Joined: Mar 04, 2005 Posts: 2642 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:46 am Post subject: The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them
The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them
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"It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don't make it." —Author and researcher Gregg Easterbrook
Happiness is 50 percent genetic, says University of Minnesota researcher David Lykken. What you do with the other half of the challenge depends largely on determination, psychologists agree. As Abraham Lincoln once said, "Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be."
One route to more happiness is called "flow," an engrossing state that comes during creative or playful activity, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has found. Athletes, musicians, writers, gamers, and religious adherents know the feeling. It comes less from what you're doing than from how you do it.
Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California at Riverside has discovered that the road toward a more satisfying and meaningful life involves a recipe repeated in schools, churches and synagogues. Make lists of things for which you're grateful in your life, practice random acts of kindness, forgive your enemies, notice life's small pleasures, take care of your health, practice positive thinking, and invest time and energy into friendships and family.
The happiest people have strong friendships, says Ed Diener, a psychologist University of Illinois. Interestingly his research finds that most people are slightly to moderately happy, not unhappy.
"If you are looking for something to complain about, you are absolutely certain to find it," Easterbrook told LiveScience. "It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don't make it. Most people take the path of least resistance. Far too many people today don't make the steps to make their life more fulfilling one."
Yahoo _________________ Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. Wells.
Fatih Birol's motto: leave oil before it leaves us.
Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:49 am Post subject: Re: The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them
Correction: it takes some effort in our culture. In spite of all the myths that Western culture is designed to make people as happy as possible, it actually isn't. Many places that are "less developed" have cultures that make happiness the path of least resistance.
Joined: Sep 06, 2004 Posts: 5315 Location: Smalltown New Zealand
Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:57 am Post subject: Re: The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them
Quote:
It comes less from what you're doing than from how you do it.
Bananarama wrote:
It Aint What You Do
It ain't what you do it's the way that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the way that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the way that you do it
And that's what gets results
It ain't what you do it's the time that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the time that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the time that you do it
And that's what gets results
You can try hard don't mean a thing
Take it easy and then your jive will swing
It ain't what you do it's the place that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the place that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the place that you do it
And that's what gets results
I thought I was smart but I soon found out
I didn't know what life was all about
But then I learnt I must confess
That life is like a game of chess
It ain't what you do it's the way that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the time that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the place that you do it
And that's what gets results
You can try hard don't mean a thing
Take it easy and then your jive will swing
It ain't what you do it's the way that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the way that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the way that you do it
And that's what gets results
It ain't what you do it's the time that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the time that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the time that you do it
And that's what gets results
It ain't what you do it's the place that you do it
It ain't what you do it's the place that you do it
_________________ "Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers." - Henry Louis Mencken
Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:10 am Post subject: Re: The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them
As it is defined today, the pursuit of happiness is foolish and counterproductive. Happiness has come to symbolize a continual state of entertainment, rather than contentment. Contentment and acceptance lie at the center of all classical philosophy and most religions: "Meet your obligations, help those close to you, and smile at the sunsets." It's not possible to maintain a state of "happiness" in the modern sense, because we can't constantly entertain ourselves with novelties----though we certainly try. Contentment, on the other hand, can persist even through adversity; it's often visible in those few truly pious elders who still exist today. "My hip hurts, and my wife has been gone three years today, but God has given me a long and good life." I somehow doubt that either the Baby Boomers or Generation X will prove as gracious when their twilight is upon them.
Consider that much of our culture is directed at the cult of youth----the prevention of wrinkles for women, the maintenance of physique for men; prolonging sex urges and drives; delaying childbearing. Have you noticed that many diet-obsessed exercise enthusiasts die in their fifties and sixties, just as less health-conscious people do? My grandmother smoked, chewed tobacco, ate bacon and eggs every morning, never exercised, and lived to be nearly ninety. I'm certainly not holding her up as a model of behaviour, but it does emphasize some of the absurdity of the American obsession with preventing ageing and prolonging the sexual portion of our lifespan.
