Words
There are at least 100 words in the english language that mean or have a similar meaning to Happy or Happiness a selection of common words you many already know include Blessed, Elated, Content and Joyed however some more unfamiliar words include Merriment, Gratified and Exuberance.
Eudaimonia is the greek often translated into english to mean happy or happiness, Felix Culpa is the word meaning happy, happiness or blessed
Facts
The term 'Happiness' is said to be derived from the feeling of one's belly being tickled by seaweed
Genes and upbringing influence about 50% of the variation in our personal happiness
Happy people tend to have greater potential to become rich
Women tend to experience their all-time lowest life satisfaction at age 37 and Men typically experience their all-time lowest life satisfaction at age 42
In nations with high levels of income equality, such as the Scandinavian countries, happiness tends to be higher than in nations with unequal wealth distribution, such as the USA
Happier people are more creative
Estimates suggest that the increase in salary needed to compensate in happiness for not being in a close relationship was £50,000
Economic stability has a large effect on the happiness of society, while long-term economic growth has little. Unemployment reduces happiness by as much as bereavement
Statistics
The statistics for me, proved the most interesting part of this research brief, some the statistics I found were obvious yet other’s really shocked me. It is key to point out that the top three happiest countries in the world are Iceland with 94% and Denmark and sweden with 91%, the UK is 9th on this list with 87% of the population stating they are happy
If people close to you become happy this affects your happiness by 15.3% and then by 2 more degrees of separation
The city of london is the happiest place in Britain with a rating of 92.4%
Clergy is the happiest type of job you can do with an average of 67.2% people saying they were happy, closely followed by Firefighters with 57.2%
People ages 20-24 are sad for an average of 3.4 days a month whereas 65-74 year olds are only sad for an average of 2.3 days a month
Images
From the images I have selected I think it is clear and obvious that the ‘smile’ is the signifier for happiness, but you all knew that. What’s more interesting about these collection of photo’s how people smile the photo’s which feature people from the western world often have a much more conversed and casual smile whereas the people from the eastern world have large smiles that empower there face. I think this is reflective of how people in the western world are much more concerned with life their life and material possessions than actually living their life which is contrasted with how people live and feel in the eastern world.
Quotes
As you can imagine there are a plethora of quotes about happiness and many of the ones I have found offer moral advice on how to live your life and become happy, however from the research I have conducted our genes do play a role in how happy we are, so quotes won’t be the only thing that help us by, However here’s a selection of some of the quotes I found most interesting
If you want to be happy, be - Leo Tolstoy, this quotes confirms the research that happiness is a choice we make and it is something we can impact upon, although only partially
The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. ~Mark Twain, again research I have conducted suggest that when you share happiness with others, that happiness is returned to you, research has shown ‘The most powerful way to increase your short-term feelings of happiness is to perform random acts of kindness to others’
*above is the presentation in the format in which it would be delivered verbally
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