Rate Your Current Happiness

[Raptorsin7]

What would you rate your current level of happiness or satisfaction with life. It's entirely subjective, but given where you are now and where you want to be in the future how would you rate your present state.

[Raptorsin7]

Right now i'm at a 5/10 for happiness and satisfaction.

[Lento]

Ranging from 3 to 8 out of 10

[undeather]

Got a quite high baseline to start with: So I would place myself somewhere in the range of 7-8,5/10 

[Knock]

What is the purpose of this question? Like, what does other people's subjective views on their own happiness have anything to do with your own self-actualization?

(Obviously from my reply you can tell I'm not in a good mood, 3/10).

[Raptorsin7]

Nothing really. I'm just curious. I guess i'm hoping someone will say something that transforms me, but I know I have to be the one to do it. Yea i don't appreciate you attacking me.

[Skanzi]

well, if you consider the worst possible experience a human being ever can get to experience and the best experience a human being can ever have, then even people who are generally very miserable or very happy rarely ever exceed the 4 or 6.

So I guess I'm about 5,2. Above neutral I suppose 

But in the way people normally use the scale... I'd say I'm about a 7,5 on average at this point in my life. A stable 7,5 is honestly better than it has been in years. from age 12-23 pretty much it was on average like a 4-5 or something (I am now 24, I will be 25 in a month time). in 2013 and 2017 in particular I had a terrible year. I would've averaged about 3,5 maybe, and like 2/2,5 in the worst phases of those years. Those years were really terrible.

So yeah, I'm finally starting to ascend out of the darkness to a properly noticable degree now. It's not to say that the darkness will be gone foregood, or will not make a vengeance or return, but I'm just glad I'm fairly stable and relaxed now. I feel like I've earned this too. I've worked really hard for this.

However, it's important to not be too obsessed about the idea if you're happy or not. Happiness comes easiest when you don't care whether it's there or not. That's the paradox.

Edited November 14, 2019 by Skanzi

[Commodent]

Way better than before, at least. Now I will frequently find myself whistling a fine tune when strolling down the road, sometimes having small bursts of laughter because I happened to think of something funny, just to give you an example. Yeah, it's so different from before ... and the negativity that does arise nowadays is way more subtle than the negativity I used to experience, probably to the point where most people wouldn't label it "negative". And I don't really see any "limit" to how far it can go, either, as there's certainly still lots of blocks to bust through. So yeah, probably a 2/10, lol.

I hope that could motivate you to do the work, if that's what you're looking for

[studentofthegame]

I'm very happy with aspects of my life. Less so with others.

Overall i would say 6 out of 10. 

I have sometimes-severe anxiety issues around loss. I also struggle with subtle addictions, and making habits stick. If i can get a handle on these areas (and i am working towards doing so) i would rate my happiness higher.

[Dumuzzi]

It's an interesting question, because the material circumstances of my life and the outward appearance should make me unhappy and yet, I couldn't care less. Because of the inner peace and connection to the divine that I experience on a daily basis, I have never been happier. According to every metric society uses to measure happiness and satisfaction (e.g. money, fame, sex, relationships, big house, flashy cars, etc...) I should be very unhappy, yet I cannot bring myself to be anything but content and completely satisfied with the way things are. Can you call a person happy, when he has no desires and is content with the bare minimum in terms of material possessions and relationships, so that he can concentrate on his inner world and his spirituality?

 

That is an important philosophical question to ponder, but from my own perspective, I rate my happiness and contentment at a 10/10. 

[ajasatya]

Solid 10/10.

[Leo Gura]

As soon as you start rating happiness, you'll lose it.

The proper answer is: who gives a fuck? Reality is whatever it is and you feel however you feel at any given moment. Don't confuse true happiness with mood. That can be a serious error.

Trying to "lock in" a happy mood is very counter-productive. You are guaranteed to fail at that.

If you want real happiness, stop caring whether you're dying or being tortured. Then you'll be happy. And nothing less than that will hold up.

[Arthur]

↓

[pluto]

I am nor happy or sad, i am blissful, happiness/sadness, ups/downs, bliss transcends all, bliss is your natural, true state.

It is eternal, it is pure, it is serene, it is beyond happiness and joys. You are Bliss, You are Love!

