elbeau said...
I listened to a report on the radio of a study carried out by a psychologist.
He claimed there where 3 levels of happiness.
The first level was when people (like Greenroom) were doing an activity that they enjoyed,surfing,golf etc
The next level was when people where involved in an activity they enjoyed and where paid to do it. Eg Professional surfer, golfer etc
The third level (and the happiest people he found ) where those that were doing something they enjoyed and were then paid for it. Then they used some of that money to help others Eg orphans.
Doing something you love. Getting paid to do it. Getting the joy and satisfaction from helping someone who can't help themselves. Happiest people in the world he reckoned.
It's a lovely idea and something to aspire to, but it's not true.
If it were true all surf bums would be happy all the time, all professional sports people and musicians would be ecstatically cheerful, and all social workers would be leaping for joy all the time.
We know that all the people we look up to are miserable about the same as the rest of us.
The truth is that "happiness" is a mythical, transitory state. We are all happy some of the time, miserable some of the time, and all sorts of other feelings in between.
If we were "happy" all the time we would probably be demented as well.
It is possible that the biggest barrier to happiness is the pursuit of happiness. "I'm not happy because all those other people are better looking, smarter, richer, more talented, thinner ... than me"
Programs that force people to do things they don't want to in order to be happy could be seen as victimising people. "Hey you. Social phobic! Go and be the life of the party."
Buddhism, and other philosophies teach acceptance. Basically enjoy the good bits and don't sweat the bad bits.
Probably the best we can hope for is general contentedness with moments of joy and happiness and tolerable moments of stress and difficulty.
Arguably the happiest people are parents with reasonably sane kids, a decent home, the mortgage under control, a root once a month and their footy team doing ok.
