Happiness

[pErvinalia]

How did they get by without a jetski and a second car?

[laklak]

How did they get by without a jetski and a second car?

Poor benighted fucks.

[Trinity]

I was happy doing nothing but by 11 we will have guests that we have to house and entertain 3 days. On monday I escape to work.

I've come to the conclusion that cavemen were happy for 20-30 years. A few fleas and lice. And no coffee. But otherwise OK.

I often think this! Although I guess there was no or little concept of "happiness". Simplicity in life (compared to how we live now) notwithstanding the struggle for survival, I suppose would have been cause for less unhappiness. More of a necessity to be so totally engaged in the present that there was no time or energy to dwell on dissatisfaction or feel bored or unfulfilled. Pure conjecture, of course.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

XC's aphorism: "If you can't be doing what makes you happy, just be happy with what you're doing."*





* Roughly translated as: "Have you tried wanking?"

[Rum]

We don't 'deserve' happiness. If you have it you are lucky. I tend to think of myself as a cheerful nihilist with a good enough ability to divert my attention away from wondering what's the point of doing anything long enough to get on and do it..

..I think I am actually pretty happy. Talk about flying in the face of all the available evidence!

[pErvinalia]

We don't 'deserve' happiness. If you have it you are lucky. I tend to think of myself as a cheerful nihilist with a good enough ability to divert my attention away from wondering what's the point of doing anything long enough to get on and do it..

..I think I am actually pretty happy. Talk about flying in the face of all the available evidence!

Sounds like me... except you are succeeding at it.

[Blind groper]

Anyone who thinks he/she can attain happiness through following some kind of formula is living in fantasyland.

Evolution resulted in imperfect humans who manage to be happy some of the time. The thing is, though, that the end result of evolution does not include happiness. Being happy is simply a reward system we evolved to cause us to do what helps us survive and reproduce, and too much happiness gets in the way of this.

Each of us can cheat the system to some degree, and gain a bit more happiness than the forces of evolution generated. How we do this is entirely personal, since everyone is different to everyone else.

One key is social. Find people you like and spend a lot of time with them, in cheerful conversation. If nothing else, spend more time surfing the forum, and interacting on line with other forum members. Not as happy as face to face, but a hell of a lot better than nothing. After all, humans evolved to survive through social cooperation, and we are rewarded with being happier when we go along with this.

Sex and alcohol work pretty well too. But find your own formula, and do not expect too much. We have not evolved to be happy all the time. A little bit now and then is really what we should realistically aim for. Do not let this bother you either. There is absolutely no reason why anyone should be happy all the time. So accept it.

[Audley Strange]

Happiness is a temporary emotional state like anger or sadness. I agree with what Cormac and Groper (I thought it was gopher!!!) was saying, the best you can be is content in life and if you are you are very fortunate.

[Robert_S]

It's so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you've found a magical formula written by some uber-wise person. I've done it many times, but eventually noticed that pattern in my behavior and the fact that I had yet to find any such magical formula.

A great piece of whizdomme from the Church of the Subgenius:

The greatest of the inventions of the SubGenius is the SHORT DURATION PERSONAL SAVIOR, or "Shordurpersav." The True SubGenius accepts into his heart, as his own personal savior, anyone or anything with which he happens to be impressed at the moment. Shordurpersavs change from hour to hour, whim to whim. It could be the hero of a show you just saw, the author of a filthy book, a bottle of Thunderbird, a good pal, a car, a dog, a sex object, a friendly croaker who scripts for you. Not professional gurus you are locked into believing, but temporary ones according to the need of the "Now. " They change so fast that it never gets embarrassing, you aren't inclined to 'proselytize' them off on disinterested others who will later laugh at you; you know their effects will wear off in minutes (even though the very idea is unthinkable while under the Influence). One needs not mention them at all - a superb Tenet, since one is sometimes deeply ashamed of oneself for having a particularly unsavory Shordurpersav: some few can be Personal Saviors and False Prophets at the same time.

[hadespussercats]

Great thread, Trinity!

I think achievement is pretty important to me, in terms of personal happiness. That idea of working towards a goal, being a creature that needs to work to be happy. My difficulty these days is untangling the threads of what I want to accomplish for myself, versus what I want to get affirmation and a sense of worth from others. Because when I work for the latter, I put the control of my senses of satisfaction, pride, happiness, etc., in the hands of some other, sometimes a largely faceless other, instead of taking it for myself.

I got a rejection letter the other day for some writing I'd submitted to a competition. I know that everyone gets turned down at some point, that I need to keep putting the work out there, that there are a lot of reasons other than the quality of my work that might have led to my being passed over. Still smarts, though. I'm trying to work on taking pride in putting something of mine out there into the world. I mean, I don't need anyone to tell me my son is amazing-- I put him out into the world knowing he is. What other people say about him might make me feel other things too, but they could never change my joy in him for being him. I'd like to cultivate a bit of that for my other creative works.

[PsychoSerenity]

Anyone who thinks he/she can attain happiness through following some kind of formula is living in fantasyland.

Evolution resulted in imperfect humans who manage to be happy some of the time. The thing is, though, that the end result of evolution does not include happiness. Being happy is simply a reward system we evolved to cause us to do what helps us survive and reproduce, and too much happiness gets in the way of this.

Each of us can cheat the system to some degree, and gain a bit more happiness than the forces of evolution generated. How we do this is entirely personal, since everyone is different to everyone else.

One key is social. Find people you like and spend a lot of time with them, in cheerful conversation. If nothing else, spend more time surfing the forum, and interacting on line with other forum members. Not as happy as face to face, but a hell of a lot better than nothing. After all, humans evolved to survive through social cooperation, and we are rewarded with being happier when we go along with this.

Sex and alcohol work pretty well too. But find your own formula, and do not expect too much. We have not evolved to be happy all the time. A little bit now and then is really what we should realistically aim for. Do not let this bother you either. There is absolutely no reason why anyone should be happy all the time. So accept it.

Certainly if you are talking purely happiness as an emotion - happiness, sadness, and a whole barrage of other feelings come and go as they please. But there is a big difference between living a life of negative cyclical behaviours and thought pattens, almost constant anxiety or escapism, - and a life where you are able to calmly take things as they come and make the best of them, and feel good about it, confident you are doing what is best for you, no matter whether you are currently feeling happy or sad. The former tends to exacerbate emotional turmoil and trap you in negative cycles, - the latter is a way of accepting what you feel, be it good or bad, learning to let it go as and when it passes, and continue making progress for yourself, - and I think it is likely to give a happier life over all.

[FBM]

I think that as long as you need something outside yourself in order to be happy (beyond the necessities of food, shelter, etc), you're in for a disappointment.

I think that what Audley mentioned, contentment, is a better goal than what people usually describe as happiness. The carefree, mindless happiness of a 6-week-old puppy, for instance. Contentment, satisfaction, appreciation for what you do have seem to be more conducive to a peaceful mind for me. Not that that's my mental state all the time, of course, but when my mind is most tranquil and "happy," those things tend to be major factors, rather than striving for more and more of more and more.

[Robert_S]

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=787

[Robert_S]

It actually works. Starting the day thinking about dogs, or cats.

They're fuzzy!

[Clinton Huxley]

Happiness, happiness! The greatest gift that we possess!