Aug 01 2007
In Pursuit of Happiness
There is wisdom in these words of C.P. Snow, “The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.” Happiness is not on the run, it is ever present within you. However, the decision to be happy or to be sad or angry is yours & yours alone.
The idea of pursuing happiness may have come from the thought that you can only be happy WHEN you already have what you want. Most people tend to postpone happiness until they have enough money, until they have met the right person, until their children have finished college and all other excuses. They have forgotten that everyday is a different day from the rest.
According to the article The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don’t Use Them, research have shown that people who are living more satisfying lives are those who appreciate what they have and grateful for even the smallest things. They forgive others, practice positive thinking and invest time & energy with family & friends. The same article also mentioned Gregg Easterbrook, researcher and author of The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse (Random House, 2004) pointing out to Sigmund Freud’s theory that people are unhappy by default because happiness takes a lot more effort than being unhappy. After all, it is always perceived that there is more to be unhappy about than to be happy about.
It will be a lot easier to be happy if you see the good things in life more than the negative ones. As the song goes,
When my bankroll is getting small, I think of when I had none at all. Then I fall asleep, counting my blessings.
Happiness comes when you learn to appreciate what you have rather than complain for what you do not have YET. Remember that through the law of attraction, you attract more of what you focus your mind on. The energy of appreciation intensifies each moment you are grateful for something and then it manifests in your reality as more objects/blessings to appreciate for. Unfortunately for those who are always complaining, it works the same way too.
A life that is deliberately created involves choosing how you spend each moment. Learning to take control of your REACTIONS to situations instead of just FOLLOWING our reactions. In Magnetizing Your Heart’s Desires, Sharon Warren pointed out that a person can choose to be a REACTOR (someone who always reacts to the situations) or a CREATOR (someone who deliberately creates the situations). Incidentally, the word CREATOR is formed when the first 4 letters of the word REACTOR are rearranged. Instead of getting angry at your nosy neighbors, you can choose to forgive instead. It will not come easy, but with constant practice you will be able to do it. The key is to keep your consciousness at the present moment & stop putting labels on people, objects & situations.
Problems do exist and it is difficult to react positively to every situation that we encounter. Sadness, misery, anger maybe negative emotions, but they have their own roles in our lives. It is not good to eliminate them because they serve as a wake up call that we are not doing what we ought to do with our lives. We are not living as we want and as we are suppose to live. Happiness does not open the gateways to improvements, but problems & trials do. If you fail to improve or learn the lessons that each problem brings, you are bound to go through it again.
Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joann Ang. Some rights reserved. You can publish or redistribute this article just make sure you include Joann Ang’s bio. Links must be correct, functional & must point to the author’s site.
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One response so far
I liked your article but if you think about it twice you have used another void sentence (rethoric at best): “Happiness does not open the gateways to improvements, but problems & trials do.”
I do think happiness opens chances to success, we might see it as part of emotional intelligence.
Finally, I do think there is sense in the “pursuit of happiness” insofar as that is what it is: a pursuit, not an end or destination.