Harold James D.

Pajaron Understanding the Self

II - BMA Asynchronous Activity # 3

People always have something they wish to achieve and after achieving it, it will
result in happiness. We are sometimes driven by the force of our goals or purpose in life
but all in fact, we only wish for something, and it’s happiness. Happiness can be
attained through different ways, and it depends on the livelihood and personality of a
person. If a person is rich, then they’ll be happy when they spend on things they like; or
if a person is a gamer, they’ll be happy playing games. For the Alangan Mangyan
women, happiness can be attained through something so simple in a matter that even a
rich person or a gamer also wishes for something like this.
Alangan Mangyan women expressed their happiness as a positive feeling, when
they’re feeling good or satisfied, they are happy. They also said that happiness is
contagious and an experience, that they experience happiness by doing things that
make them happy and if they see someone happy, then they’ll also be happy.
Happiness is indeed a positive feeling and for people to be happy, we have our source
of happiness. For Alangan women, their source of happiness lies in basic needs and
other trivial matters. They are happy when they have access to basic needs such as
food, shelter, education, health insurance, employment, and a stable family. They are
happy when they have food that can sustain their everyday living, and education for
their children when their family is healthy and not sick. A work that ensures their
everyday needs or when they are farming, they produce palay or sweet potato to satisfy
their hunger or when they produce more than what they used to so they can sell it and
use the income for other matters. They are happy when they are with their family, and
their husband, and creating good memories. Also, they are happy when they have a
good relationship within the community in which they have someone they can rely on
when they are on the downside of living or have someone to tell their stories to.
According to Alangan women, the effects of being happy are; having a positive
disposition and vibes in life. When they are happy, they will feel at ease, have a positive
demeanor radiant on their faces, and become sweet and expressive. Also, always being
happy makes them look younger or delayed aging. This effect is most likely quoted from
a famous Filipino statement, “Sige ka, kapag lagi kang stressed at galit, mabilis kang
tatanda.” which is why they believed that being happy slowed aging.
People may say that they can be happy on their own but, people around you will
always be part of your happiness. For example, Alangan women try to forget their
problems so that they can be happy, they do things such as working, doing household
chores, or having a conversation within their community. You can see that people can
do things on their own just to make themselves happy, however, we still need to make
connections with other people so we can achieve happiness. We always have our
individualist self within but without a doubt, we will always honor the idea of collectivism
because just like what John Donne said, “No man is an island.”
Happiness comes for many different reasons but we should not forget that having
a privilege or access to basic needs should already be your first source of happiness
because there are people who struggle just to achieve it thus, we must treasure small
things that we have in our life and if there’s a surplus, then put it in a good use and help
those who need it.