Hi guys! I’m Jasmine Paduraru from Charles best secondary school in Canada. My inquiry question this semester is: What does it take to be happy?
First research round – what is happiness? (scientifically speaking)
This is the first thing I’m going to look into because it’s important to understand what happiness is before I start researching anything else. When most people think of happiness, they think of an emotion they feel from time to time. In this research round, I’ll research why and how we feel hapiness. To be more specific, I’m going to talk about what in our brains make us happy, and how happiness works.
Links that might be helpful:
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/happiness/definition#what-is-happiness
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-economy-happiness/202002/what-is-happiness
https://www.cnet.com/news/how-to-be-happy-according-to-science/
Second research round – how is our happiness affected by our environments/lifestyles?
A big part of the reason I chose this question is because I wanted to look into how much our lifestyles affect our happiness. Does happiness depend on your lifestyle or mindset? In this research round, I’m going to answer that question.
Links that might be helpful:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/05/can-money-buy-happiness-debate-study-on-success.html
https://www.theworldcounts.com/happiness/the-effect-of-income-on-happiness
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121113122048.htm
Third research round – what do other people think? what is my opinion?
While looking for sources, I noticed many people already have their own ideas about what it takes to be happy. These ideas vary a lot with culture, age, and overall personal values. In this round of research, I am going to look different ideas of how to achieve overall happiness in your life, and compare them to what I’ve learnt in my past research rounds. Using all of this information, I’m going formulate my own idea in order to answer my inquiry question.
Links that might be helpful:
https://www.essayblender.com/perspective-of-happiness-in-different-cultur
https://phys.org/news/2014-03-cultures-differ-happiness-beliefs.html
https://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/aristotles-11-guidelines-for-living-a-good-life
It was a little difficult to find sources for this round, so I’d really appreciate it if you could comment if you have any links to helpful articles 🙂
I think and hope that this project will impact the people who read my posts and who I share my findings with. As I mentioned in my first post, many of us are now at the age where we have to start figuring out what we want in our lives. I believe that it is important to truly understand what will bring you happiness in your life, so that you can pick the path that you think will get you there. Many people go into a career or even seek out an education because they think it’ll make them happy, even though they couldn’t be more wrong. Choosing the wrong path in university can waste your time, and can also be pretty expensive. I’m hoping to save myself and others that trouble 🙂
Thank you for reading my inquiry plan, and I look forward to posting my research rounds!
-Jasmine Paduraru
Hi Jasmine!
I find your question really interesting. The definition of happiness varies from person to person but I agree that there are things out there that are known to make the average person happy. Are you basing your question on what makes you happy? If so I think it could be cool if you could give some insight into your own life and what you’ve noticed about yourself (where your happiness comes from). That could work in your third round of research. To leave you with a question to think about, do you think the idea of happiness is glamorized at all? I think that happy endings in movies and textbook definitions make happiness seem out of reach when it is actually fairly achievable.
here are some helpful resources:
https://www.tropicalmba.com/lifestyle-design-bloggers-acting-douchey/
The first link is to a site that talks about bloggers who glamourize their lives. I think that could be an interesting approach.
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/is_happiness_actually_important
https://www.joyfulsource.com/the-happiness-conundrum-what-does-it-really-take-to-be-happy/
Good luck!
-Shieva Mokhtarnameh
Wow thank you Shieva, that’s a really interesting approach that I hadn’t thought of. I will definitely look into that!
Hi Jasmine,
Interesting question. I think this ted talk will help you formulate your answer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZIGekgoaz4&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
I was also thinking that maybe you could also see what causes people to be unhappy.
I definitely agree with what Shieva said about giving insight on your own life. Building on to that, maybe even ask others what makes them happy.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/click-here-happiness/202009/what-is-happiness-anyway
Good luck on your research, looking forward to hearing more!
Hi! Thank you so much for the sources. I liked how you mentioned asking other people what makes them happy, because I think that would be an interesting way to compare the real world with my research. I was thinking of maybe doing an online survey.. that might work well. Anyways, thank you for your comment!
Hi Jasmine,
I really enjoy reading your topic.
I think happiness is an important element to have in our lives. As humans, we all have different hobbies and stuff that we like to do to be happy. Personally, I’m happy when I do sports or achieve something new. Other than being happy, I agree with nikkishahram that you should also look into how to avoid and deal with unhappiness.
I can’t wait to see your next blog!