Happiness: the pursuit...

I think happiness is a fleeting thing. You might be happy with your life and then your best friend dies or you lose your job. You have to be happy in the moment and be prepared to change the source of your happiness.

 

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I did not ask my wife to serve me anything , but she went into the kitchen and brought me an ice cream ,Now I am happy and content because she showed interest in my well being.

 

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Yes, you are temporarily happy and content. Will you be content forever? Or might you want to eat again some day?

 

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I believe by learning on how to control greed and pride leads to happiness and that is what believe in God and trust in Him will do .

 

Happininess isn't based on anything but it's own innate satisfaction.

 

Self-improvement may lead to happiness for some people. On the other hand, obsession with self-improvement is a major cause of dissatisfaction for many people.

In my experience, people who believe in God are often angry and argumentative - just like anybody else.

 

As never reaching contentment can be a small goal

Example- I want to be a physicist now that I am one am happy.

A physicist can get pleasure making attempts to unify all the forces into a singular form, some may gain happiness from just the attempt and some may feel unhappiness by failing this attempt. Contentment doesn't have to mean bieng happy with your current position, it can also mean accomplishing a major goal that's extremely difficult, once you do this you will also experience contentment. There are many reasons a person can experience contentment. But they had to perform mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually first.

For the record I loosely replied, I porposely did not adress what you had pointed out. (Tired)

 

But are you content with becoming a physicist? Or do you have to be a physicist - i.e. use your knowledge - to be happy? Many people are happy trying to reach new goals instead of being content with past achievements. Happiness and contentment can be opposites.

 

Peace comes from within. Don't seek it without. -Buddha

 

A pack of smokes and a cup of coffee.

 

As anything else it all has to do with context.

 

Here is my opinion: Happiness is directly linked to your trend of being selfish or not. This does not defines ‘happiness’ per-se, but gives you a hint.

You probably have many years to live yet, so I propose you an experiment:

1. Take 1 year in your life, and live it in a completely selfish way; where you are the most important priority and nothing else is more important than yourself. After that year, measures your ‘happiness’.

2. The second year, you would do the opposite: live your life in such a way where your most important priority is to bring wellness to others, in any possible way. In this stage, you are not more important than others, others are your goal (known people AND people you do not actually know). Every decision you take this year is made taking into account how it would affect –positively or negatively- to others, even… when such decision is not convenient* for you. After this year, measure your ‘happiness’ again.

In my opinion, happiness is chemical reaction that is triggered in our minds (not body), when we specifically behave in a determinate manner. There is also ‘false happiness’: the cutting-edge way of feeling in modern times; where you are taught to fill yourself with as much material things as you can, under the believe that this will bring you ‘happiness’: this is junk food for the soul.

So, your quote: “It's performance, the ability to achieve your goals no matter what they may be.”, brings me a question: what’s next, after you have achieved your goals?, what is left?, what is your legacy after you have successfully completed your personal goals in life?: the satisfaction you might feel for the things you have done for Yourself: in my opinion, is not happiness. Happiness –in my opinion- in a state of mind triggered when you act exactly the opposite way: where bringing wellness to others, is your way of living.

 

Very deep and profound

I am currently headed to number 2 on your list, and I get great joy from just the thought of it.

"Saving lives"

 

My legacy is to give a gift to all mankind, a gift I don't want to ever live without...

 

"With the rise of individualism and the decline of collectivist ideologies, happiness is arguably becoming our supreme value. The traditional right to "the pursuit of happiness" is imperceptibly morphing into a right to happiness, which means that it is becoming the duty of government to ensure the happiness of its citizens."

Were we happier in the stone age?

The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes.

We are insatiable pleasure seeking creatures, aren’t we? Is happiness the supreme good or is it just a relentless pursuit of a particular feeling?

Professor Yuval Harari said something disturbing at the end of his book, "Sapiens". He said that we are self-made gods with only the laws of physics to keep us company, we are accountable to no one. We are consequently wreaking havoc on our fellow animals and on the surrounding eco system, seeking little more than our own comfort and amusement, yet never finding satisfaction.

Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?

 

We believe, we believe, we are reborn. We exist as four-dimensional superstructures. The goal of four-dimensional superstructures is to plant the seeds of serenity rather than turbulence.

 

Could you translate this into English?

 

Of course. Let me state it differently so that you may understand . . . We exist as chaos-driven reactions. We believe, we dream, we are reborn. The quantum soup is beaming with superpositions of possibilities. Today, science tells us that the essence of nature is spacetime. Nothing is impossible. Rebirth is the driver of fulfillment.

 

Well, there you have it. Must be a sock. Gives the illusion of more participants. Tiassa's I bet.

 

Well, you're a sock.