introductionWhen looking back on life, one might realize that some of their happiest moments have been times with their family doing ordinary things. Happiness comes in a wide range of structures; a few people are happy with money; others are happy when they achieve a specific position of power. However, individuals such as Joyce brothers have a progressively clear view and an idea of what happiness is. Brothers expressed her opinion saying, When you look at your life, the greatest states of happiness are family happiness’s.
Family bonds can undoubtedly influence your well-being, regardless of whether it is your biological family or the family you create on your own. You rely on them for advice, emotional support or even as an asset to help you out of trouble.Nevertheless, with regards to one’s well-being, our closest and dearest matter. The meaning of family may vary from one individual to the next because one might define family as the individuals who are identified with you by blood or through marriage; however, others might define it as those people who have a sound relationship or cling to you.
Families differ in various ways, but each one has its definition of a happy life. So, what makes a happy family? Many important factors make a happy family including, close bonds, trust, and loyalty.Types of happinessHow can one know what makes them happy, or what approach they can take to make them happy, well this is a big question that people spend most of their life struggling with; however, it is mostly subjective. For example, what might make one person happy might put another person in a spiral of depression. Yes, this is a genuinely difficult concept to understand, but there is a way of breaking it down to be a little more accessible. The first step for people to understand what happiness means is to get rid of the word altogether. Happiness is so subjective a term that it is close to useless in attempting to understand what makes a person feel fulfilled or satisfied. A better way of framing it might be to use the term well-being, which is the extent to which a person feels comfortable, healthy, and satisfied with his or her life. These two terms might seem merely identical; however, a person might use drugs or alcohol to feel happy, yet it is short term and has severe consequences for his or her physical and mental health.Given that when people use the word I am happy what they are referring to is a state of well-being. In a broad sense, there are two ways that people achieve happiness or well-being. The first is the hedonic approach, and the second is known as the eudemonic approach.Hedonic approachThe hedonic approach first originated with the Greek philosopher Aristippus, from his perspective a person’s primary objective in life is to experience as much pleasure as possible while generally avoiding any painful experiences. For instance, some people associate happiness with having lots of material wealth and spending as much time as they can socializing with friends. For these people, happiness can be achieved through buying things, going out to fancy restaurants, and generally having fun. In the case of the hedonic approach, the objective is spending the majority of your time doing something fun, and little time as possible doing something that is not considered as fun, like working or engaging in tedious tasks.Eudemonic approach The eudemonic approach originated with the Greek philosopher Aristotle in response to Aristippus; he offered an alternative that he referred to as the eudemonic approach to well-being. Aristotle found the idea of happiness, at least as it was described by Aristippus, to be across the concept. From his perspective, just because a person can do something as it may lead to pleasure, that does not mean that it should be done or would contribute to well-being.A eudemonic approach, on the other hand, was the pursuit of personal fulfillment. Volunteering to help others, for example, would improve well-being because it gives the sense of contribution to one’s community. Likewise, the pursuit of knowledge is also eudemonic because it makes a person more capable and well informed. Over the last century or so, the eudemonic approach to well-being has been embraced by many psychologists and has some evidence to back up its potential. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, for example, is an essential psychological theory that suggests people need more than just momentary pleasure in order to achieve well-being. According to Maslow, people need, among other things, to feel safe and loved, and to have the opportunity for self-improvement. How close family bonds is one of the main reasons leading to happinessFamily relation can be defined as both affinity which is kinship by marriage or adoption which is not blood-related, or it can be defined as relatedness or connection by blood. Most countries are family-oriented individuals, because of their stable family esteems that keep them together on Sundays or in various events since this gives them solidarity and strength to carry on with their lives. A connection with family gives a specific sort of social help that cannot be found in other individuals. Provided they are not severely emotionally toxic, one can, for the most part, rely on their families in times of crisis for emotional, practical, and sometimes financial support when needed. Our families convey our history with them, and they, for the most part, share our future too. Who better than siblings, parents, and other close relatives can recollect our childhood memories? This association with memory, support during our time of need and close, genuine love is a unique way that family brings us happiness as well as alleviation from stress.Adopted kids and their family Numerous media stories and made-for-television motion pictures present adopted kids as distanced, troubled, or even criminal. In all actuality; in any case, most adopted children grow up to be dependable grown-ups who mix in with others in the social event. In fact, in some situations, the adopted child might be happier with his new adoptive parents rather than his biological parents, this might be due to the fact that they were abused, mistreated or that the parents are either under the influence most of the time, or that they are too young to take care of the child. According