Week 1 - Day 4: Happy

We watched the first 50 minutes of the documentary "Happy." These are the stories and topics introduced in the movie that we felt were the best to talk about.

Japan & Okinawa

Okinawa is one of the happiest places in the world. They are Japanese, but they spend a big part of their lives keeping in touch with their community and it makes them happier than other Japanese people, because they have a healthier lifestyle. On the other hand, the rest of the Japanese people live very stressful lives and they spend a big part of their lives working. In this way these people die so young that they can't have more life experiences. They don't care about family they just think about work and money. This is a huge difference between them and the Okinawan people, because the Okinawans often live more than a 100 years.

Extrinsic:

We found out that aspects as money, status, and looks don't have a critical effect on happiness, for example:

In Japan people care a lot about industrialization and money, but they don't enjoy the money that earn working so hard, and they are not happy even thought they have a lot of money.

Another example is an Indian man which has no high status, and still is a happy person enjoying his family and all the simple things.

In addition to that a Texan woman realized that looking good is not the to happiness, although she was a really beautiful woman, until she had an accident she understood what really makes you happy. 

Denmark

The woman thought she was lost in her life.

She was alone with her children.

She wanted to have a big family to rely on.

She felt supported by the community where she lived.

She is happier than she used to be when she was alone.

She likes living with old people because she considers them as grandparents.

She thinks living with many people saves her own family time.

They have different roles inside the community like cooking and cleaning.

The children are happier because they have friends in school and in their home.

Woman from Texas (Former beauty queen)

This is the story of a beautiful woman who had a car accident which her face was disfigured after that her husband was divorced, then she lost her beauty and she felt like her world was falling down. Then she had a surgery and she had her face reconstructed and she found a new husband. Finally, she felt happier than before. She needed to find her own happiness.