way to be happy is adapting to your environment and situation. Ricard believes that happiness can stem internally by training the mind how to be happy