Jun
28
2009
| What Makes Us Happy? |
| Written by Will | |||
| Monday, 29 June 2009 | |||
 An unexpectingly smooth and comforting buzz from the Johnnie Blacks the night before drift my consciousness slowly awake.. The initial blurs of my vision sharpen to the clarity of the morn with each repressed blink of the eye. A beautiful delight rests peacefully beside me; she's the third I took home this week. With such entrancingly deep and slow breaths as hers, it'd be hard to imagine even the slightest of desire for her to be elsewhere. As the cool mid-summer breeze intrudes the slightly open windows of my bedroom, her bare body presses passionately up against mine. Embracing her, a suggestive whisper rekindles an ever so recent evening. Am I happy? Sure. Two Years Ago - Escalating into an aggressive loud vibration, the energy saver mode of my $35 Craigslist air conditioner resumes to full power.. Attentively flashing for attention, my four year old alarm clock displays an inaccurate time of 2:03pm. The power had gone out while I was online, gaming, during last night's house party. I hadn't even bothered to correct the time. It's nearing the end of the afternoon as I roll out of bed. Surrounding my desk are empty soda bottles, my source of late night energy. A month to go before I join the real world, I am currently in the longest break I've ever had since starting college. Without a damn thing to do, time sure seems so plentiful. Was I happy then? Most definitely. "Is there a formula—some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation—for a good life? For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. Here, for the first time, a journalist gains access to the archive of one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. Its contents, as much literature as science, offer profound insight into the human condition—and into the brilliant, complex mind of the study’s longtime director, George Vaillant." - Quoted from: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness A recent article featured in The Atlantic, an editorial magazine, claimed to have found the source of all human happiness: love. Irrefutable evidence for sure, right? I mean, heck - close to a century of Harvard research led by the Director for the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard University himself, George Vaillant! How could you possibly dissent such reputable facts? Written by Joshua Shenk, the article struggles to summarize the most fascinating of Vaillant's case studies to answer the question: What Makes Us Happy? Happiness is an innate human emotion which is accessible to us the minute we are brought into this world. It is based on a set of criteria we set for ourselves which make us comfortable and content with our current environment. We are born happy with no grandiose image of ourselves; sometimes smiling without even knowing why. Adults often times feel nostalgic over their childhood because of this. Now, how difficult is that to achieve again? By society and the environment around us, we are constantly presented with new criterion for happiness. Already achievable pleasures become outweighed by the thought of a potentially greater level of happiness. Through this social conditioning, we are placed onto hedonic treadmills towards the next best alternative. “The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another.” - Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments A life of chasing after dreams: Learn to walk. Recite the alphabet. Make some friends. Finish grade school. Get a college degree. Find a reliable job. Get married. Start a family. Get promoted. Build your 401k. Retire. Great, now what? What's next? Nicer clothes? Hotter girlfriend? Sharper television? Better furniture? Luxury car? Bigger house? More property? Maybe even a boat. IT NEVER ENDS. But when we do, will we truly be happier? Compared to what? The grass will always be greener on the other side. Happiness is subjective to its boundaries. Is there such thing as a greater level of happiness? The acceptance of the Nobel Prize, an award conveying true social prestige. The breakthrough moment for a scientist who decodes the genetic mystery of a previously incurable human epidemic. An aspiring Buddhist who reaches the final level of enlightenment necessary to become a monastic. Receiving the acceptance call for a well-paid job during a time of economic hardship. That first bite into a meal after a long drawn out wait in hunger. Without getting too much into the philosophical discussion on the many pathways to happiness, it is clear that happiness is achievable in many forms. If we can already be happy with where we are, why strive? Striving for happiness and striving in life are two different. An enlightened sense of happiness occurs when we are capable of accepting the current condition of the environment and having faith in our ability to handle all that's ahead. Striving for goals in life is about taking the journey; for the experience. As we are all bound by the fate of death, life can be seen as an arena for heroism. Self-fabricated immortality can be achieved by the offering of value to society so significant, that it will be remembered across many generations. The end result is anti-climatic. Life is about the journey. Do not seek happiness in the future. Happiness is now! Happiness is love; the love for life.
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Happiness is relative...we're on a spectrum of emotions. By itself, I believe we have the faculty to be happy, but I doubt to its existential effect if it wasn't used in a setting where various emotions can also take place. So really, you can be happy, but in exchange, you will also have sadness. It's most important to strike an equal balance between all the emotions in your life -- that's where I feel real happiness comes from. But love, like the study says, is probably the most universal and easiest-to-digest target. Biologically, we are ingrained to sprout seeds of happiness for a desired mate (damn our biological/physical weaknesses) or for our care providers. So it doesn't surprise me that they would use that as a factor to strive for when one wants to find that glorious potent mixture of hormones which leads us to bliss. Anyhow, I think happiness is very much like most Taoist theories; it's a force of push and pull, contradictions and similarities but consequently, it's just another way of saying, you need a balance. |
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