Happiness Around the World: The Happy Documentary Analysis
Over many years, people have attempted to seek out what happiness really is and how it can be obtained. It could be described as a feeling, a goal, or a state of mind. The definition of happiness can vary depending on the individual, race; even the religion someone follows can influence what happiness is to them. In Roko Belic's documentary Happy, we see many different examples of happiness from people living in diverse parts of the world and what it means to them. Whether it’s a poor father from India transporting passengers on his bicycle making pennies on the dollar, or a successful business man on Wall Street living in New York with a six figure salary, happiness can come to anyone no matter how different their lifestyles are. I agree with Belic's arguments about not experiencing enough happiness could negatively affect our lives, that money doesn’t contribute to happiness and we can find it in the simple things, that having close friends and family contribute to our happiness, and that overcoming adversity can lead to finding happiness.
Before we can learn and understand what makes people happy, we must first define what gives us that warm and fuzzy feeling of euphoria. According to Gregory Berns, a professor of Psychiatry at Emory University depicts that our feeling of happiness comes from dopamine, a chemical released in the brain, which fire off electrical impulses called synapses. What causes one person to feel happy and release dopamine may require different circumstances for another person. We feel this sensation when we succeed in life, find love, start a family, find and express our religious belief, graduate from college, or even something subtle as scoring the game winning goal.
How important is happiness in our lives? What would happen if we had little to no happiness at all in our lives? In an international happiness research, the Japanese culture considers business and work to be more important than friends and family. As a result, the data showed Japan experiencing the least amount of happiness and is most stressful of all wealthy industrialized nations. After World War II, the Japanese workforce was mobilized to rebuild their country from the ground up, emphasizing on economic growth and material prosperity above all else. As a result, there is currently an ongoing phenomenon occurring that is literally killing people from too much work, which has become so common that the Japanese developed a word and emergency hotline for it- Karoshi. This low level of happiness in their lives is affecting them so much, that it’s killing them. Belic depicts that not incorporating happiness in our lives and ignoring friends and family can greatly influence our lives.
Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, tackles the age old argument if money could buy happiness or not. Gilbert states, “Anybody who says “money doesn’t buy happiness” should go talk to somebody living under a bridge. But anyone who says “money buys happiness” should go talk to Bill Gates.” Gilbert argues that neither are true and once people have their basic needs met to make us happier, more money won’t buy us happiness. He also mentions the theory that we are walking on the hedonic treadmill, which is whatever levels of wealth or material goods we have, we adapt to it and we’ll always want more. We think that getting more will make us even happier which in fact, doesn’t. This adaptation is the enemy of happiness.
In Belics documentary, interviewers went around and asked people what it would take for them to be successful and happy. Most people gave the same response: money would make them happier. Americans have always had this philosophy that money would make all of their problems go away and give them everything they ever wanted. Kasser stated that we grew up in a society where if we wanted to be a competent person, we had to make a lot of money. Americans were about twice as wealthy as we were 50 years ago, so naturally one would think that we should be twice as happier as well. Wrong. A recent national survey of people’s happiness showed that our overall levels of happiness remained motionless which tells us money doesn’t have a strong influence benefiting our happiness.
In another one of Belics interviews, he takes us to Brazil and introduces us to Ronaldo Fadul, who finds happiness in the simplest things, particularly in surfing. In fact, surfing means so much to him that he considers it to be spiritual and a religion. To Fadul, happiness doesn’t come from making a lot of money. He emphasizes, “I think that each person has to be what they want to be. I always tell my children try to work in what makes you happy so you’ll be able to live your life in tranquility.” For work, he enjoys taking care of injured birds that fall to the ground and nurses them back to health. He doesn’t have an extravagant job, nor does he make a lot of money, but it makes him happy and to him, that’s all that matters.
