Watson 1

Hayley Watson
Dr. Jizi
UWRT 1102
27 January 2016
Double Entry Journal
Citation: Pursuing Happiness by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Article How Happy
Are You and Why? Pages 179-196.
Source: Quote (Page# or Paragraph #)

Responses

But this happy person you know seems able

to brush off the frustrations, the stresses, the
hardships, and the disappointments, to pick
herself up each time and to put on a positive
face. Page 179 Paragraph 2

I do not understand how some people can

always seem to be happy no matter their
situation. Sometimes I get overwhelmed and
down even though my life is way better than
most peoples. I get jealous of people that can
always stay positive and keep going. It also
makes me feel bad because I complain and
feel down but some people that have it was
more rough than me are so positive and
happy.

How can we be more like them? Can we

ever be as happy as they are? page 179
paragraph 3

I ask myself these questions all the time. I am

constantly looking at other people asking
myself why I cannot be like them, they seem
happy and carefree. I am so analytical and
have to have plans I just wish I could go with
the flow and be happy.

She was fired unexpectedly, her hopes

and finances in ruins. She had to file for
bankruptcy and go on welfare for a time.
Right now she is back in college full-time,
working toward a degree in nursing. Page
180 Paragraph 3

After everything she has been through an

abusive mother, marrying young, having a
child, getting divorced, and now getting fired.
But she never complain nor did she give up.
She kept going it would have been easy to
give up after so many careers and tries at
trying to make a better life but she didnt

He picked himself up after his divorce,

moved to another city, found work as a
safety engineer, and eventually remarried.
He is now fort-three, remarried for three
years, and stepfather to three boys. Page

Randy faced so many hard times when he was

little with suicide of father and best friend to
moving to another state because of his
mothers boyfriend but he didnt give up on
happiness in fact he left home to find it he

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181 Paragraph 2

went through a lot but finally got there. I wish

I had that amount of optimism it took for him
to get through everything he did.

For example, although some of his

coworkers find their jobs frustrating and
stressful, he says that his allows him to
think outside the box. Moreover while a
friend struggles with stepchildren Randy is
overjoyed with the opportunity to be a
dad. Page 181 Paragraph 2

He always looks at the positive of everything.

I wish I could be this positive. I tend to look at
the bad things. I am trying to teach myself to
look at the positives of hard situations but I
find this very difficult but it seems like Randy
finds it pretty easy.

Growing up, Shannon had an uneventful

childhood, a stable and modest home, and
several close friends. Her family did a lot of
traveling over the all over the United
States. Pages 181-182 Paragraph 4

I can relate to this quite a bit. I live in a very

traditional home. I have been blessed in
receiving opportunities to travel with my
family to different places in the united states
as well as being able to travel outside of the
country.

But despite the lack of tragedy or trauma in

her life, Shannon seems to turns everything
into a crisis. Page 182 Paragraph 1

Even though I hate to admit this I tend to do

the same thing. I dont turn everything into a
crisis but I do have a hard time living in the
moment and enjoying the happy things
especially if I have stressful events in the near
future such as big tests or work. Even though
most of the time my life is pretty great. I cant
take it in I seem to take it for granted and
focus on the negative things and how I am
going to get through them.

Sometimes she is even haunted by the

feeling that she should have chosen another
career. Overall, Shannon feels very alone
and believes her life to be unsteady and her
relationships unreliable. Page 182
Paragraph 3

I am also in fear that I should have chosen

another major. I love caring for people and I
believe that I would love this career it has
always been my dream but my fear is failure,
that I wont be good enough. The feeling of
instability could be cause by passed events in
her life. For me it was a passed relationship
that made me second guess relationships and
trust. It always made my life crazy because I
was always thrown on an emotional roller
coaster. Most of the time I was being
surprised by the most unexpected things. So
now I try to prepare for them so I feel like I
cant trust anyone or anything.

.She experiences life as very lonely when I understand this completely. Even though you
hes not around. Page 182 Paragraph 3
feel unstable and maybe a little distrust you

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still have that need to feel wanted and loved.

