week five post two

Looking at happiness as a whole, there are some crucial, key components to it. Overall, it is seen as a range of positive emotions,  including joy, pride, contentment, and gratitude; happiness extends life, brings people into happier relationships, and gives one a greater well being. While pursuing it, people need to keep in mind that while pursuing happiness, they cannot get obsessed with the idea of it; one needs to let happiness enter their life. Trying to hard to achieve happiness can actually lead to unhappiness. A huge component of happiness is social connection. The vagus nerve, which helps one calm down and feel content when activated,  is strongly related to feelings of connection or care for others. Humans, biologically, are endowed with tools for helping making connections with others. Another big part of happiness is compassion and kindness. Although it can be hard to connect with and open up to people, showing care towards another person has health benefits such as less loneliness, a stronger immune system, and better overall health. There is also a "kindness-happiness loop" that shows that volunteerism enhances well-being and life expectancy. Kindness is contagious; it gathers its own momentum. The impact goes beyond so much more than just one person. Finally, the last big part of happiness is the ability to cooperate and reconcile with conflict. Cooperation is connected biologically to happiness because it looks for activation in systems that represent pleasure and reward. Cooperation is linked to trust, which can be achieved through trust. If one of these major components is neglected, happiness is much more difficult to achieve.

These main components relate to meaningfulness as well. Without cooperation, one's life would lack collaboration and variety. Other people's opinions are highly valuable and offer a different view or take on certain topics. Social connection can be seen through the types of relationships one holds the closest to their heart. Family relationships bring more meaning to life, while friends tend to only raise happiness levels for the most part. The relationship between kindness and a more meaningful life is fairly obvious. Kindness towards others contributes to the community and their well-being, meaning one is dedicating part their life to helping others, a quite meaningful cause.