?
❤️

 

[LeoX8]

I would rank my mood with a solid 7/10

[Girzo]

I don't see point in assigning my happiness a scale. But I once had been evaluating for fun whether this day I felt better or worse than the day before and compiling this into a graph to see the trends. It was an entertaining activity.

[ardacigin]

You haven't described what these numbers corresponds to. Is a '1' major depression and negative thoughts or borderline suicidal tendencies. Is '10' the bliss of awakening or high levels of a feeling of stable happiness with contentment which is a by-product of a joyful state of mind.

If we peg awakening and its result of contentment and happiness a '10'

and if we peg the most stable, content and equanimious happiness and joy using jhanas pre-awakening a '9'

Then I would peg myself an 8.0 in daily life. And 8.5 in formal session.

In other words, My current experience of daily life is filled with stable feelings of happiness with contentment in a joyful state of mind. A joyful state of mind creates feelings of happiness mentally and physically.

The degree of happiness is more than if you've taken an anti-depressant. Not just due to the joy and happiness levels, but in skillful meditation, you also add the contentment and equanimity which is the other side of the equation in jhanic factors like happiness and joy.

Then you add powerful introspective awareness in a state of open awareness with stable attention on top of all this joy, contentment and happiness. The end result is pure bliss in a highly refined state of samatha. The perfect state of mind to do investigation towards reality.

In a formal session, I can sometimes boost it to that level of refinement. But in daily sessions, the baseline is low levels of joy and happiness all day long (starting from the moment I wake up to going bed) with low levels of contentment and equanimity. That is my lowest point while actually meditating. 

If I'm awfully dull or tired, The low levels of joy and happiness can go down to subtle levels. If I completely stop meditating for a long time, the joy and happiness is no longer perceptible. Equanimity goes down a lot. But the good news is that it takes less than 5 mins to get to subtle-low levels of stable joy and happiness.

My nervous system has changed its primary operating system to 'anti-depressant' levels of happiness and joy. I can stabilize my consciousness in strong joy and happiness for more than 12+ hours regardless of thinking, talking or formally meditating in silence.

This is stage 8-9 area of mastery of meditative joy in TMI stages of meditation.

Edited November 17, 2019 by ardacigin

[ardacigin]

So if you are wondering if it is possible to experience happiness comparable to taking Paxera or other strong anti-depressants, the answer is

' Yes and don't undersell what meditation can do :)'

You actually experience more joy and happiness with contentment with 10 times more stability (compared to anti-depressants) because this is internally produced by the mind. It becomes more conditioned and stable after a while. You are not dependent on a chemical externally.

Stability and independence is the problem in SSRI's. Very few depressed people who take 'potent' SSRI's report experiencing the bliss of happiness and contentment on stable and high levels ALL the time starting from waking up and going bed. But meditation has currently got me to that level.

But to do that in daily life interacting with people and doing productive stuff that requires cognitive performance, I need to do 2 things.

1- Get to effortlessness of happiness and joy with strong equanimity in a formal session. Depending on my mental state, this can take as little as 5-10 mins or 1 hour.

2- Maintain a strong intention to continue this refined state of mind with metacognitive awareness in daily life. Otherwise, both happiness and contentment can go down to subtle-low levels depending on how demanding the task I'm doing.

There is a difference between listening to cool music and dealing with a business crisis. Although I can maintain subtle-low levels of happiness in both scenarios. Just not the peak of the formal session I'm talking about if I don't have a strong intention to maintain it in the business crisis.

Edited November 17, 2019 by ardacigin

[Harikrishnan]

I rate my happiness right now is 7/10. I was 10/10 untill i scrolled through some celebrities pics in instagram where they where smiling. Eventhough i have no interest in that actress i really loved her smile and found it beautiful. Then some questions came to mind

Whether these particular actress was really happy or not? Isnt she just posing? (And it went out of my control)? how can she be happy being a materialist, she doesnt know about any of deeper meanings of reality her form of happiness is hedonestic etc.

I realized once you start comparing happiness you will loose it.

I am happy coz thats only how i can be at this moment.

[Stevo]

As far as mood is concerned, I've been at a 1 to 3 for the past 4 years. 

The degree to which I project I have the potential to be fulfilled is 1-4.  

The degree to which my experience is measuring up to my expectations is 1-3.  

I spend at least a minute most days at a 9 or 10.  

I sometimes think suffering is underrated.  

I was at a 3 when I read this but am now at a 3.1 since I was able to tell someone.