To be complimented. I think this is because of
the lack of self-confidence and self-love.
To paraphrase the late U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Potter Stewart, happiness is an
obscenity: We cant define it, but we know it
when we see it. Page 184 paragraph 1

I agree with this paraphrase completely. I

believe there is no true definition of
happiness. Everyone has their own perception
of what happiness is. This is probably the
reason why people find great difficulty in
answering the question, what is happiness?
We know where we find it or who makes us
happy but the true definition well we struggle
with that one.

We could get there yes, but only if the right

things would come to pass: if we marry our
future true loves, secure our dream jobs,
purchase elegant houses. Page 185
Paragraph 1

This is why I agree that Happiness must be

found is truly a myth. Money cant buy you
happiness came into my mind as I read this. I
have grown up with this saying and I feel like
it is very true. Many people with lots of
money are very unhappy while many people
with little money are very happy. Life is all
what you make it.

To understand 40 percent of our happiness

is determined by intentional activity is to
appreciate the promise of the great impact
that you can make on your own life through
intentional strategies that you can implement
to remake yourself as a happier person.
Page 185 Paragraph 1

I can believe this because it brings truth to the

saying life is what you make it. To be happy
you must do things that bring you happiness.
Thats why they say it is so important to love
your job so you never have to work a day. If
you love what you do and how you are with
happiness will follow.

Many of us, especially those of us who are

not very happy, believe that our unhappiness
is genetic and theres nothing we can do
about it. Page 186 Paragraph 1

My family says this all the time. I grew up

thinking that depression and genuine
unhappiness was just passed down and I
would go through spurts of happiness and
unhappiness but I guess many people feel this
way. I knew you could change thought
process but I never realized that you can
change your feelings.

that those of us who wish we were a

great happier should be a little less hard on
ourselves. Page 187 Paragraph 1

I tend to wish that I was happier a lot. This

statement makes a lot of sense to me because I
am extremely hard on myself in every aspect.
How I look, the grades I get, every aspect of
my life I am so hard on. It only makes sense
that it would impact my happiness.

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Whether or not your fraternal twin (or any

other sibling) is happy or unhappy implies
nothing about how happy or unhappy you
might be. This fact- that identical twins share
similar happiness levels- suggests that
happiness is largely genetically determined
Page 186 Paragraph 4

This makes perfect sense. No matter my range

of happiness or unhappiness my sisters range
may be totally different because we are not
identical twins. I guess it is true what people
say about identical twins how they can feel
how the other one feel, for example if
something is wrong or they are stressed.

The happier one identical twins was, the

happier the other was- no matter whether
they grew up under the same roof or on
different coasts. Interestingly, however,
regardless of whether there were raised
together or apart, the happiness levels of
fraternal twins were completely
uncorrelated. Page 189 Paragraph 2

I find it very interesting that they found no

matter where they grew up together or apart
the findings were the same as the initial study.

The essential point is that even if major life

changes, like a new relationship or a car
accident, might push our happiness level up
or down, we tend to revert to this genetically
determined set point. Page 190 Paragraph 2

This made me think of what my mother

always said when I got down and upset about
something. She always says this too shall
pass. I do try to keep that in mind when I go
through some tough times.

So, our genes play an important role in

depression, as they do in happiness, but they
need to be expressed-or turned on or off.
Page 192 Paragraph 3

To me this means that no matter what your

genes predispose you to you can avoid
depression by turning off that gene. Things
that may cause depression is extreme stress so
avoiding stress and having support helps you
no matter what genes you may have.

The right prefrontal region, by contrast, is

activated during unpleasant states and
negative emotions. Page 193 Paragraph 2

I have always herd some people use one side

of their brain more than the other. This study
makes me wonder if the people who are right
brained are more depressed then the people
who are left sided which tend to be happier.

The reason its preliminary is that its

somewhat sensitive to whats going on
around you. Page 194 Paragraph 1

This makes me feel better about my score. I

am a little down this week which is obviously
reflected in my score of a 4 but I am not
always like this so it is comforting to here that
for a more accurate gage of happiness that you
take multiple times over a period of time.