What is Your Source of Happiness?

Happiness comes in all shapes and sizes. Or does it? Happiness is an interested component to life, especially how we view what makes happy. Different have varying idas as to what makes them happy. However, it seems that the things that makes us the happiest are the things that are contingent on their presence in order to be happy. In other words, we are content without them, but when they appear, are are filled with joy — like a theme park.

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it. – Groucho Marx

source of happiness
What is Your Source of Happiness?

Happiness comes in all shapes and sizes. Or does it? Happiness is an interested component to life, especially how we view what makes happy. Different have varying idas as to what makes them happy. However, it seems that the things that makes us the happiest are the things that are contingent on their presence in order to be happy. In other words, we are content without them, but when they appear, are are filled with joy — like a theme park.

We are all striving to find happiness in some form or fashion, but we must first analyze what happiness actually means. Back when were small children, we are content to get what we asked for. We wanted all the attention of our parent, siblings and friends. As we got older and matured, we came to understand that other people are also imperative to our happiness — placing emphasis on selflessness is the real rationale behind fulfillment.

The interesting thing is that majority of us actually do things that add extra stress and frustration by making things more complicated than they need to be. Even our efforts towards finding happiness get turned into complex schemes like we are trying to negotiate a business deal and not just to feel good once in a while.

We  think that a simple solution to our problems can’t possibly be the right one. So what happen is we discard simple ideas for happiness and look for something more complicated. Perhaps we even feel a little offended to think that a simple solution could help us out. This is due to our innate inner subconscious wanting to “solve the problem”. When the simple answer has little to no problem to solve, the mind goes crazy looking to either, 1. Make the issue more complex, or 2. Attempting to make the issue an actual problem to solve. What this means is that sometimes we actually create problems for ourselves. And the notion of this should send you into an inner dialog of investigation as to if you are doing this to yourself or not.

 

In a 2006 study conducted by Princeton University that looked at whether if increases in income have been found to have mainly a transitory effect on individuals reported life satisfaction, concluded “When people consider the impact of a any single factor on their well-being -not only income – they are prone to exaggerate its importance; we refer to this tendency as the focusing illusion. Nothing in life is quite as important as think it is while you are thinking about it. One conclusion from this research is that people do not know how happy or satisfied they are with their life in the way they know their hight or telephone number”

How do we think of happiness?

  • Feeling you have a place in the world
  •  Fairy-tale, happily ever after
  • Moments of euphoria and joy
  • Loving someone and being loved

Most of us in the western world tend to think that happiness currency is material things. In Oliver James’  2007 book ‘Affluenza’ he spoke of this point:

“The more anxious or depressed we are, the more we must consume, and the more we consume, the more disturbed we become. Consumption hold out the false promise that an inter lack can be fixed by external means. We medicate our misery though buying things”

This statement by James is one we should possible read every day. We need to ask the source of our own happiness before we start requiring “things” and people to make us happy. Sometimes we say, “you make me so happy”, but what are we saying? Are we saying we aren’t happy unless that person is among us? Are we not happy unless we have the food and environment we are used to present? The ultimate questions is this: Are we placing a requirement on life to make us happy? If so, we need to asses as to the source of our unhappiness. There, we will find where true happiness dwells.

4 thoughts on “What is Your Source of Happiness?

Leave a Comment...

Next Post

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's Poem of Love

ove is an interesting part of our every day life. We say we "love" coffee, food, people, articles, photographs, animals and so forth. What is love? To answer this question you would have to consult the hundred plus years love has been debated about by theologians and philosophers. For scientists, "love" is a chemical reaction when parts of our brains release chemicals that make us feel good physically. To theologians, love is spiritual connection to something that matchs our connection to the world. To philosophers, love is a part of the ego that longs to fill a psychological void deep within our mind. So, love can obviously become complex very quickly.
love
%d bloggers like this: