subject: Thoughts on Happiness [print this page] Thoughts on Happiness Thoughts on Happiness
The Thought of Happiness
There are a lot of things that make people happy, but most of those things are just that... things. Too often people associate obtaining objects and status with joy. It's hard to admit to yourself that it's all just a lie to help keep you sedated by the thought that you'll feel like you belong.. if you only get thinner, have more friends and more materials. It's all just a trick, there is only one thing that can truly make you happy.
Yourself
When you walk through life trying to complete goals like that you have to makecompromisesto who you are, and before you know it you have a house filled with things and you are living with someone you don't even know and when that person is yourself, you are encompassed by thisuncontrollablefeeling of self loathing. This is when we turn to things like drugs, greed and gluttony.
This satisfies you for awhile, you get attached to the highs and when you get back to the lows you'll do anything to feel that high again. You get trapped in the cycle and you feel like you are drowning.
What if, you just chose to be happy?
What if your Ford Tempo was enough?
What if your wife was pretty enough, your kids smart enough and you were just enough?
I'm not saying become lethargic, stop striving to achieve better and better goals. That is in fact a key element to living an happy life. But when your goals are void of meaning to who you are, and all things material and self serving are, you leave a hole that can't be filled by God, Material Goods or Fame.
Don't get trapped in the mentality of, I'm just having a bad day. Bad days turn into bad weeks, bad months and bad years. When you chose to look at things objectively without Ego, happiness just seems to follow.
"It's a very difficult thing to figure out how to be a person... You have to pay attention you have to have time....if your energy is being spent on stupid bullshit...stupid fights with your girlfriend... or a buddy who's a shit head...you automatically start paying to much attention to it....when you have shit heads in your life... when you do that you will fuck yourself... it's an energy vampire" ~Joe Rogan
The problem is people tend to associate the object, even if its a person, to happiness. Instead of investing in the process(Srikumar Rao). Rao compares this with a child learning to walk getting depressed to people striving to achieve happiness. He argues that striving to achieve a specific object to obtain happiness, that you should just be invested in the moment enjoying it for what it is.
Long story short, life isn't quest to become happy you just have to be happy with your life.