Furthermore, true happiness is contrary to capitalism. If you want something, you are not content; this crudely compares to the Buddhist doctrines against "attachment." Wanting things----consumer goods----is a necessary component of consumer capitalism. How often have you heard the word "consumer" relating to the population as a whole, including yourself? It's really quite accurate, and quite insulting. Not a pretty descriptor at all...
Joined: Jan 18, 2005 Posts: 265 Location: London, UK.
Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:06 am Post subject: Re: The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them
Quote:
Happiness is 50 percent genetic, says University of Minnesota researcher David Lykken. What you do with the other half of the challenge depends largely on determination
...and since your level of determination is also genetic then happiness is 100% genetic.
Best not to fight it then...you are what you are. _________________ Life results from the non-random selection of randomly generated replicators
Joined: Jul 25, 2004 Posts: 681 Location: Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia
Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:34 pm Post subject: Re: The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them
Hi Diogenes
diogenes wrote:
As it is defined today, the pursuit of happiness is foolish and counterproductive. Happiness has come to symbolize a continual state of entertainment, rather than contentment.
Exactly. This is why people are reallty so darn miserable, amid the greatest amount of "plenty" in human history. But Consumerist Society exists to make people unhappy - they have to be discontent and "want more" if there's to be more selling of things.
Quote:
Contentment and acceptance lie at the center of all classical philosophy and most religions: "Meet your obligations, help those close to you, and smile at the sunsets."
"Help others who need it", yes, that's about the fastest way to realise that we're actually quite well off, pampered, indeed. It's also the very enemy of Consumerism - it will cause people to see that they should be conent - and indeed cause them to become content - with whatever it is they presently have.
Thus the very modern idea of Darwinistic Competitive Consumerism - red in tooth, sharp in claw. Consumerism depends upon people NOT co-operating: altruism is the enemy and must be destroyed if consumerism is to make a go of it. Equally we will be forced to embrace The Virtue Of Selfishness and chant te mantra: In Consumerist Society, there is only one God, Greed, and the President is it's Profit (mis-spelling intentional).
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It's not possible to maintain a state of "happiness" in the modern sense, because we can't constantly entertain ourselves with novelties----though we certainly try.
No - we attempt to fill our lives with that which Consumerism tells us will make us happy.
Quote:
Contentment, on the other hand, can persist even through adversity; it's often visible in those few truly pious elders who still exist today. "My hip hurts, and my wife has been gone three years today, but God has given me a long and good life." I somehow doubt that either the Baby Boomers or Generation X will prove as gracious when their twilight is upon them.
Yes, I know exactly what it is you mean.
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Consider that much of our culture is directed at the cult of youth
And henced the most transient portion of a human's life, the part that falls away fastest, the bit that fades most quickly...
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----the prevention of wrinkles for women, the maintenance of physique for men; prolonging sex urges and drives; delaying childbearing. Have you noticed that many diet-obsessed exercise enthusiasts die in their fifties and sixties, just as less health-conscious people do?
Stress, Diogenes. Stress is the reason that those who are-in modern Society and "health concious" end up dying off early. There have been study after study done where they have looked at "extended" Traditional families who lived in (comparitive) peace and just like your Grandmother:
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smoked, chewed tobacco, ate bacon and eggs every morning, never exercised, and lived to be nearly ninety.
Yep, these familes also smoked like Chimneys, they drank like fishes (mostly high-alcoholic wines), ate all of the wrong foods (high in fat, low in fibre) and they never excercised. And, yep, they too lived to be in their 90's. Because they lived in EXTENDED familes. Their stress-levels were so low, they really could be said to be "contented"...Sometimes, they were rather poor, but that did not seem to matter much.
Yuppies, who have no familes (or at least none they will acknowledge), and "date" every night (the highest stressing activity for any human), eat only vegetarian foods, drink only imported French Mineral Water - they have such high stress levels that they'll be dead before they're 60. They have the stress levels from NOT living in Traditional Extended families. And because of the stress levels, they have cholesterol levels that are sky-high, and choronary heart problems in their 30's, problems more usually associated with those in their 70's. More Fool They.
