Eudaimonia and True Happiness
I decided to do my final reports on
something that I have been experiencing these past months, happiness. I know
that there is talk about true happiness and what it means to them. Truly, no
one can tell anybody how to truly define their version of happiness. According to
Aristotle, his true definition of happiness relied on eudaimonia and I agree…to
a certain degree. When one receives an A on exam, she or she did flourish
because now he or she knows more than what they did prior to the lesson. When one
starts a new diet and starts noticing changes, he or she has flourished because
now they know what to do to keep their body up.
My definition of happiness is when you get
that really light and airy feeling that makes you smile for no reason. It doesn’t
matter how you got to that feeling, but you just feel real jolly and feel as if
you can accomplish anything. For me I’m my happiest when I’ve accomplished
something because I know I’ve grown from something and I can start applying it
to real life situations. One of the biggest accomplishments for me was starting
my college journey because I was no longer the girl in high school, I was ready
to take on bigger challenges ahead of me. To apply that to Aristotle’s
eudaimonia, I looked back at my high school days and realized that I wasn’t the
same kid. I study now, I’m generally a better person and make better
decisions-to me I’ve grown and when about it from the point that truly does
make me happy. Nobody wants to stay in the spot and not grow. Once you get
something to stop growing, your growth stunts then that means that you’ll lose
happiness altogether.
Not everyone has the same definition of
happiness as I stated before but I have this gut feeling that everyone has the
same feeling. The feeling that you get when you take the last bite out of your
chili cheese tater tots, or when you take that stroll outside on the breezy but
70 degree day. We all get that feeling that allows to us to keep going to and
keep taking steps to continue on being on Earth. Happiness is truly what we
make it. If feeling personal growth doesn’t make you happy then what does? Maybe
it’s the art painting that took you a week to finish. Or maybe it’s trying new
recipes and it be a success. Everyone has a secret happiness to them that
provides a personal eudaimonia. Find something that makes you happy so you can
flourish and challenge yourself to do something bigger than that.
(Please edit the spelling error in your title...)
ReplyDeleteFrom the old Greek perspective, an A on an exam or the tater tot feeling (you're right, we don't all have the same feeling about that) are too fleeting to be called flourishing. Happiness is not a feeling at all, for them, it's the product of a virtuous lifetime. But whatever you call it, and wherever you find it (no tater tots for me, thanks), the feeling you describe is a big part of what makes life FEEL like it's worth living. The Greeks may have underestimated it.