to americanadoptions.com (n.d) Studies show that adopted children grow up to be as happy and healthy as their peers. (para 5) moreover, that is because of the strong family connections they create with their new parents.FriendshipsFriends are without a doubt gradually winding up to be vital to our wellbeing and satisfaction as we age; this is because they are so pivotal to our lives. Here and there one might not get along with his or her friends, feel desirous of them, or even gossip about them. This behavior or attitude, might raise the question of why do we bother with friends? It is because they make us burst into laughter when we are down, as well as raise a glass when we have good news. Finally, they play an essential role in some of our most precious memories. In addition, to some people, their friends are their family, and this is because of how close they are to each other, and how one might rely on them in their everyday life.Family trust and its link to happinessWe never really think that trust is an essential factor in our lives; however, being able to trust someone is a crucial aspect in one’s everyday life. A lack of trust can be damaging as it is necessary to rely on a handful of people on a day to day basis. Being able to trust someone is very important to our everyday relationships, whether it towards our family, friends, or even partners. Newborn children and trustNewborn children need to create trust that their parents will address their needs. Babies are born powerless however with a brain that is prepared to learn. In order for the baby to survive it needs to be fed regularly, as well as both being changed, and shown love which will cause the child to feel a sense of trust towards the parent. Parents and trustA question that might be asked is why this sense of trust is so important? And the answer to that is because it is the basis for love; not only of the parents but every following relationship. For example, when learning how to ride a bike, you put all your trust in either your mother or father to help keep you balanced and not fall. An absolute absence of trust in one’s family can be damaging, mainly when it is towards a child or young adult who is still unaware of the world and its hardship. This mistrust might originate from various factors. However, what many individuals see as mistrust is often seen by the parents as love. Parents might seem a bit strict towards their children when it comes to a variety of things including staying out late or going out alone to certain areas, and to some this might come across as the parent not trusting their child, but in reality, it is the parent not trusting the world around their child. Negativities of trustEven though trust is an essential factor in one’s day to day life, overly trusting someone might be damaging. For example, parents that overly trust their children, end up having kids that are disrespectful, and unaware of the hardships in life, and tend to be put in situations that might cause others to take advantage of them, this situation also works with overly trusting your friends. Loyalty and its connection to happiness According to Thomas Cochrane (n.d) Loyalty to the family must be merged into loyalty to the community. Both loyalty and happiness go side by side, and love, as well as loyalty, are two of the fundamental virtues that hold families together. Love is universal, and loyalty brings out the best in human relations in both marriage, and family. Loyalty is an excellent stabilizer for human relationships. Love and loyaltyLove leads to loyalty. Without love in a relationship, loyalty cannot flourish. The mere fact of knowing that the other person in the relationship is loyal helps induce a sense of peace and serenity. Although loyalty is essential to one’s everyday relationships, it can only show or develop in a nurturing environment which is mainly evident in the family environment. Loyalty sometimes exceeds the feeling of happiness, and security as well as it extends to the life of children and to those who are a part of the family, and this human attribute although challenging to maintain surpasses all relationship barriers.Loyalty and marriage Challenges might arise in the form of disloyalty and unfaithfulness in marriage. Nevertheless, daily practices of specific behaviors that help increase loyalty such as: nurturing good behaviors in children, accepting shared responsibility, and empathizing with the needs of others, can have a positive influence on one’s happiness and is essential to growth.Differences in marriage may not always be irreconcilable. Perhaps in some situation, they can be reconcilable. Families should strive to remain loyal as we renew a spirit of cooperation for the survival of the families. Loyalty enables all human relationships with some benefits. Such as, people can begin with the understanding that loyalty is a crucial ally in their quest to happiness and well-being, as well as they can start with the understanding that loyalty in marriage travels in the same trajectory as one’s loyalty to their families. Finally, similar to obedience, lessons of loyalty are essential to inform the behavior of children as well as young adults, who eventually will become adults and have control of the future.ConclusionIn recent times family connections have not been as strong as they were before, and this is due to many reasons one of them being social media. This lack of connection caused a decrease in the levels of happiness between families as well as a decline in the levels of trust and loyalty. So, knowing this information we as a society should try to build a stronger bond with our families to try and gain our happiness back, mainly because families do not last forever, and we should cherish all the happy moments and experiences we have with one another, rather than shunning them out of our lives. References:Demir, M., & Sјmer, N. (2018). Parent-Child Relationships and Happiness Across Cultures. In Close Relationships and Happiness across Cultures (pp. 41-54). Retrieved from M. (2012). THE NATURE OF LOYALTY. In Loyalty to Loyalty: Josiah Royce and the Genuine Moral Life (pp. 26-50). NEW YORK: Fordham University. Retrieved from A. (2014). Trust. In Moral Emotions: Reclaiming the Evidence of the Heart (pp. 197-222). Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. Retrieved from