Maybe it's impossible to be happy all the time; or not.
Every religion has an opinion on it, and also a level of "we're right and they're wrong" in their theology (psychology/philosophy). Religious arrogance always amuses me. Seems a little contradictory to me, but then again, I'm just a simple gym owner. Not as enlightened as some, I s'pose.
Maybe happiness is the absence of certain things: fear, frustration, hate, illness, pain, and insecurity, for example. Surely different things make different people happy, so maybe happiness is an individual response to a range of varied stimuli. For one person, a crying baby might be a source of great happiness, but for another not so much!
What about things that once made us happy, but not any more because we've changed, maybe for the worse. Maybe we make ourselves miserable by focusing on what we don't have rather than enjoying what we do. Perhaps we don't really know how to appreciate what, or who, we have in our life.
Some people suggest that living in an environment where we have so many choices (check out the cereal selection at your supermarket) has led some of us to being perpetually dissatisfied, always wanting more, always looking over the fence, always believing that a bigger, better, or newer version (of whatever) will make us happy.
Finding misery in an otherwise pretty cool life seems to be a common skill these days. Perhaps we're too analytical. Perhaps our tendency to analyse and re-analyse every single facet of our lives inside-out and upside-down has turned us into a bunch of neurotic, self-absorbed, insecure, needy Sigmund Freud-wannabees.
Perhaps all this therapy has made us more dysfunctional. Maybe we think and talk about it too much. Maybe I shouldn't publish this article. Maybe I'm helping perpetuate the problem - or not.
Maybe we should spend less time trying to make ourselves happy, and more time and energy trying to make others happy; and in doing so we'd make ourselves happy! That'd be cool.
Hey, I'm back at the selfish verses selfless debate, aren't I? Maybe there's something in that.
Okay, I know you have an opinion. Get off the fence and let's hear it.
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!!