While reading Chapter 10, I went through the chapter in a different way when compared

all my other readings. Which was reading the prompt for the discussion post then
reading the chapter, and that made a big difference in how I interpreted Haidt's
messaging. I asked myself how can I directly apply the information Haidt is giving me as
soon as read terms or psychologist findings and the theme I found occurring again and
again was finding a way to meet all of your pyramid of needs in all aspects of life, or at
least meeting a decent amount of those needs being met throughout all facets of life.

One question I have always had was how am I going to spend the rest of my life
working? Is this the life I want to live, and I viewed it as some depressing self fulfilling
prophecy that we are all destined to be sad. Kind of like Haidt in his senior year of high
school. But the concept of vital engagement answers that question to the fullest. Your
work has to be a bigger part of something, a bigger project in other words. It does not
have to consume your entire life but it should be contributing to something better. And
that is easier and harder for some jobs. So for a job, finding a way to meet the
community section of the Maslow pyramid of needs is important. This same pattern can
be seen in the Love and Work section of the chapter where Amy Wrzesinski conducted
a study through different professions. She found people that had identical jobs but
viewed themselves as part of something bigger were happier. She used the example of
a Janitor in a hospital cleaning vomit and etc have a higher sense of satisfaction as
compared to other environments.

Another concept that followed the theme of balance and filling your Maslow's hierarchy
of needs was the idea of Cross Level Coherence. When I was reading this section of
the chapter, I asked myself the same question as the prompt, how can I apply this to my
life? As I read through the section, I started to view cross level coherence as a state of
being, rather than a concept. People are much happier when things just make sense.
This can be applied to my life as a thought process I can put myself through. I feel as if
us as humans have a lot of unanswered questions about our lives which stay
unanswered due to taboo or social stigma. Or we feel like our lives are constantly out of
control for no reason which can leave us feeling overwhelmed and reduce our
happiness. I feel as if the idea of achieving a good sense of cross coherence can solve
these issues, and the answers don’t have to be right. Not everything has to be perfect,
but it will eventually lead us to focus on things that we can control. Which will inherently
increase our perception of knowledge of the things around us, making us happier. How
does this fill our hierarchy of needs you may ask? Well a feeling of comfort can be seen
as shelter and that's what cross coherence fulfills.

In the TED Talk from Emily Esfahani Smith, she talks about a very similar thing in
chapter 10. But her talk was more of a continuation of happiness. Her perception of
happiness was an achievement and that there is a bigger picture than just being happy,
which is a meaningful life. She discusses the three pillars which I find extremely close to
the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The only difference in me and her had been the
definition of happiness. She viewed happiness separately from a meaningful life, and I
view happiness as a state of living a meaningful life. But even then, the idea of having
multiple needs met and having a high sense of purpose is a universally golden thing to
strive for. The second ted talk I listened too, Robert Waldinger expressed the
importance of community. But he went into the depths on the dangers of loneliness.
How it can be horrible for our health and can lead to early causes. But he says
something similar which is a theme among people who were unhappy. On how they
viewed being mega successful, and famous was a path to legitimate happiness. But all
of them as they got older realized it was personal connections that were the most
important for happiness. In his ted talk, he doesn't really mention any hierarchy of needs
or pillars of any sort. But he mentions on of the most important aspects to it, which is
belongingness.