As people, we tend to be products of our culture. For me it's exactly like that. I have been shaped and molded by the external influences around me. I recently noticed that my American cultural views are very different from those of other cultures and that perhaps my view may not be the best. In fact, there may not be a best culture or outlook on life. This semester we have heard numerous lectures that focus on Chinese or Taoist culture, which have multiple similarities and are, in many ways, built on each other. In the lecture on Daoism, Dr. Ronnie Littlejohn, spoke about transcendent bodies and focused mainly on qi (Littlejohn). While Dr. Yuan-ling Chao's lecture on Chinese medicine was about maintaining balance by avoiding the extreme aspects of life (Chao). Happiness in both cases is found by balancing all aspects of life, including: temperature, diet, and emotions (Smith). We also listened to a lecture titled “Health and Happiness: Reducing Stress,” which covered how to manage stress in American culture and ended up going slightly off-topic about the prevalence of academic-enhancing substances in college (Foss, Gebert, & Asbury) . These lectures showed me, in vivid detail, the differences between the mindsets of American and Chinese cultures. Throughout the world there are notable differences in cultures. Chinese cultural beliefs about happiness are mainly derived from the country's three major religious views. These beliefs promote a balanced lifestyle where everything from meals to emotions are in balance, leading to a happy individual. In China disease arises from imbalance; and is essentially the root of all problems in a person's life (Lu and Gilmour). While most people in C......middle of paper......ssee State University Honors College. Murfreesboro, Tennessee. March 24, 2014. Lecture.Foss, Katherine, Kaylene Gebert, and Mary Beth Asbury. “Health and Happiness: Reducing Stress.” Honors College of Middle Tennessee State University. Murfreesboro, Tennessee. April 14, 2014. Lecture.Littlejohn, Ronnie. “Daoist Instructions for Creating Transcendent Bodies.” Honors College of Middle Tennessee State University. Murfreesboro, Tennessee. February 10, 2014. Lecture.Lu, Luo and Robin Gilmour. “Culture and conceptions of happiness: Individually oriented and socially oriented SWB.” Tiawon National University (2004): 269-291. Smith, Angela, Katie Hyduk, Justin Turk, Niki Steusloff, Annie Matthews, and Sandy Esber. Religions - Daoism. Religions - Daoism. Np, nd Web. April 12, 2014 Zimmermann, Kim Ann. "American Culture: Traditions and Customs of the United States." WordsSideKick.com April 22, 2013. Electronic.