People are constantly trying to define what happiness is and if you are happy or not, but have you ever wondered where it is? In Eric Weiners humorous travel memoir, The Geography of Bliss (335 pages),he travels to several countries, including The Netherlands, Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, Great Britain, India, and America, in search for where one can find true contentment. In every location, he observes several different ways those countries have become some of the most happy places on earth and, for some, what makes them the least happy, using scientific research.
The pronounced grump, proposes many ideas in his attempt to determine if one's happiness is directly related to their geography. However, in each location a different perspective on how to be happy is observed. In his first stop, the Netherlands, Weiner seeks out a professor named Ruut Veenhoven, who has dedicated his entire career to the World Database of Happiness, a collection of all the human knowledge …show more content…
While reviewing a Thaid geographer, named Yi-Fu TUan’s, conclusions he says that she stated that “Happy people have no reason to think; they live rather than questioning living,”(page 225). He later goes on to cite several studies that say thinking about happiness makes people less happy. This scene was memorable to me, because the whole book was based on thinking about happiness, where to find it, why some places have it and others don’t, etc. However, in this country, one extremely high on the happiness scale, they refuse to think about it, or anything for that matter. In America, everyone questions their happiness because it is what we strive for, we constantly are thinking about acquiring it. But now, the Thais who have figured it out say that we must abandoned our previous thoughts and just stop thinking
The pronounced grump, proposes many ideas in his attempt to determine if one's happiness is directly related to their geography. However, in each location a different perspective on how to be happy is observed. In his first stop, the Netherlands, Weiner seeks out a professor named Ruut Veenhoven, who has dedicated his entire career to the World Database of Happiness, a collection of all the human knowledge …show more content…
While reviewing a Thaid geographer, named Yi-Fu TUan’s, conclusions he says that she stated that “Happy people have no reason to think; they live rather than questioning living,”(page 225). He later goes on to cite several studies that say thinking about happiness makes people less happy. This scene was memorable to me, because the whole book was based on thinking about happiness, where to find it, why some places have it and others don’t, etc. However, in this country, one extremely high on the happiness scale, they refuse to think about it, or anything for that matter. In America, everyone questions their happiness because it is what we strive for, we constantly are thinking about acquiring it. But now, the Thais who have figured it out say that we must abandoned our previous thoughts and just stop thinking