I wonder who taught them. Probably did that positive psychology course by correspondence. Watch your step, you may trip on my sarcasm.
I'm not being critical of the program, it's introduction into schools, or the notion of exploring positive psychology. I guess it's just a weird (but insightful) commentary on where we are at as a society when we have to take classes (at college level no less) on how to be happy. Maybe we should just send our kids for a semester of 'Life 101' on the island of Espiritu Santo with my islander brother, McKenzie (his first name).
In the article, the comparison was made between feeling good (chasing or partaking in something which makes us feel good for a while - food, drugs, sex, a new dress) and doing good (helping others, being generous with our time, money, skills), and which might provide us with a greater level of long-term and overall happiness. In a way, the self-ish verses the self-less debate.
The million-dollar question has to be, “What is happiness?” Is it different things for different people? Can it be defined? Is it a psychological state, an emotional state, a spiritual plane, a combination of the lot perhaps, a myth, or none of the above?
How do we know when we're there? What are the symptoms, er, signs? What if we have all the happiness ingredients but we're still not happy? Perhaps there's something wrong with our wiring, or maybe the ingredients need to be different for every individual.
Maybe there are no set ingredients. Maybe we keep changing the happiness rules, constantly raising the happiness bar, and subconsciously pushing it out of our own reach causing self-inflicted misery. Strangely, some of us seem determined to find our way back to unhappiness.
Some psychologists teach us that if we are needed, wanted, appreciated, stimulated, and loved, we should be pretty happy; but what if we're not? Is happiness a four-year old squealing with delight as her dad pushes her on a swing, or is that a momentary emotional state, a temporary euphoria? Is it excitement, or joy perhaps?
When she starts crying once the swing stops, does that mean the happiness has stopped, or does it mean she's a brat, or just a kid who wants to be swinging?
Is true happiness something that is (for the most part) always there — like that deep sense of contentment, inner peace, satisfaction, and calm that we might guess someone like the Dalai Lama takes everywhere with him? Is it that deep sense of knowing we are in the right place, doing the right thing?
Article comments
1 - Yehudit
Consider Spell- and grammarcheck. "It is" = "It's". "Its" is possessive. "Principles" are what most people have. The manager of schools are called "principals", thus the joke about "think of your principal as your pal."
YHC
2 - klondikekitty
I agree that happiness tends to be an elusive, sometimes nearly impossible, goal these days, but I am of the opinion that much of the unhappiness in the world is due to greed/instant gratification demands/envy of what others have that one cannot afford. There also is a stress factor involved -- difficult to find happiness when you're so stressed out and tired you barely have the energy to make dinner when you get home at night!!