Happiness for people is a state that makes them feel harmony with themselves and the environment as many essays claim. Different sources of happiness for each person form the concept that can describe what means to be happy.

Dictionaries give us incomplete definitions of happiness. The majority of the dictionaries define happiness as a feeling or state of being happy. However, in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, for example, happiness is defined as a state of well-being and contentment, a pleasurable or satisfying experience (“Happiness”). If we address to the Oxford dictionary’s definition of happy, it also states the feeling of pleasure and contentment, adding being fortunate and convenient (“Happy”). However, this essay is dealing with the term of happiness as a feeling of contentment with oneself, or, if to be exact, discussion of what makes people feel happy.

No dictionary describes the range of feelings and thoughts experienced by a person in the state of happiness. Numerous studies have been made to explain the neuropsychological nature of happiness, the production of dopamine in the brain, its dependencies, and the state of euphoria because of great endorphins boom. In the film Happy, the research shows that the factor of happiness is mostly inherited genetically, and despite the depression and sadness, people are naturally optimistic. People usually act reasonably in difficult situations. Although, they think that they are devastated in case of something bad happens to them, but usually recover faster than they could expect. The reason is in the inner happiness people accumulate. It is very difficult for people to submit to the force of circumstance with inheriting optimism from the previous generations. The surroundings, in fact, cannot change the course of events and people’s thoughts, while minor misfortunes do not distort the general image of personal happiness.

The question is what really makes people happy, and why the sources of happiness differ so drastically. Two different minds do not think alike, and the film Happy confirms this fact, showing different aspects and sources of happiness. To be more specific, the division into extrinsic and intrinsic happiness is the first sign of controversy among people deciding and thinking of what happiness means to them.

For someone, happiness is a successful career, image, and money. The studies have shown that people aimed at extrinsic goals are usually more depressed, than the others aimed at intrinsic goals, which are personal growth, communicating and helping others. However, seeking for fortune and reward makes people believe they will be able to buy happiness. Someone can frown at the thought of money being the main source of making people happy. It is not worth to forget about the intellectual wealth and values, but we live in a material world today where success, interesting and eventful life come out of money. Thus, it is silly to reject that people can buy the majority of things, which are associated with success, while success can lead to personal happiness. However, people forget that the more they get, the more they want. It is a well-known fact that people can adapt with the life they have if their basic needs are satisfied. If one has a home to live in, food to eat, and some money to cover his/her needs, routine is the only thing that can make a person feel unhappy. Although, there are many ways to entertain oneself without big money, and they are not a vital part of happiness. Therefore, people should appreciate what they have.

Many people interviewed in the Happy repeat that happiness is to have a choice to do what one wants and can do in one’s life. Life grants people with this choice from the very beginning. Opportunity is an attendant circumstance for the choice, which people can attain during their lives.

For some people religion, respect, and traditions are the things making them happy. Strong belief that the world must correspond to and be in harmony with the principles founded by the ancestors becomes the major goal of a person’s life. This faith makes him or her happy only if the rules are followed and traditions are observed. This concept of happiness has closely connection with the understanding happiness as a way to fulfill what people believe they came to this world for, i.e. their predestination.

Sport or music also can be sources of happiness and ways to distract oneself from the daily problems. Another intrinsic concept and, to my opinion, one of the most important and genuine ones, is understanding happiness as a way to love and take care of the other people and make them happy. In this way, a person feels pleasure of such deeds. An ultimate happiness can be found in full devotion to the happiness of other person or people. People are happy in communicating with close people firstly, and then with the community they live in. In this aspect, happy person is empathetic, shows compassion, and helps others.

For parents and grandparents happiness is in their children and everything connected to them. The aim of parents is to make their children happy, help them to find their way in this life. For people in love happiness is to make each other happy and build a family on these grounds.

People always want to live in harmony with themselves and the environment around them. Although, they want to have more than they have, whereas being happy with what one has for the current moment is a real art. In thanking life for giving a chance to live and appreciate this world, people can feel and understand happiness fully. When life has a meaning, doing meaningful things saturates life with happiness.