9781422287675



Happiness

CAUSES & EFFECTS OF EMOTIONS

Embarrassment, Shame, and Guilt Happiness Fear and Anxiety Romantic Attraction Anger Optimism and Self-Confidence Stress and Tension Sadness Empathy and Compassion Envy and Jealousy Surprise and Flexibility Emotional Self-Awareness Loneliness

CAUSES & EFFECTS OF EMOTIONS

Happiness

Z.B. Hill

Mason Crest

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D

Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

Copyright © 2015 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National High- lights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3067-1 ISBN: 978-1-4222-3074-9 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8767-5

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcopy format(s) as follows:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hill, Z. B. Happiness / Z.B. Hill.

pages cm. — (Causes & effects of emotions) Audience: Age 12+ Audience: Grade 7 to 8.

ISBN 978-1-4222-3074-9 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-4222-3067-1 (series) — ISBN 978-1-4222-8767-5 (ebook) 1. Happiness in children—Juvenile literature. 2. Happiness--Juvenile literature. I. Title. BF723.H37H55 2 152.4’2—dc23 2014005509

CONTENTS

Introduction

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1. What Is Happiness?

2. What Happens Inside Your Brain? 3. How Does Happiness Change Your Life? 4. Learning from Your Emotions

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35 51 60 61 63

Find Out More

Series Glossary of Key Terms

Index

About the Author & Consultant and Picture Credits

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INTRODUCTION The journey of self-discovery for young adults can be a passage that includes times of introspection as well joyful experiences. It can also be a complicated route filled with confusing road signs and hazards along the way. The choices teens make will have lifelong impacts. From early romantic relationships to complex feelings of anxiousness, loneliness, and compassion, this series of books is designed specifically for young adults, tackling many of the challenges facing them as they navigate the social and emotional world around and within them. Each chapter explores the social emotional pitfalls and triumphs of young adults, using stories in which readers will see themselves reflected. Adolescents encounter compound issues today in home, school, and community. Many young adults may feel ill equipped to iden- tify and manage the broad range of emotions they experience as their minds and bodies change and grow. They face many adult problems without the knowledge and tools needed to find satis- factory solutions. Where do they fit in? Why are they afraid? Do others feel as lonely and lost as they do? How do they handle the emotions that can engulf them when a friend betrays them or they fail to make the grade? These are all important questions that young adults may face. Young adults need guidance to pilot their way through changing feelings that are influenced by peers, fam- ily relationships, and an ever-changing world. They need to know that they share common strengths and pressures with their peers. Realizing they are not alone with their questions can help them develop important attributes of resilience and hope. The books in this series skillfully capture young people’s ev- eryday, real-life emotional journeys and provides practical and meaningful information that can offer hope to all who read them.

It covers topics that teens may be hesitant to discuss with others, giving them a context for their own feelings and relationships. It is an essential tool to help young adults understand themselves and their place in the world around them—and a valuable asset for teachers and counselors working to help young people become healthy, confident, and compassionate members of our society. Cindy Croft, M.A.Ed Director of the Center for Inclusive Child Care at Concordia University

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instincts: Instincts tell animals and humans how to act in situations without thinking. They are natural, fixed behav- iors in response to certain triggers. vulnerable: Open to being hurt or attacked. Words to Understand

ONE

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W hat I s H appiness ?

H appiness is an emotion—and an emotion is a feeling you get in response to people or things with which you inter- act. Most of the time you don’t choose to feel an emotion, it just happens. Say you score a big point for your team at the basketball game, and you suddenly feel a rush of happiness. In that moment you don’t choose to feel happy. You just are happy. EMOTIONS Emotions are like instincts . You’ve probably heard of the fight-or- flight instinct that we all have. When approached by a rattlesnake in the desert, for example, your body reacts without giving you time to make a choice. Your body says, “Run away!” Emotions are like that. They respond to your surroundings by sending messages to you that say, “This feels good” or “This feels awful!”

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HAPP INESS

We can tell what happiness looks like by the expressions on people’s faces.

Some instincts can be controlled and trained. If you walked past that rattlesnake every day on your way to school, you might learn to control your instinct to run away. You might train yourself so that when you pass the rattlesnake, you slow your breathing and give yourself a chance to make a choice. Instead of attacking the snake or running away from it, you might decide to take a few steps back and study it for a minute. Each day, your heart races and your blood pumps fast when you look at that rattlesnake, but you learn to live with it. Your instinct to get away from danger is a powerful one, though—and it’s healthy and natural for your body to respond that way. After all, rattlesnakes are very danger- ous. Venom from their bite can kill you. So your instinct helps to protect you. Emotions are like that, too. They are the body’s way of telling us what is good for it or what isn’t good for it. WHAT DOES HAPPINESS LOOK LIKE? There are many kinds of happiness. When someone you love gives you a hug, you feel good. When you save up enough money to buy the bike you always wanted, you feel good. You feel happy. In general, happiness is what we call this “good feeling.” When you’re happy, you feel cheerful; you feel upbeat. But not all hap- piness looks the same way. Someone might feel great—she might be feeling totally happy—and not have a smile on her face. In- stead, her happiness doesn’t show on the outside. Another person might be crying and be very happy at the same time! Think of a mother who just gave birth to her first child. At the end of all that pain and struggle, she gets to hold her beautiful baby. Sometimes tears and laughter come at the same time. Happiness can happen quickly—or it can occur over a long period of time. Like a hug, it can fill you up for a quick moment— or like the new bike that’s finally yours, happiness can greet you every time you pedal it down the street. Because happiness takes so many shapes and sizes, it can be hard to define. Sometimes you don’t realize you are happy until later in your

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What I s Happi nes s?

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HAPP INESS

Having a good time with the people we like is one of the things that makes us happy.

life, after that happy time is over. Let’s say that you and your friends decide to build a tree fort. You argue a lot, trying to agree how big it should be and what to name it. Maybe you get frus- trated with your friends and you feel angry with them. It’s a lot of hard work, too. You cut your legs and arms hauling in wood from the woods. You struggle along the way, making mistakes and starting over when things go wrong. Boards break, nails are hard to find, and at some point maybe you even think about giv- ing up altogether. But you don’t give up, and once the tree fort is finished, you look back and think, “Wow, that was a lot of fun.” You realize you’ve really happy during the time you were working to build it. Happiness can be like that, making you feel good even when you don’t realize it. HAPPINESS AND OTHER PEOPLE Other people can make us happy. Usually, other people make us happy when we feel they understand us and love us. Both parts are important: both being understood and being loved. To be understood, you have to be willing to be vulnerable first. To be vulnerable means to be honest about your thoughts, fears, strengths, and weaknesses. It’s not always easy to be vul- nerable in today’s world. Sometimes other kids are quick to tease, taunt, and put you down. To be vulnerable takes bravery. It’s hard to be yourself when you know other people might hurt you with their words. But researchers agree that vulnerability is a common trait shared by happy people. If you never take the risk of letting other people see who you really are, you’ll never feel the satisfac- tion of knowing that someone has understood you. Lots of people try to make others like them by pretending to be someone they are not. A boy might make a lot of jokes at school. He might tease other students so that people will laugh. Their laughter makes him feel happy, for a while. But the feeling doesn’t last. Deep inside, he knows that those people laughing at his jokes don’t really know him. They can’t really like him, because they don’t really know him.

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What I s Happi nes s?

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HAPP INESS

Being alone can be another sort of opportunity for happiness.