2023-06-19 11:00:21
We always long for it, but sometimes when we have it, we don’t appreciate it. To remind us of her value, June 20 is celebrated ‘Yellow Day’ or happiest day of the year.
‘Yellow Day’ means the happiest day of the year because, between June 20 and 21, the most fortunate circumstances of the year begin to occur in the northern hemisphere, such as the rise in temperatures that allows countries that are entering summer to lighten their clothes, socialize with friends, go out into the street or to the countryside, since the days are longer.
Summer begins, which, in the southern hemisphere, is Produces between December 20 and 21. But does that happiness last long or is it an ephemeral illusion?
The Danish Jonas Holst Soerensen, professor of Philosophy at the Institute of Humanism and Society at the San Jorge University, in Zaragoza (northeast Spain), explains to EFE what is meant by happiness, how to prepare ourselves to fully receive it, although, due to its ephemeral character, do not delude ourselves with maintaining it and seek instead the well-being, more lasting and satisfying.
“A SUPREME POSITIVE STATE IN CONTACT WITH LIFE”.
Happiness “can be defined broadly as a state in which one enjoys health and joy. It would be the peak to which human beings could aspire, but it must be added that it is a temporary state, practically impossible to sustain over time. However, I believe that most people have experienced it, although it depends on the subjective state of each one.but it could be specified as a supremely positive state in which one is in contact with life, and that could be the notion of happiness”.
“There are those who live happiness with joy or others who identify it with the sensations that enjoyment gives them through food, drinks, company, etc., so I think there is a margin for the person to define it a bit depending on how you perceive it,” says Holst. (Free Press Photo: Kai Försterling)
It is difficult to know exactly how a happy person feels, but there is a kind of band within which people who talk about happiness move, although depending on each person, they will experience it in one way or another. “There are those who live it with joy or others who identify it with the sensations that enjoyment gives them through food, drinks, company, etc., so I think there is a margin for the person to define it a little according to your way of perceiving it”, indica Holst.
The word happiness is not a word of Greek origin, but Latin, and its meaning has changed over time. The Greek philosopher Aristotle, says Holst, speaks of the concept of harmony that translates as happiness, but “it is not entirely the same, because he believes that what we can and should aspire to is well-being, to be well, but to be happy.” It is an unreal goal because it is not permanent or sustainable over time. It is better to bet on Aristotelian well-being than on happiness”.
WELL-BEING, MORE SUSTAINABLE THAN HAPPINESS
For Holst, well-being has more to do with emotional conditions and factors that can be built, while happiness is a kind of joy that is far above what we usually feel in our daily lives, which is where we are, so “it is better for our well-being to find that little happiness in the moments where we really enjoy life to the full. That way of looking at it is more realistic.”
Jonas Holst points out that we should focus our mind to know what we want to do or simply be focused to be present, enjoy and perceive what one is doing. But, as we live in an increasingly fast-paced society where we are required to work and consume more, we have to look for formulas through meditation or calm breathing to bring attention to ourselves and have a break in a society that is too hectic that it does not lead us to well-being.
It is difficult to know exactly how a happy person feels, but there is a kind of band within which people who talk about happiness move, although depending on each person, they will experience it in one way or another. (Free Press Photo: How Hwee Young)
“We actually have more access to knowledge today than in the past, when people had to live harder lives, but the problem is that today things have been made too easy for us and we are a little lacking in that effort. Some time ago, this knowledge was more internalized and the problem we have today is the dispersion and immediacy that everything has to come at the moment and, thus, we lose contact with ourselves, with the world and with the nature that surrounds us. they allow us to anchor our life in something concrete”, emphasizes the philosophy professor.
Sometimes the bad moments are very dramatic and critical, so much so that they prevent us from enjoying life, but if you get over it in a long process, of which the human being is usually capable, comes out reinforced. There are also small difficulties that allow us, little by little, to overcome ourselves, but Holst maintains that “the challenge we have today, more than the difficulty, is perhaps the ease with which they want to sell us everything. We do not want a very hard and difficult life, but we must be careful not to go to the other extreme of everything being so easy and light.
BETWEEN GOOD OR BAD LUCK
For the teacher, there are unhappy people due to a state of tension or anguish, which can be overcome through some techniques. But there is another unhappiness that is a state caused by the succession of great important losses in your life and on a recurring basis. “In that case, we are talking about a series of events that we could call ‘bad luck’.”
“On the contrary -adds the philosophy professor-, happiness is closely linked to luck or fortune. We cannot decide to be happy when we want because it depends on certain factors that intervene from the outside and it is more about positioning yourself or preparing yourself emotionally, in such a way that you become receptive to those positive external factors, for example, when someone offers us something positive, like love, we must not turn our backs on it”.
Jonas Holst concludes that it is “very symptomatic” in our society that we want to have a Day of Happiness, but we can understand it with the intention behind wanting to celebrate it to be aware of its value. But, “in the end, I believe that more than one day we should try it on a day-to-day basis, although that would be utopian because that is a wrong approach and we would fail, therefore, we should focus more on well-being, on being well. That’s enough”.
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