Reflection paper

I need a reflection paper on the documentary “Happy” If someone has already seen it and wants to write a paper for me that would be great. It only needs to be 3-5 pages long. It should be “personal” in the sense that it ties the topic to your life in some way.  It should also demonstrate an overall understanding of the topic. The paper should be typed using Microsoft Word and sources appropriately referenced. 

     or  

i have a reflection paper my friend wrote on the documentary “Happy” but i would need someone to reword it for me without plagerizing it. I have to upload it to turnitin.com so I cannot, under any circumstance, have this paper plagerized. I just want it to be similar. Can someone please write a similar paper for me? 

 

I need it done by 9 am

Stephanie DeFrancesco

12 September 2012

HPFS 62: Personal and Community Health

Dr. Carol L. Alberts

Wellness, Lifestyle, Health and Happiness:

Reaction to the Documentary “Happy”

Someone once said “If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we would be happy with more?” I would not be honest by saying that I have consistently lived my life based upon this motto, bur after watching the 2011 documentary “Happy” I am able to say that I am now able to see the light brighter in more aspects of my current life. The documentary “Happy” thoroughly demonstrates the dimensions of wellness, lifestyle, health and happiness with examples from all over the world. Wellness, lifestyle, health & happiness are all intertwined in one’s level of wellbeing. Each of these four concepts have individual efforts that when combined equal the sole to one’s being.

The term wellness has six specific dimensions (physical, emotional, social/intellectual, interpersonal, spiritual and the environment) that connect all aspects of life. The physical dimension includes food consumption and exercise, the emotional includes mental health and the ability to deal with one’s feelings, the social/intellectual involves one’s creativity, curiosity and a sense of humor, the interpersonal dimension includes communication skills and the capacity of intimacy, the spiritual dimension focuses on the positive, joy, forgiveness and compassion and lastly the environmental aspect depends on the health of our planet. All of these dimensions are influenced by healthy habits, heredity, family history, environment, access to health care, taking personal responsibility for one’s own wellness and of course the sufficiency of happiness.

Lifestyle and health are two terms that could possibly be the most interconnected topics when discussing the capacity of one’s wellness. To be healthy and live a healthy lifestyle one must highly prioritize healthy life choices such as healthy behaviors across all stages of life, healthy development, the social and physical environments that promote good health, prevention of diseases, the preparation for emergencies, health insurance (financial standing) and lastly exercise. The textbook terminology for health involves a person’s mental or physical condition as well as his/her state of being free from illness or injury. Similar to health, lifestyle is defined as the way one lives up to their health, prioritizes health and lives by example to take care of him/her through the mind, body and soul. It is particularly clear how both lifestyle and health have such strong structures that help guide a person to true happiness if he/she took advantage of the healthy lifestyle choices right in front of them.

One crucial determining factor involving health and lifestyle is stress. Stress is a physical and emotional state that accompanies the stress response’s reaction from the original stressor. A stressor can be triggered by multiple factors such as work, school, family, deadlines and any financial issues. It is how the stress is dealt with that can impact our lives in a positive or negative way. Studies have shown that such practices as meditation, yoga and compassion meditation are positive ways to deal with stressors. If more people, even those under the age of twenty-five practiced any positive methods of meditation their potential happiness would increase as well as the decrease of severe anger problems by dealing with these stressful issues in a more positive way.

In correspondence with stress are high-risk factors. Certain behaviors and actions are not always done because of the lack of happiness from a person. Insecurities are a major role in high-risk negative behaviors that could possible lead to drugs use, bullying and the lack of good health actions. On the other hand, high-risk positive behaviors could include sky diving, joining a new social group to make new friends and going after long-term goals.

I must say that when we spoke in class regarding stress I was somewhat embarrassed by telling the class about the ways I deal with my stressors at first. I know it sounds bizarre and quite insane from an outsider’s perspective to know I awake at 5am to “just” go to the gym before class or how particularly organized I am, but at the beginning and end of the day that is me. Trust me, I am not the only nut at the gym before the sun comes up every morning, but this is what makes me truly happy. When I am running, taking a Spin or even a Pilates class this time is for me and me only. It is the only time of the day where my head is clear, and I have a true inner sense of peace and self without any distractions, obligations or people to take care of. There are those who “don’t have time for exercise” which in reality is just an excuse, those who put make up on to look good for “the boys” to then go work out and the retired men who come to exercise with their friends for a social and physical benefit. Either way, every person has specific reasons and motives behind their actions, what is most important is if those actions offer the happiness that is being strived for and I know mine does for me.

The documentary “Happy” showed people from all over the world demonstrating all of the six dimensions of wellness. The physical dimension showed those that are physically very active which is caused by the release of endorphins during any type of exercise. The emotional dimension was depicted in my favorite part of the documentary, which dealt with a professional comedian/educator who helped middle school students not only deal with the effects of bullies, but also shine light on the reality of pain that those who are being tormented in school go through on a daily basis. I could not help but feel for those children who lived in such extreme emotional pain at such a young age; I just wanted to give them a hug. This dimension dealt with specific personal problems in a healthy way of communication. The social/intellectual dimension was shown with culture dances by uniting the entire community for celebrations on multiply occasions. The interpersonal dimension was demonstrated from a Denmark family that lives in a co-op home filled with happiness and love. This type of setting combined different families and brought them together for the purpose of life, wellness and happiness by living together, learning from one another and equally respecting and loving each other. The spiritual dimension can be viewed from many different spectrums as shown in the documentary. Spiritual wellness can be the belief in a particular religion or even the belief in just an overall universe and some form of the afterlife. The final dimension is environmental. “Happy” gave examples of environmental wellness via the natives that hunted for their food and the manmade huts they lived in. It was then able to compare the happiness of those natives to the lack of happiness of the Japanese men who work tremendously hard to financially provide for their families.

Any textbook definition of happiness cannot describe the true meaning of happiness. Happiness is felt from within in and is seen differently through every person’s eye. Those who are able to appreciate the little things in life are not only such grateful beings, but are also able to experience a greater level of happiness. For example, “Happy” showed the happiness of an ill woman when her entire community joined together in support for her recovery, the happiness of those who hunt on a daily bases to provide food for their entire tribe and the most happiest fisherman spending his days in the swamps of Louisiana. It does not matter what makes someone happy if he/she is truly happy from within.

To obtain a large overview of happiness within a population, one must look at the GNH (Gross National Happiness) vs. those who live in poverty. There is not one set answer to the relationship of money and happiness. In my opinion, I believe that money does not equal true happiness, joy or love; on the contrary I do believe that money does equal financial stability.

Healthy lifestyle choices such as food and exercise could target a positive health promotion for a community. For example, the health insurance in Denmark is equally given out to the public to ensure optimal health for each civilian. Disease prevention is another vital aspect of health and lifestyle. Such preventions as flu shots and taking care of one’s own body can increase the level of optimum happiness. Now the question is finance, how can those who live in poverty be expected to live in happiness if he/she does not have the financial means to afford health care or even the basic need (food, water and shelter)? The truth is you cannot obtain one hundred percent true happiness and wellness with an illness, disease or lack of the basic needs to survive.

Therefore, happiness is related to where we set the bar for our perception of happiness. If we can appreciate the smaller things in life we will feel happier for longer periods of time and much more often. There is no need to stress about next year when tomorrow hasn’t even begun. Always do your best today, an even better job tomorrow and don’t forget to tell the ones you love how much you appreciate each one of them. What goes around comes around; therefore forget about the negatives of yesterday and let your next action be a positive one.