Thread: A Guide to Happiness

I believe happiness is more or less in the mind. What makes me happy wont make some other people happy. We all have different beliefs on what makes yourself happy. Some people find happiness in love, others in philosophy, others in the culinary arts, others in music. If I genuinely believe that making music makes me happy then, I'm happy making music. It's nothing terribly complicated. Unless you want it to be complicated. Again this is merely my opinion.

Originally Posted by Caenis

Maybe. I'd prefer to have my ugly human face than a furry flat face.

That was the most innocent kitten I could find. The rest was purring because food is being served soon or crying out of fear of being bathed.

Originally Posted by quassom

I believe happiness is more or less in the mind. What makes me happy wont make some other people happy. We all have different beliefs on what makes yourself happy. Some people find happiness in love, others in philosophy, others in the culinary arts, others in music. If I genuinely believe that making music makes me happy then, I'm happy making music. It's nothing terribly complicated. Unless you want it to be complicated. Again this is merely my opinion.

My opinion on happiness is that it's far easier to be happy than people realize. In fact, I don't think you have to make yourself happy by doing anything. You can just be happy and then do stuff because you're so happy that doing stuff becomes easy.

^^^I do this every day.

I find a reason to smile every day. I doubt I could stop.

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

My opinion on happiness is that it's far easier to be happy than people realize. In fact, I don't think you have to make yourself happy by doing anything. You can just be happy and then do stuff because you're so happy that doing stuff becomes easy.

Yes sorry I left kind of a gray spot there. Im not saying that a person has to be actually doing something to be happy. A simple paradigm shift can change a mood greatly. I don't believe we are actually argueing more over agreeing awkwardly. Haha

I tend to avoid looking at discussions from an arguing/agreeing dichotomy. I simply weigh in.

It may be true that you have to simply let yourself be happy, but for many that may be difficult because we put so much emphasis on happiness coming from either material comforts or career achievement. While these things certainly can bring temporary happiness, and my be a springboard to help you become happy, they definitely arnt the stuff of lasting "chronic" happiness. To me, this is actually kind of sad, because it would make life pretty easy if thats all you had to do to be happy. But NOOO you have to find out what actually makes you happy

I find being happy makes me happy. If I start from a position of already feeling good, rather than obtaining some sort of desire I believe will make me happy, I follow my desires from the attitude I'm interested in achieving in the first place and let the happiness snowball from there.

To be honest every morning I have to start over, I usually wake up feeling rather flat. But I believe that because reality surrounds you with circumstances to justify your attitude, if I want my circumstances to change that means first I have to fix my attitude. This belief has enabled me to overcome this idea that I need to obtain something in order to make me happy. It's helped me overcome the roadblock of feeling "lack" or feeling like I'm missing something important. Life is the moment, so I may as well carry the attitude in the moment that I'm searching for.

Im happy when i can make others happy.

Living your life as a good person.
Living in the moment.
Don't pay attention to irritations but focus on positive things.
Be happy with yourself.
Spend time with the people you love.

Life is short so live every day as it is your last

Through realising the absurdity of life.

Originally Posted by tkdyo

It may be true that you have to simply let yourself be happy, but for many that may be difficult because we put so much emphasis on happiness coming from either material comforts or career achievement. While these things certainly can bring temporary happiness, and my be a springboard to help you become happy, they definitely arnt the stuff of lasting "chronic" happiness. To me, this is actually kind of sad, because it would make life pretty easy if thats all you had to do to be happy. But NOOO you have to find out what actually makes you happy

I think material comforts come in when you can't get physical comfort because it's much more easily obtainable. Unless you're looking at something that is really, really expensive.

yeah I should have clarified that, I meant expensive material comforts which show off how much money you have, and thus happiness (so our culture would have us believe) Simple material comfort can help quite a bit, I believe there has been a study done that having material comforts enough to meet all our basic needs make us happier, but piling more on after that does not show a correlation.

There's a movie called "I Am" by the director such glory as Ace Ventura and Liar Liar. He had Post Concussion Disorder and it put him into such a deep depression he decided to go into documentaries about the meaning of life or whatever.

But they highlight the example that if you're cold, naked, outside, starving in the middle of a snow storm and you find a simple cabin where someone sits you by the fire, gives you a blanket and some hot soup, you feel much, much better. The logic is then, if that much stuff can make you feel that much better, a whole lot more stuff will continue increasing that good feeling.

The reality is described by the second noble truth of Buddhism. Thirst causes suffering. To avoid suffering, stop thirsting. Of course the Buddha realized the aestheticism people were practicing was based on a paradox. They desire to give up desire, and so they suffer through the process of relieving desire. So he told people just give up as much desire as you are able. Or at least give up desiring to give up more desire than you are able. Yay for the Middle Way.

I find desire can actually make life more fun. But I keep in mind some basic ground rules, too. For instance, you want to care, but not that much. Desiring something intensely does not need to be an intolerable experience of lack. It can be a joyous experience of enthusiasm.

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

Explain how to be happy

well, having a sense of humor and not taking things too seriously should help.

Originally Posted by tropicalbreeze

well, having a sense of humor and not taking things too seriously should help.

The absurdity of life makes both those things easier.

I changed my mind, it's drugs

lollll

Originally Posted by Wolfwood

The absurdity of life makes both those things easier.

i can't really view life as being absurd but if your speaking of society then yeah i can somewhat agree to that.

Originally Posted by tropicalbreeze

i can't really view life as being absurd but if your speaking of society then yeah i can somewhat agree to that.

Are you religious at all?

what do you mean by religious?

lol getting all philosophical on me now eh. ;p

Do you have a prescribed all-encompassing reason to explain your presence, and purpose, here on earth? Or I could say, do you look beyond science to the metaphysical to make sense of this all, this experience? Do you have faith in something transcendental?

Originally Posted by Wolfwood

lol getting all philosophical on me now eh. ;p

Do you have a prescribed all-encompassing reason to explain your presence, and purpose, here on earth? Or I could say, do you look beyond science to the metaphysical to make sense of this all, this experience? Do you have faith in something transcendental?

not getting philosophical just making sure there is no misunderstanding.

for the first two questions: no
for your last question: yes

So you're saying you do believe life has some sort of ultimate meaning? Are you able to describe in some way what that is?