Reformulating What Happiness Is

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

Hello guys! The other day I sat down and wrote this short essay. Let me know what you think  :

"The understanding of Happiness in Western culture can be described as the feeling that occurs when life goes our way. At a first glance, it seems there is nothing wrong with this definition. When we win, we are happy, we when lose we are not. But let’s look at it a bit more careful.

If happiness is a feeling that OCCURS when life goes our way, it means that our well-being is dependent on circumstances. In other words, we are at mercy of them and we don’t have a saying about it – which renders us helpless. Based on our understanding of happiness, whether is cultural or personal, we are bound to keep striving for more, to keep accomplishing, to keep life going our way, believing that once we get everything we want, we will finally make it.

If this sounds like mouse on the wheel metaphor, it’s because it is. Yet, Western culture doesn’t leave us with much of a choice either.

Two and a half millennia ago the Buddha told us that the only way to find true happiness, is to renunciate all desire. Yet when the time comes, few of us are willing to take such an extreme path. Maybe the solution is not to keep running the mouse wheel or to shave our heads and become full time monks. Perhaps the solution finds itself when we reformulate what happiness is to us. If happiness is defined as an inner experience of well-being, independent from circumstances, and that can be worked upon – there would be a shift in the way we behave and even the way we feel.

This would mean it doesn’t matter whether we achieve something or not, our happiness would not be affected. And instead of saying that happiness is dependent of circumstances, we can say that it is something we generate.Since it is something that can be worked upon, practices like meditation and mindfulness would be more prevalent.

And all of this just by changing how we understand a single word.

When our happiness does not depend on us achieving our goals. When we are happy whether our dreams get accomplished or not. When we learn to enjoy the process even though we are not sure we will make it. When we are free from as well as free to pursue or goals and dreams, it’s when we have found true happiness.

And I’m along for the ride."

 

[TheAvatarState]

Thank you for the great writeup! Happiness is so simple that it's almost impossible to accept, so really ponder this next sentence:

Happiness is the degree to which you can accept and live the present moment. That's it. That's the radical re-definition you're calling for. 

[rabbitat]

"When we are free from as well as free to pursue or goals and dreams, it’s when we have found true happiness"

Really do love this! Been overachieving at failure in the last two weeks (in several areas) and attempting to "lose" with less emotion involved...attempting to love whatever comes my way without worrying about the outcome, but remaining steadfast in my intentions. "Losing" people can be challenging for someone like me, but learning to be "happy" which can mean embracing other emotions (i.e. feelings of loss, despair, embarrassment, humility) is an art of learning to love oneself. To feel gratitude for someone teaching me about loss and at the same time embarrassingly weep in private for the "loss" is certainly a new version of "happiness" and self love for me.