01 — Finding Happiness
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GOING DEEPER
Mind The Gap
5 min
Section Aim
To develop the ideas of hedonic and eudaimonic happiness a little further .
Instructions
Use the script below to explain to the children that there are two types of happiness . The first of these is ‘ having good stuff ’ ( hedonic happiness ).
Show on screen — slide no . 16
« script »
There are two types of things that can make us happy . The one we tend to think of first and most often is about having stuff . Stuff can make us happy , but after a while that happiness might wear off . Stuff can also make us unhappy . For example , if it is stuff we don ’ t have , but our friend does — or stuff we have always wanted , but might never get — we can feel unhappy about not having it . However , the way that stuff can make us happy is if we look at what we do HAVE , and enjoy it , rather than worrying about the stuff we don ’ t have . Scientists have also found that once we have a certain amount of stuff , getting more does not really add to our happiness much . It seems that ‘ stuff ’ can only help so far . Our minds get used to the things we have and the benefit we have from them wears off over time .
Instructions
Explain that the second type of happiness is ‘ doing good stuff ’ ( eudaimonic happiness ), living life well .
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