McGonigal Response: Happiness Hack

To start, I really enjoyed this section the most out of our reading because I found it not only interesting, but very useful. I can say that I participated in some of the simpler happiness activities without really being aware of their implications on myself. Having now read this section and analyzing it, I really hope it benefits me more now rather then me taking notice and requiring a more integrated event to really make me happy. I was taught at a very young age to always hold a door open for a woman. I still, to this day, passively check my surroundings when walking to class to see if I'll be letting someone into a building before me. I get praise almost 95% of the time, while the other 5% consists of individuals not paying attention, and occasionally a scolding look. When that happens, not only do I make a mental note to not do it again for that person, but it then brings me a bad feeling, which is the opposite of what my mind is trying to get out of the practice. I never really considered this a happiness activity until after reading this section, I always just did it out of habit and being a nice thing to do for others. I want to also take this time to discuss the three bullet points that are in the beginning of the chapter and how they are completely spot on. I can say that I see myself as a person who thinks of others over myself a good majority of the time as I seem to get more satisfaction out of other people's happiness then my own a lot of the time. For instance, I would rather go out of my way to drive my girlfriend to work and pick her back up then have her do it herself. She has her own car and lives closer to her work, yet I offer to drive her every time that I can. I do this not to get any kind of reciprocity, I do it simply because it makes her happy and appreciate me.So in a way you can say there is some kind of trade off, but there are very few times that we can say that we don't live in an exchange type relationship kind of world. Regardless of the size of the trade off, there still is something that everyone gets out of certain relationships. As for the death practice, I can say that I don't go out of my way to think about death daily, but having read this chapter I probably will pick up the practice. I have a very strange thought process when it comes to anything, and it leave me with a very unique way of thinking. I tend to process my decisions based on a very extensive thought exercise where I run various scenarios of each individual situation through my head to pick the best outcome. This goes from something as simple as planning out my day regarding when I may eat to whether or not I go out a particular night if I think the weather could lead to a horrible outcome. Like I said, it is a "unique" way of thinking and it has lead me to a variety of good and bad outcomes over my life. It also requires me to over think things a lot of the time and if you had the opportunity to ask my girlfriend about it, I'm sure she could rant on about it for quite awhile (hahahahaha). I do find myself thinking about death more frequently then I thought was normal and it does give me the sense that McGonigal proposes in this section. I will see if I actually remember to think about death each and every day after this class is over. With all the insanity surrounding the Boston Marathon, I can say that my mind is more on death then normal as I have been following all the updates provided by the Associated Press, which I get as often as once an hour. Now on the topic of the dancing, I find myself jamming out almost every single day whether I think about it or not. I am a very musical person, in the sense that I almost always have my headphones on listening to just about anything. My taste in music is semi-broad, but there are still plenty of styles that I do not enjoy, like hip hop and country. Currently I am listening to a Daft Punk song while writing this entry and jamming out to it in the computer lounge with people occasionally taking note as to "how into the music" I am getting. I tend to also do a good bit of jamming while walking and a bit more when I am with friends. If Tyler happens to read this, he can attest to how me and him have rocked out to some of our favorite bands while playing Halo and Gears of War, and when I say rock out, we even have our characters in game head banging at some points (and my god did it create some of the biggest laugh sessions in our friendship). I also would like to point out how correct McGonigal is when she says that happiness activities are best executed in groups. My friends and I my sophomore year would do almost everything together and it would result in very few times when I would feel depressed or alone, or need to be alone for that matter. We would eat, go to class, play games, and just sit around doing "nothing" with each other all the time. It has made it hard to move on with people changing locations and not having that constant influx of people all the time, but it also allows you as a person to reflect and appreciate what you have and that at least brings me a good bit of happiness.