The Pursuit of Happiness
Happier tells us that happiness can be our habit. All it needs is practice.
In our daily life, we live like tasting four kinds of hamburgers: the Disappointed Hamburger, the Strenuous Hamburger, the Bliss Hamburger and the Happy/Ideal Hamburger.
The Disappointed Hamburger lifestyle is living without seeing hope and joy in everything. People of this kind of lifestyle indulge themselves in the past happiness. They live passively. The author claims that everyone has gone through all four kinds of experience. So, I tried to find some memories related to the Disappointed Hamburger lifestyle. I do not know if it is qualified. I had experienced a time of very low spirit and much little confidence. That was the third year in senior high school. I thought of myself stupid and inferior. Everyone seemed to laugh at my low marks and defeat my confidence. I was unhappy and I thought even I tried, nothing went well. I even gave up trying. That was my hard time---Disappointed Hamburger lifestyle period. That kind of feeling is miserable, especially at the crucial studying time. I would never want that kind of feeling any more. I saw no happiness.
The Strenuous Hamburger lifestyle is living with the belief “No pains, no gains.” This kind of lifestyle prevails among most of students and employees. They work hard to achieve a future goal, give up present joy for the sake of future happiness. I also experienced this kind of feeling, especially in my school time. I also felt and did this way in my freshman year in college. It was also depressing and boring. I felt little happiness.
The Bliss Hamburger lifestyle is indulging yourself in present pleasure, not caring about future goal or past sadness. You find yourself happy. Chances are that what you enjoy doing now may help you do better in the short or long term. I also experienced this kind of living. I bought milk, chocolate and so on to feed me often. I felt happy eating but felt compelled to keep buying. This kind of feeling can not be called as real happiness. Sometimes I felt guilty. You may be doing the things that brings joy at first but harms in the future, such as playing computer games.
The Happy Hamburger lifestyle is living both meaningfully and happily. You do the things that enable you to enjoy the present time and do good to your future goal. It is not equal to the Bliss Hamburger lifestyle in which you indulge yourself in meaningless pleasure. The Happy Hamburger lifestyle is indulging yourself in meaningful pleasure that works both at the moment and in the future. Reading fascinating novels and watching The Vampire Diaries or Big Bang satisfies me at that moment, and also benefits my enhancement.
The Happy Hamburger lifestyle is the only one lifestyle that lets you see life happiness.
Happiness can be a habit, liking brushing teeth or washing hands. All you have to do is calm down and reflect on the happy moments. Feel the happiness flow through you whole body for over five minutes. Keep practicing for over a week, then happiness can become a habit. Every time you recall on the feeling of happiness, you will feel happiness in every part of your body.
The book encourages us to write down five things that we should be grateful for every day. These things can be drinking some drinks, reading books, having a shower, having some fruits or speaking English with a child. Keep recording for over a week. This helps you see daily happiness.
The book also encourages us to write down our everyday activities in a table:
ITEM MEANING HAPPINESS TIME
7:00-8:00, sports 4 3 1 hour, ++
8:00-9:00, computer games -1 1 1 hour, --
9:00-10:00, reading 3 4 1 hour, +
… … … …
Meaning and happiness rank from -5 to 5, and the symbol “+” means “it should be paid more time.” Keep recording for over a week, and it will help you adjust your daily activities to work more effectively.
I have not kept practicing the reflecting on happiness, and have not developed the habit of happiness. After reading the book, I just found a little more happiness, because I am lazy. I am making changes now.
Nowadays, Wang Yang claims to build a happier Guangdong, and Li Yuanyuan follows and claims to build a happier campus. It is not just an oral following mission and it is hard to achieve. The infrequent crowded campus shuttle is already a difficult problem.
Happiness can be achieved by helping others, sharing and, at the same time, by helping yourself. Happiness exists at this moment and under our eyelids, we should seize it. We should expel the beliefs that money outweighs other things and money brings happiness. Happiness Heart Strengthener is: doing things beneficial to you and people, and reflecting more on the feeling of happiness.
The writer said that people think that they are born sinned and they are not qualified to have happiness. I do not even have such a thought because I am Chinese. And the writer claims that the advancement of science beat the religion down and thus takes away some source of happiness. This may be true in the western world but I do not feel it in China.

Your happiness lies in other people’s eyes. In this summer holiday, I home schooled a student in the campus and earned some money. A friend of mine was taking internship in Shenzhen, and went back to the dorm one weekend. We chatted and he said that I was enjoying happiness in the dorm. He wanted to stay at the dorm for a whole summer holiday. I responded that he was also enjoying happiness because he was having a busy and fulfilling life but I was very bored at the dorm. We both thought that the other was happier. Should we think in another way that we both actually are enjoying happiness? I was having a leisured life that busy people envy of and busy people are having fulfilling life that leisured people envy of. Our happiness lies in other people’s eyes. Do not complain about your unlucky and miserable life but try to think in another way, then you will find your own happiness that outweighs others’.
To me, happiness is acting myself, doing what I like to do and what benefits both my present pleasure and future pleasure. Do not do things that betray my willingness. Let everything be.
08英语3班 李嘉炜