What Is Happiness?

                      Happiness is one of those general, overal terms we use to say, "I feel
                      good." People use different terms to describe what "feels good" for them.
                      For me, it's excitement, passion, exhileration, fulfillment, feeling fully alive
                      with inspiration and joy. It has a lot of high energy associated with it. For
                      others it's a much more peaceful, satisfied, comfortable feeling.

                      You are happy when you are not UNhappy. What is unhappy? If you
                      experience any of the following feelings, you are unhappy, to some
                      degree: uncomfortable, self doubt, depressed, hateful, fearful, worried,
                      unsatisfied, bored, grief, shame, guilt, discontent, anxious, annoyed,
                      angry, irritated, stressed, frustrated, down, sad, envious or jealous.
                      Whew, that’s a long list! Basically, unhappiness is a varing degree of
                      "feeling bad." You are the only one that can know what you're are feeling.
 

 Happiness Is Everyone's Goal?

                      Every human that has ever existed has had happiness as their ultimate
                      goal. Pretty bold and presumptuous statement, huh? When you put the
                      emphasis on “ultimate”, I think you’ll find the statement is true.

                      Let’s looks at an example where happiness as the goal is not so obvious.

                      Joe goes to work everyday to a job he doesn’t find fulfilling or satisfying.
                      But he does work for a REASON. The job, the consequenting income,
                      the ability to support his family, or to save for something he wants, are the
                      intermediate goals, his main goal is to be happy (feel good). He feels
                      good about being able to support his family, knowing he can pay for a
                      place to live, can buy that thing he wants. All those things leading him to
                      feel “comfortable”.

                      Happiness does not always appear to be an obvious goal because of the
                      sometimes unpleasant intermediary goals we believe are necessary to
                      achieve our ultimate goal. But in the end, we do what we do to feel good.
 
 

                           And he said unto them...

                           "If a man told God that he wanted most of all to help the
                           suffering world, no matter the price to himself, and God
                           answered and told him what he must do, should the man
                           do as he is told?"

                           "Of course, Master!" cried the many.
                           "It should be pleasure for him to suffer the tortures of
                           hell itself, should God ask it!"

                           "No matter what those tortures, nor how difficult the task?"

                           "Honor to be hanged, glory to be nailed to a tree and burned,
                           if so be that God has asked," said they.

                           "And what would you do," the Master said unto the
                           multitude, "if God spoke directly to your face and said...

                           'I command that you be happy in the world, as long
                           as you live.' What would you do then?"

                           And the multitude was silent, not a voice, not a sound
                           was heard upon the hillsides, across the valleys
                           where they stood.

                                    -Illusions by Richard Bach
 
 

 
Society's Beliefs About Happiness

                      So if happiness is so important to us, and its what everyone seeks, then
                      why aren’t there any classes on how to be happy? No culture, or society,
                      past or present, has put any emphasis on teaching happiness. You’d think
                      with the magnitude of the role happiness plays in our lives, that there
                      would be some type of education on the subject. You’d think we’d be
                      teaching happiness from kindergarten through adult education classes.
                      Where is "A Study in Happiness" on our list of offered college courses?

                      I’ve racked my brain trying to figure out why we don’t teach people
                      about how to help themselves feel good, and I think it comes down to
                      one reason. Society, as a whole, has some pretty big misconceptions
                      about being happy. We have passed down from generation to generation
                      the belief that happiness, or unhappiness, can be attributed to external
                      causes. We’ve been told that other people and the circumstances of our
                      lives make us happy or unhappy. That our happiness is outside ourselves.
                      Here’s what Richard Evans has to say about happiness and society.

                           “The Pursuit of Happiness”

                           There are some fine distinctions to be found in the now immortal
                           phrase, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Life is eternal;
                           liberty, an inalienable right, but with happiness -- we are offered
                           only the right to pursue it! We can give a man his liberty but not so
                           his happiness. We can help, but ultimately he has to help himself to
                           happiness. This all men have in common, we are searching for
                           happiness. No one wants to be unhappy; no one deliberately sets
                           out to try to make a muddle of his life.

                           Among the many misconceptions concerning this thing so much
                           pursued are these: (One) That money makes happiness. False. It
                           may help or it may hinder. Some men have sold their happiness, but
                           no one was ever able to buy it. (Two) That pleasure is the same as
                           happiness. False. You can wear yourself ragged in pursuit of
                           pleasure and still wake up in dull despair. (Three) That fame brings
                           happiness. False. The record eloquently indicates otherwise. (Four)
                           That happiness must be found in far places. False again. We carry it
                           with us.

                           If there were no reasonable chance of finding happiness, we had
                           just as well ring down the curtain on time and eternity, for
                           happiness is properly the chief business and ultimate aim of life.
                           “Men are, that they might have joy.” But there is no point in
                           pursuing it where it never was and never will be found. No one ever
                           over took anything -- including happiness -- by pursuing it on the
                           wrong road. If we want it, we had better look for it where it is.”
 
 
 
 

Original Site:     www.datasync.com/~jenn/happiness.htm