RE: Cynical view of happiness.
July 7, 2016 at 7:03 am
(This post was last modified: July 7, 2016 at 7:06 am by Whateverist.)
Hopefully everyone has a reference point for what happiness is, leastwise I suspect we can all remember two times when the degree of our happiness/satisfaction was not equal. If you could theoretically play all those memories off, one against the next, you'd eventually arrive at the memory of the time at which you felt most happy. If you then analyzed the circumstances surrounding your happier times and those surrounding your unhappier times, I don't think you find anything capable of guaranteeing a new happy moment. It seems to be something beyond our direct control, though you may well make it some number of years without realizing that.
Of course things like where you live, who you love, activities you engage in, what you eat, whether you are physically comfortable and mentally at ease can directly influence your happiness. Maslow's hierarchy of needs comes to mind. If you're having trouble breathing or swallowing, you're not going to be very happy. Some minimal level of needs satisfaction seems necessary for happiness. But I doubt if there is any degree of needs satisfaction which will guarantee happiness. Ticking off needful tasks can be satisfying but you can also work to achieve something only to discover it brings you no satisfaction.
So is novelty an essential element of happiness? Perhaps we burn through the happiness which comes from novelty and then what counts as happiness transforms. Boy, I don't know. That book "Still Life with Woodpecker" by Robbins was one long meditation on what happiness is and the question of how one makes happiness stay. But he admits you can't distill it down to any formula.
Maybe its part of a feedback loop hardwired into our chemistry to move us toward our evolutionary ends, but I don't think so. I think happiness is a mystery that shows up as a very welcome guest but comes and goes on its own whim. It does no good to whore yourself for happiness because its just going to keep coming and going for its own reasons anyhow. Maybe you can find a way to make your life a place happiness will want to visit.
Can one make happiness happy so it will want to stay with you? I don't know but you can be grateful when it comes. You can humble yourself to your actual helplessness in this, disavow a sense of entitlement to happiness and accept your role as the caretaker of your life. Get those needs attended to and now and then you may come home to find happiness is there. Who knows?
Of course things like where you live, who you love, activities you engage in, what you eat, whether you are physically comfortable and mentally at ease can directly influence your happiness. Maslow's hierarchy of needs comes to mind. If you're having trouble breathing or swallowing, you're not going to be very happy. Some minimal level of needs satisfaction seems necessary for happiness. But I doubt if there is any degree of needs satisfaction which will guarantee happiness. Ticking off needful tasks can be satisfying but you can also work to achieve something only to discover it brings you no satisfaction.
So is novelty an essential element of happiness? Perhaps we burn through the happiness which comes from novelty and then what counts as happiness transforms. Boy, I don't know. That book "Still Life with Woodpecker" by Robbins was one long meditation on what happiness is and the question of how one makes happiness stay. But he admits you can't distill it down to any formula.
Maybe its part of a feedback loop hardwired into our chemistry to move us toward our evolutionary ends, but I don't think so. I think happiness is a mystery that shows up as a very welcome guest but comes and goes on its own whim. It does no good to whore yourself for happiness because its just going to keep coming and going for its own reasons anyhow. Maybe you can find a way to make your life a place happiness will want to visit.
Can one make happiness happy so it will want to stay with you? I don't know but you can be grateful when it comes. You can humble yourself to your actual helplessness in this, disavow a sense of entitlement to happiness and accept your role as the caretaker of your life. Get those needs attended to and now and then you may come home to find happiness is there. Who knows?
