Transcriber: Hiba Alraisi Reviewer: Ilayda Gokgoz
Today, I’m going to talk about what happiness means to me and others.
Happiness is, in my opinion,
a feeling of warmth, joy, and pride.
You feel when you’ve done something well
or made others feel the same feeling.
Happiness can make you feel good about yourself.
Personally, I feel happy when I'm with people that I enjoy being with
or doing something I love.
For example: hockey, cricket, snowboarding, karate, singing, athletics
The list just goes on and on.
A quote from Lambert et L. in 2012 says:
sharing positive experiences is going to increase positive effect,
happiness and life satisfaction.
Above and beyond what experience alone can give.
I believe that this quote is true.
Because what’s the point in having happiness
if you’re only going to use it for your own good?
If you share this happiness with others
that means, as well as being happy yourself,
you have also made others happy
and somehow this can make you feel overjoyed.
For example, when I was snowboarding with my brother and my dad
in France last year, we decided to go down a black slope,
which is the hardest slope there is.
My dad had been down a few before,
but it was mine and my brother’s first time
and we were super nervous.
Somehow we made it down alive
and went home ecstatic and very excited to tell my mum.
He was impressed.
If I had done it on my own, I would have felt the same feeling,
but just on my own
And what’s the point in that?
If you can share an exciting and happy moment with friends or family,
why choose to do it alone?
It doesn’t make sense.
I believe that there are three crucial aspects of happiness,
and we need all three to be a content person.
The first of this is like Olla says,
Somebody to share your happiness with.
An experiment took place with 256 participants
assessing if having social interactions increases happiness.
What do you think the outcome was?
The result of this was that the people had more social interactions,
were happier on average than those who interacted less.
For example, in the study,
somebody who spoke to us for 40 minutes was happier during the hour
than someone probably spoke for 10 minutes during that 60 minute period.
This brings me onto the second essential of happiness,
Something to do.
Whenever I’m outside playing cricket
and trying my hardest to avoid being chosen to bowl by Mr. Pettit
or in this photo shooting an apple
or trying to at least, I feel happy. Why?
Well, it’s often said that happiness comes from within.
Now I can speak all this cheesy and corny stuff to support that,
but this quote is scientifically true.
When your happy dopamine, a chemical, is released within your body,
the more happy you are, the more dopamine is released.
So therefore, happiness actually does come from within.
I do have another point, but fair warning.
It does fit into that cheesy category I was talking about.
My point is that happiness isn’t easy to get,
you to find that place inside of you
to truly feel happy, doing whatever makes you feel comfortable.
Obviously, it doesn't have to be sport related,
although it has been proven that physical activity increases our level of happiness
even though I do not understand how doing 800 meter race
can bring anyone happiness.
It can be something related to art or music, maybe
Let me share my final aspect of happiness with you.
Something to hope for.
If you can dream it, you can do it.
If you want something, then go get it. It's never too late.
If you have an ambition, whether it's a small goal,
like climbing up the stairs to the top floor of the steam building
in under 2 minutes without getting tired,
or you aspire to be a rocket scientist.
Don’t forget it.
I believe that there isn’t just one way to be happy.
It’s different for everyone, no matter who they are.
While some people might enjoy and really be, invest in something,
others might not.
It’s that simple.
Happiness shouldn’t be this complex formula
that should be accurate and precise.
It should be natural and easy, different and fun,
quiet, loud, big, small.
Whatever it is, it should be what’s best for you.
So there you have it.
I hope you’ve learned something from this talk
or at least enjoyed it.
Before we go, can you just do one thing for me?
Be happy.
Not like the person sitting next to you or your friend or your mom.
Be happy just like you
Thanks for listening.