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I'm certainly not holding her up as a model of behaviour, but it does emphasize some of the absurdity of the American obsession with preventing ageing and prolonging the sexual portion of our lifespan.
It's not just absurd, it's dangerous - it's the highest stressing activity that a human can undertake is dating - the studies done (I cannot find the references) show that it may actually be more stressing than bereavement.
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Furthermore, true happiness is contrary to capitalism. If you want something, you are not content; this crudely compares to the Buddhist doctrines against "attachment."
And the Christian ones...and the Jewish ones...and the Islamic ones...and the North American "pre-Columbian" Societies' ones...and the Australian Aboriginies' ones...and the Sumerian ones...and the Ancient Egyptian ones...and the Ancient Greek ones...and the Roman ones...and the Hindu ones...and the Confucian ones...ALL "religions" speak with one voice here: if you try to end up owning "things" you'll soon discover that they own you.
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Wanting things----consumer goods----is a necessary component of consumer capitalism. How often have you heard the word "consumer" relating to the population as a whole, including yourself? It's really quite accurate, and quite insulting. Not a pretty descriptor at all...
Yes: we used to be a PRODUCER Society...now we can but consume. And we're consuming our way straight into the dust-bin of history. _________________ .
"To Get Rich you have to:
Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:49 pm Post subject: Re: The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them
It would be interesting if someone did a sweeping psychological analysis of western culture as a whole. I imagine that such a study would find that Western Culture (in particular, but not exclusively) has a whole array of psychological disorders embedded in its present form. The cultures of modern western (and westernised) countries seems to be afflicted with a whole array of neuroses and emotional dysfunction. A few examples:
*The chronic obsession with youth. Not only looking young, but "being" young. Women in particular (but the trend is disturbingly starting to spread to men now) are all too eager to buy up anti-ageing wrinkle creams in order to fight "The Seven Signs of Ageing", but why don't people address the real problem with ageing? The real problem with ageing and loss of youth is the insecurity in our minds, and in how we deal with this reality.
*Our cultures schizoid problem with body weight. On one hand society emulates Paris Hilton et al, and yet at the same time something like half the population is significantly overweight. I don't really understand what the heck is going on here, but it must be something interesting....
*Sexualisation of society. One particularly sick mainfestation of this is when you see pre-teen ("tween") girls prancing around in public in clothing fit for a hooker. Also, our societies disturbing and relatively new tendency to revere pimps, criminals, stippers, and hookers. Any culture that starts looking up to such people is clearly in some sort of trouble.
*This absolutely insidious idea that the human body is a "beautiful" thing. If it's so beautiful, then why are shopping centres full of beauty enhancement and even body cleaning products? Why are consumers under so much pressure to buy and use beauty and cleaning products even if they just want to walk out the front door of the house?
There are at least two reasons why this is an undesirable thing: 1) people are encouraged to identify their self-worth (and the worth of others) with there bodies, and 2) it leads people to obsess over sexual and sensual desires in a way which is unecessary and unhelpful.
These are just some examples that come to mind at the moment, but surely there are others. It is because of these sort of problems that genuine contentment and happiness is more or less a pipe dream for many if not most people who live in such societies today.
Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:44 am Post subject: Re: The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them
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The real problem with ageing and loss of youth is the insecurity in our minds, and in how we deal with this reality.
I'd also like to add the fact that most people eat trash, so they aren't getting the required nutrients that their bodies need. So in this case, they start looking older than they really are. It's kind of like the effects of crystal meth, only it happens over a longer period of time. People will get old and look old, but right now it happens sooner than it has to. The "feeling old" part comes from a flurry of diseases and disorders, which I suspect, again, has to do with eating garbage.
Of course, keeping people malnourished is the prerequisite to successfully selling this anti-aging crap in mass quantities. It is the same for many other
products, too.
About the glorification of criminals and those types, have you noticed how fast prisons are being built? More people are going to be going to prison for even less offensive crimes, so they might as well get the youngsters conditioned in a way to make them feel good about it.
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