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Humans aren’t designed to be happy – so stop trying

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Donald Morton
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21 Jul 2019, 1:04 pm

We are the creators of our own realities. If you feel that unhappiness is beyond your reach, or you don't think that it is possible for humans to be happy, and so on ad nauseam. Then of course you will not be happy. If all you do is dwell on the negative aspects of you existence, then of course you will be unhappy. Life is not a smooth ride, but life is what you make it. The choice is our own to make.


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blazingstar
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21 Jul 2019, 5:42 pm

Happiness is a ripe mango, an orchid in bloom, a paddle in the river.


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nick007
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21 Jul 2019, 6:39 pm

lostonearth35 wrote:
^ Apparently someone had a bumper sticker that said, "vaccinate your crotch goblins", and I find that phrase for infants and children amusing. :twisted:
Funny but I would rather a bumper sticker that said "use protection so you won't have crotch goblins"


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auntblabby
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22 Jul 2019, 2:54 am

happiness is pain relief.



Lukario
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22 Jul 2019, 5:58 am

I disagree, sadness can be a total sucker.



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22 Jul 2019, 6:38 pm

auntblabby wrote:
happiness is pain relief.


That, too.


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Amity
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23 Jul 2019, 2:39 am

Amity wrote:
The problem with believing that we are deserving of happiness, believing that we are entitled to it, is that we're not entitled to or automatically deserving of anything in this life.
If the notion of entitlement/deserving was achievable then there wouldn't be poverty in the world.

However :)



jngyslate
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26 Jul 2019, 9:18 pm

You know what I wish, is that people would come to realize that humans are imperfect creations. There are so many people that pass off what someone else said for a fact. It's so old.



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09 Nov 2020, 5:26 pm

No wonder that "a healthy cynicism" is an important part of well...........something like happiness!



Donald Morton
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09 Nov 2020, 5:51 pm

jngyslate wrote:
You know what I wish, is that people would come to realize that humans are imperfect creations. There are so many people that pass off what someone else said for a fact. It's so old.



Indeed. You are so right on with that.


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09 Nov 2020, 6:20 pm

The age old search for meaning to our otherwise seemingly meaningless existence.
Some find salvation in religious / philosophical thought.

I am agnostic, so I am on the fence.

The aim of Buddhism is not to be happy or deluded but to free yourself from all delusions of the mind,
to accept suffering and make friends with suffering.
To reduce your attachments to the material world so that you eventually became free of all attachments,
but that's not the end.

Once you have gained such control over your mind, you then devoutly promise to help all other sentient beings
also to do so until the end of all attachment.

End of the world of illusion.
This is not dying.... This is not dying.
This is the one hand clapping.



kitesandtrainsandcats
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09 Nov 2020, 6:21 pm

(my initial thoughts on the matter appear to have been at least somewhat addressed in posts on here)

Is what the word happiness means to me the same thing it means to you, and the same thing it means to them, and to them, and to them, and to ...

While you and I may be conversing about happiness we may or may not be having the same conversation.

And speaking of conversation, some thoughts which come upon looking at the article at The Conversation,

Quote:
If you are unhappy at times, this is not a shortcoming that demands urgent repair, as the happiness gurus would have it. Far from it. This fluctuation is, in fact, what makes you human

Those "happiness gurus" may be a bit too commercially involved to be considered as impartial independent analysts.

Quote:
Research has shown that positive and negative emotions and affects can coexist in the brain relatively independently of each other.

Oh do I know some people who will fight tooth and nail against that concept.


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09 Nov 2020, 6:28 pm

The word "happy" actually comes from the middle-english word "Hap" which means "good fortune"

In English culture the concept of happiness actually stems from boons or good fortune rather than the modern version which has evolved to be a state of mind.



kitesandtrainsandcats
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09 Nov 2020, 6:40 pm

And speaking of that "pursuit of happiness" thing,
here's an excerpt from an essay worth reading,

(and note, English word usages and meanings don't stand still, ever; for instance, read John McWhorter's book, Words on the Move)

Quote:
What 'happiness' means

The Declaration of Independence guarantees the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." What do you think the phrase "pursuit of happiness" means to most people who hear it today?

I think most people think "pursuit" in that phrase means "chasing happiness" — as in the phrase "in hot pursuit." This would mean that "the pursuit of happiness" has to do with "seeking it" or "going after it" somehow.

How does this differ from what our nation's founders meant when the Declaration of Independence was written?

It differs a lot! Arthur Schlesinger should be credited with pointing out in a nice little essay in 1964 that at the time of the Declaration's composition, "the pursuit of happiness" did not mean chasing or seeking it, but actually practicing happiness, the experience of happiness — not just chasing it but actually catching it, you might say.

This is demonstrated by documents that are contemporary with the Declaration, but also by the Declaration itself, in the continuation of the same sentence that contains "the pursuit of happiness" phrase. The continuation speaks of effecting people's safety and happiness. But the clearest explanation might be the Virginia Convention's Declaration of Rights, which dates to June 12, 1776, just a few weeks before July 4. The Virginia Declaration actually speaks of the "pursuing and obtaining" of happiness.


https://news.emory.edu/stories/2014/06/ ... ampus.html

That word "pursuit" has had multiple meanings and usages for a long time;
Reference: https://www.etymonline.com/word/pursuit
Quote:
pursuit (n.)
late 14c., "persecution," also "action of pursuit," from Anglo-French purseute, from Old French porsuite "a search, pursuit" (14c., Modern French poursuite), from porsivre (see pursue). Sense of "one's profession, recreation, etc." first recorded 1520s.


and https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pursuit
Quote:
2 : an activity that one engages in as a vocation, profession, or avocation : occupation


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09 Nov 2020, 6:53 pm

kitesandtrainsandcats wrote:
(and note, English word usages and meanings don't stand still, ever; for instance, read John McWhorter's book, Words on the Move)


Yes this is true, but values are more deeper ingrained than social meanings. Just because there is social consensus to adopt the modern meaning of happiness doesn't change the intergenerational values that are passed down from parent to child.

I can't be the only one but I never remembered my parents (let alone my grandparents) ever being happy.



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09 Nov 2020, 6:57 pm

Happiness is as happy does .


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