Ed Diener, a professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois, discovered in his research on happiness that without exception, people who are happy had a close and supportive network of family and friends. In the Louisiana bayou, Roy Blanchard and his family find happiness in whenever they come together to have a family dinner. However, Roy and his family lead a lifestyle that most would consider being underprivileged. But despite living in small shanties built by the family and living with very little material wealth, the Blanchards could be considered the happiest family around. Roy would invite his family at least once a week to have dinner as a family, and would feed them food he caught on the bayou. Roy calls this “living off the land” and loves it.
With the stress of everyday life, it’s hard to keep a positive attitude and remain happy. An important factor to consider would be depression, which could originate from financial burden, the abuse of alcohol and drugs, divorce, loss of a loved one, or other life altering events. A key ingredient of happiness mentioned in Belics documentary was people’s ability to recover from adversity. There is no way to avoid the harsh reality of life. Everyone experiences hard times but we have to go through the hard times in life to appreciate the happier times in life; the times we appreciate the most and admire with our family and loved ones.
Belic introduces us to Melissa Moody, a happily married woman from Texas with three children, who at one point was a victim of a tragic accident. In 1992, Moody was ran over by a truck and had the tire drive over her spine and up her face, which meant she had to undergo about 30 different surgeries on her face alone for nearly 10 years. After one of the surgeries, she experienced a flashback of a traumatic memory long forgotten of her father abusing her and threatening to kill her. Shortly after her accident, her husband soon divorced her and left his family behind. To say the least, these events left Moody in a state of great depression.
After having gone through so much, Moody thought at one point killing herself because she was angry being alive. The only thing that kept her from committing suicide was to be there for her kids growing up. In the end she started her healing process: she learned to integrate and accept everything that happened in her life; the good and the bad. As time went on, she met a man ironically named Happy at one of her step-daughter’s wedding, a man she knew many years ago. He was very open and asked her questions like if her nose worked, to talk about her accident and surgeries, and she appreciated it. Two years later, they got married and led a wonderful life together. Even after the accident, the many surgeries, the divorce, even contemplating suicide, she found her happiness. In the end, after everything she has been through, Moody became a happier person that she was before.
Being happy can have a powerful impact on our lives and can help improve them. Moody gave us a great example of overcoming adversity after her accident, and in the end, finding love. Having happiness in our lives comes along with optimism, which can help lead us into a relationship, a better job that we like, and even improve our financial income and make more money. Tim Kasser, a professor of Psychology at Knox College, explains to us the distinction between the two main kinds of goals or values people pursue in life: extrinsic and intrinsic goals. Extrinsic goals are the less important goals that people think play a larger role in our happiness such as money, image, and status. Intrinsic goals are inherently satisfying, the needs that all people have such as personal growth, a long lasting relationship, and a desire to help others and make a better place. On the one hand, studies show that people who focused on the extrinsic goals such as money, status, and image reported less satisfaction in their lives. In fact, they were more depressed, less energized, more anxious, and overall unhappy with their lives. On the other hand, intrinsically oriented people were more happy, more vitality, less depressed and less anxious. This concept is supported by Roy Blanchard from Louisiana and Fadul Ronaldo, that materialistic needs don’t truly support happiness.
Overall, I agree that happiness can play an important role in our lives, and Belic gives us great examples. Not only did he interview people in one city or state, he also interviewed people living in different countries and following different lifestyles. Belic took us to Japan and showed us what it’s like to not incorporate happiness in our lives. In Brazil, Ronaldo Fadul told us money doesn’t really contribute to happiness, and we can find happiness in the simple things. In Louisiana, Roy Blanchard leads a simple life living off the land and spending quality time with his friends and family, which to him is all the happiness he needs.
The one story of happiness that stands out the most above all else would be the story of Melissa Moody overcoming adversity from getting hit by a truck, undergoing dozens of surgeries, divorce, and having suicidal thoughts. Some people would have given up hope and have the “all is lost” mentality, but not her. Even after everything she went through, Moody pushed onwards, knowing she had to be there for her kids growing up. Little did she realize, her happiness was just around the corner.
