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Jasmine Thomas

Professor Corri Ditch

English 113A

27 February 2018

Seeking Real Happiness: Letting Go of the Past

A lot of individuals in this world experience, and in addition manage certain Formatted: Left

circumstances, regardless of whether that issue is huge or little. The majority of people in this Formatted: Highlight

world go through, as well as deal with certain situations, whether that issue is big or small. As a

typical individual, certain emotions like frustration, selling out, etc produces pressure. As a Formatted: Highlight

normal human being, a lot of feelings like disappointment, betrayal, confusion, etc., eventually

leads to stress. At the point when a person like me begin to feel along these lines, you begin to Formatted: Highlight

lose your joy. When people like me start to feel this way, you start to lose your happiness. In His Formatted: Highlight

Holiness the Dali Lama and Howard Cutler's article excerpt, "The Sources of Happiness," from Formatted: Highlight

The Art of Happiness, as well as Matthieu Richard's book, "Happiness: A Guide to Developing Formatted: Highlight

Life's Most Important Skills" from The Alchemy of Suffering, they both share a common idea in

relation to help of helping people seek happiness again. The basic thought I found in both of Formatted: Highlight

these readings are the way to release a negative feeling for the last time. The common idea I Formatted: Highlight

found in both of these readings are how to let a negative feeling go once and for all. This is

essential on the grounds that there are many individuals that needs to discover their bliss again

however have a tendency to not know how to forgive and never look back. In this manner, the

creators are endeavoring to convey attention to this issue.This is important because there are a lot Formatted: Highlight

of people that wants to find their happiness again but tend to not know how to forgive and forget.
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Therefore, the authors are trying to bring awareness to this issue. I can relate to these common

ideas because there was a time in my life where I was blocking my happiness and replacing that

with a grudge because of how people used to treat me in High School.

In "The Sources of Happiness," from The Art of Happiness, by the Dali Lama and Howard

Cutler, there is was a psychiatrist interviewing the Dali Lama on how he personally achieved inner

peace, calmness, and happiness. He also explains how happiness is determined more by one's state

of mind than by external events. To elaborate some more, happiness can lead to how aware and

satisfied people can be in certain situations. For example, the Dali Lama says, "A disciplined mind

leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to unhappiness” (Lama, 25). .This statement

prompts the basic thought in light of the fact that with the goal for individuals to go the correct

way of looking for bliss, the mind must be taught, which intends to prepare the mind to be

unassuming and develop. " This quote leads to the common idea because in order for people to go

in the right direction of seeking happiness, the mind has to be disciplined, which means to train

the brain to be humble and mature. The reason why this matter is because an undisciplined mind

cannot take away feelings, but also a mentality.

In the book, "Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skills" from

The Alchemy of Suffering, by Matthieu Mattieu Richard, it explains how sometimes in life,

people can go through different kinds of sufferings such as visible visual suffering, hidden

suffering, and invisible suffering (that can be liberated). According to the book, visual

suffering is evident everywhere, hidden suffering is hiding your pain, and invisible suffering

isn't noticeable. For example, in the passage, Ricard Buddhism says, "Suffering will always

exist as a universal phenomenon but every individual has the potential for liberation from it”

(Richard, 37). This statement prompts the basic thought since suffering can cause a
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psychological ailment that can bring somebody down; all together for that misery disorder to

leave, discussing how a person is feeling (and letting go of that feeling) is a stage towards

looking for satisfaction once more.." This quote leads to the common idea because suffering

can cause a mental sickness that can bring a person down; in order for that suffering sickness

to go away, talking about how a person is feeling (and letting go of that feeling... *sighs of

relief*) is a step towards seeking happiness again.. Another quote statedI found was that, "We

are very much like birds that have lived too long in a cage to which we return even when we

get the chance to fly away. We have grown so accustomed to our faults that we can barely

imagine what life would be like without them. The prospect of change makes us dizzy” (Ricard,

41). This statement prompts the regular thought essentially on account of the way individuals

hold their issues in. The motivation behind why this issue is on the grounds that despite the

fact that individuals experience certain circumstances in their lives, the way you handle them

is the thing that improves that person. With a specific end goal, adjustment of forgiveness

assumes a tremendous part.." This quote leads to the common idea simply because of the way

people hold their issues in. To elaborate, how are you supposed to live a happy life if a person

is still upset about a temporary situation? The reason why this matter is because even though

people go through certain situations in their lives, the way you handle them is what makes

them a better person. In order to be happy, adaptation of forgiveness plays a huge roll.

Both of these stories that I have experienced from earlier expressed the common idea

of learning how to let go of situations that are short term in order to seek happiness.

Furthermore As I also said earlier, this common idea even applied to me in high school. In high

school, people used to talk about how shy and quiet I was. I honestly never understood why

this even happened to me considering the fact that I never used to bother anybody. I didn't even
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understand why my name was even relevant to people that I barley talked to. The reason why

I say this is because back in high school, I knew a lot of people, but I wasn't in the mix with

them because I wanted to focus more on school and not on them. I had a few amount of friends

that really could care less about how I used to act. If anything like I said earlier, I was very

quiet.

There was a time in my life where I let a lot of unnecessary, false negative energy get

to me.

In high school, people used to talk about how shy and quiet I was. I honestly never

understood why this even happened to me considering the fact that I never used to bother

anybody. I didn't even understand why my name was even relevant to people that I barley

talked to. The reason why I say this is because back in high school, I knew a lot of people, but

I wasn't in the mix with them because I wanted to focus more on school and not on them. I had

a few amount of friends that really could care less about how I used to act. If anything like I

said earlier, I was very quiet. c

To be very clear, I wasn't bullied. It just bothered me when people used to refer to me

as "the quiet girl." At that time, I didn't understand (and still don’t understand) why it was such

a crime for me to stay to myself and not socialize a lot. This issue made me very emotional

because I felt people didn't understand the real me. I eventually went into a depression. I barley

ate, slept, you name it. My happiness went out the window. But sooner or later, I realized that

I shouldn't let my depression get to me the way it did. In order for myself to seek happiness

again, I tried talking to my family about how I'm feeling instead of holding everything in, and

they used to give me advice on how to not let peoples' opinions define me. Even though I didn't
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an apology from each person that said this about me, I learned how to forgive and forget. It

took a lot of time for me to actually forgive and forget, but it happened.

I hope these ideas can apply to somebody that's going through this issue.

Works Cited

Parfitt, Matthew, and Dawn Skorczewski. Pursuing Happiness: a Bedford Spotlight Reader.

Bedford/St. Martin's, a Macmillan Education Imprint, 2016.

Lama, Dali, and Howard C. Cutler. The Art of Happiness. Hachette Australia, 2018.

Richard, Matthieu. The Alchemy of Suffering. Little Brown and Company, 2007.