Jeff wrote:
> I think happiness is an important topic and
> the quest for happiness is behind peoples actions. It
> is manipulated by marketers and politicians. It is
> (IMO) the key to motivating responsible actions
> and creating ecopaths.
> What is happiness?
A tough question, but I agree, an important one. And, interestingly, one I
have been thinking about for the last couple days. Here's my attempt at an
understanding of happiness. Excuse the more formal language, it helps me
be more accurate in my expressions.
"Happiness is an often subconscious recognition of the contentment that
comes with aligning one's deeply held priorities and values, and could be
summed up with the phrase 'all seems right with the world'."
Happiness is therefore a relative state of being that comes and goes with
one's frame of mind and is somewhat dependent on one's current
circumstances, currently held beliefs, values and priorities, and the
amount of difference between one's deeply held values and one's consciously
stated values.
Since consciously stated beliefs, values and priorities are often more
influential in one's daily life choices, one can increase the amount of
happiness in one's life by becoming more aware of one's own deeply held
beliefs, values and priorities. As the deeper ones align with the
conscious ones, everyday thoughts, choices and actions lead one to more
frequent experiences of happiness. Becoming aware of the alignment is a
key point, as is honesty about one's deeper values.
. . . . and then I talked about it with Michiko. We came up with:
"Happiness is a feeling that occurs when one is filled with positive
emotions / feelings, and therefore in the absence of negative feelings /
emotions."
Positive feelings / emotions include love, contentment, gratitude,
enchantment, hope, achievement, security, awe, etc. Negative feelings /
emotions include anger, worry, jealousy, hatred, fear, vengeance, etc.
Therefore it might be possible to increase happiness in one's life by
creating an environment more conducive to positive feelings and emotions
and by learning how to avoid patterns that lead to negative emotions and
feelings. This, of course, would be different for each person and would
require some personal insight. But there is probably enough overlap in
particulars for productive discussion, and I assume that the basics are
universal.
Eric Storm
