Assessing the State of Individual Hedonism

Hedonism is all about pleasure. It posits that if pleasures are reached, one will be truly happy and fulfilled in life. The goal is to reach ataraxia which simply means having freedom in the body from troubles in body and spirit alike. In this paper I will describe my experiences with these ideas and my desires as well. During this experimentation there were several instances of pleasure directly and indirectly that I encountered. Amongst these ideas, I feel the most essential one was dealing with school and assignments.

School is certainly not pleasurable at first. Every day we are required to stop our lives and attend classes and do several assignments. The gratification does not come for a long time, however is still pleasurable. In the end all of this hard work certainly pay off. The gratification will come when I receive a good job and can provide everything for my family. This need would be considered unnecessary regarding basic needs but to me it is completely necessary so I can fulfill my families hunger, thirst, and living accommodations. I have decided that no matter what I want to finish what I started. I have put a lot of hard work and dedication into my schooling and I refuse to give up willingly. By completing my schooling, my ataxia will be satisfied. The reason I say this is because I will not stress about making ends meet. I will hopefully be able to do all essential tasks in life.

The next situation I encountered regarding pleasure was eating. Since I practiced this right after Ramadan, I feel I have a better understanding of these desires. Ramadan is a time when all Muslims fast from food, beverages, smoking, and even talking falsehoods. This may seem a little strange to most, but I’ve been doing it for years and have become accustomed to it. I realized that I enjoy eating very delicious foods. These foods, however, are not the healthiest. I get cravings especially around noontime for these foods. Although I do not necessarily need the most luxurious foods, I want them. I feel direct pleasure after eating, but later feel negative effects of these foods.

I believe these cravings are unnatural but somehow addictive. Fast food is so delicious that one can sometimes craze them and become sad when the gratification is not obtained. These foods are completely unnecessary and provide little nutritional value as well. I have decided that I will try my best to rid myself of these cravings and choose much more beneficial dishes. I will make sure I allow myself the time to cook my own meals and eat out less. Eating like this creates ataraxia for short-term, but later on distracts from it. Since atraxia aims to eliminate troubles from the body and spirit, one cannot do so when facing health issues due to a poor diet.

Hedonism can be very difficult to achieve but can be done if one places all concern into doing so. I’m not sure if complete Hedonism is actually attainable, because I feel once can never truly have complete freedom. There are several thoughts that cannot be controlled by us and creep up during the worst times. I know we can control and change how we feel but this isn’t always certain.

I have learned a lot of valuable lessons by doing this experiment. I think these ideas sound really good but are not as easy as they sound. I found myself struggling to comprehend all the faucets of this approach. I feel I can much better understand my needs vs. my wants now.