My name is Donna and I’m studying for an MA in Media Practice for Development and Social Change at the University of Sussex.<\/p>\n
Between Monday the 4th and Friday the 8th of November, I will be blogging about the Mass Observation Archive events taking place in Brighton for the ESRC Festival of Social Science. The events will consist of talks, workshops and a panel discussion based on the theme of happiness.<\/p>\n
For starters, here are my own thoughts on what happiness is:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe purpose of our lives is to be happy\u201d \u2013 Dalai Lama<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Happiness is an emotional state. It comes and goes. No one can be happy all the time, can they? But the definition of \u2018happiness\u2019 differs depending on who you are.<\/p>\n What happiness means to me\u2026<\/p>\n I am at my happiest when I\u2019m outdoors, the sun is shining, the air is fresh, and I\u2019m surrounded by beautiful nature as well as the people I love. But I am also content when I\u2019m snuggled up in bed on a cold day watching a film or reading a book. Obviously eating delicious food and having a much-needed sleep contribute to my happiness. Sometimes I even feel happy for no apparent reason. Happiness can be found in different places, with different people, from different things. There are different levels of happiness, but they all feel good.<\/p>\n What I remember most about my early teenage years is that I wasn\u2019t happy. I didn\u2019t understand what the purpose of life was and I certainly wasn\u2019t enjoying it. I had a really negative attitude on top of all the problems a teenager faces, and then some. I thought, \u201cit\u2019s the way I am; I can\u2019t change it\u201d.<\/p>\n But when I realised I could take an active role in making a change, or started to accept things for how they were (if they couldn\u2019t be changed) \u2013 for how I was \u2013 I began to find happiness more often. I found happiness to the extent where I was happy most of the time and only had occasional down-days as opposed to the other way around. Everyone has bad days. Some more than others. But 50 Cent\u2019s lyrics from Many Men<\/em> really strike a chord with me:<\/p>\n \u201cSunny days wouldn\u2019t be special, if it wasn\u2019t for rain. Joy wouldn\u2019t feel so good, if it wasn\u2019t for pain\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I realised that happiness won\u2019t just come to me. I had to take control of it. I began to appreciate people more, participate in activities I enjoyed, and most importantly change my negative attitude into a positive one. So maybe happiness is an attitude rather than a state. You are more likely to be happy if you take things on the chin, look on the bright side and remind yourself of all the good things in life. Happiness is not materialistic though:<\/p>\n \u201cThe poor man has it all but not content with anything, while the rich man\u2019s hands are empty but he\u2019s sitting like a king\u201d \u2013 Matisyahu<\/strong><\/p>\n Instead of searching for the purpose of life, we should enjoy it. That might even be its purpose!<\/p>\n Happiness is love, appreciation, generosity, proactivity and acceptance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My name is Donna and I’m studying for an MA in Media Practice for Development and Social Change at the University of Sussex. Between Monday the 4th and Friday the 8th of November, I will be blogging about the Mass Observation Archive events taking place in Brighton for the ESRC Festival of Social Science. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[117],"tags":[255,256,4215],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}