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A 70-year-old's secret to a full and happy life

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Re: A 70-year-old's secret to a full and happy life

#111

Post by ghthor »

outworlder wrote: post #84
david-gpu wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And if God doesn't exist, then nothing matters anyways, so why worry? I'm not trying to start a pointless debate, your comment really made me curious. Let's imagine the Christian god doesnt't exist. How does that logically lead to nothing mattering? As a lifelong atheist there are plenty of things that matter to me: the well-being of people (particularly those around me), peace, justice, climate change, etc. Are th…

> And if God doesn't exist, then nothing matters anyways, so why worry? I would argue the opposite: if god does exist, then nothing really matters anymore, except the whims of a powerful entity. Not having a supernatural power meddling in our affairs liberates us to do great things.

It's a shame that we've done such a poor job at teaching the wisdom brought to us from the abrahamic religions (judaism, christianity, islam).

The real seed of the message is that the one true God is not a noun, it's a verb. Can a verb have an agenda and a plan?

By my own experience, the common misunderstanding that God is a noun is nothing more then a projection of our human egos. In a way, using God(verb) to project through our minds and out our mouths/hands that there is one true Supernatural Organizer(noun) is idolatry.

By my beliefs you're acting at a very high level of spirituality by avoiding servitude to any Supernatural Organizer.

Re: A 70-year-old's secret to a full and happy life

#112

Post by ghthor »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #22
ericajohnson wrote: post #3

Dr. Bik Kwoon Tye could be a poster child for Dr. Seligman's work in the field of positive psychology! This story reminds me so much of a book I just finished reading: The Happiness Advantage. "Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will…

Does it? A lot of the people I know who've accomplished significant things did so not because they were happy, but because they tried harder than anyone else. They were not satisfied with the way things were and put a lot of effort into changing them. I myself didn't lose half my bodyweight because I was happy, quite the contrary, I hated --and still hate-- my body. That kind of motivation is incredibly helpful for o…

Keep walking your path my friend.

Re: A 70-year-old's secret to a full and happy life

#113

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

coldtea wrote: post #78
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean when you say you can't think about it rationally? There are enough survivable experiences physiologically similar to death that we can make some pretty good guesses as to what the experience leading up to it is like. And it would be incoherent to talk about the experience of being dead, because it is no experience at all (as before we were born). We know quite a bit about what happens when we die, an…

> What do you mean when you say you can't think about it rationally? There are enough survivable experiences physiologically similar to death That makes no sense. There are some experiences of coming close to death, or what doctors consider death -- which is the mind/organs shutting down, etc. There is (and can't be) no experience of actual permanent death though, nor has a dead person recounted their experience whil…

Of course. But I would think the experience of falling into a coma after a hypoxic event would convey all the same conscious experiences of death. That would be what it would feel like, until you were unconscious. Then, by definition, you would feel no more.

Re: A 70-year-old's secret to a full and happy life

#114

Post by war1025 »

bamboozled wrote: post #107
trevyn wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really think this is true. I don't know how to extract a prescription from that, though.

Can’t you just read about others stories like this and put yourself in their shoes, I guess it’s enough. There is suffering on an immense scale daily. * Warning - Following is Graphic not for sensitive people * For example I read from the comfort of my bed last night that a beekeeper just lost practically everything in Australia and when fires ripped through his property, to add insult to injury, when he went into th…

I think the difference is that reading a story you can rationalize away that "this can't happen to me".

When you see someone very close to you dying, the finality of it becomes very very real.

Same with most other tragedies I'd think.

Re: A 70-year-old's secret to a full and happy life

#115

Post by sifar »

devmunchies wrote: post #32

Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli) said (at around 70 as well), "The notion that one's goal in life is to be happy, that your own happiness is the goal... I just don't buy it" I think as we focus on mastery or craftsmanship, happiness finds us. Not everyone, but I'd say modern society is hedonistic—we seek happiness instead of achievement and get neither.

I believe we have missed it by concentrating so much on Happiness instead of Joy. Joy is a much more wholesome emotion, long lasting and once you are in a state of joy, happiness follows.

Re: A 70-year-old's secret to a full and happy life

#116

Post by humanrebar »

david-gpu wrote: post #30
yters wrote: post #20

When I step back and look at my life, I have to say it is pretty good. I get agitated when I lose perspective and magnify some particular bad thing. Also, as a Christian, this gives me the ultimate relief, because I can step back and say whatever unimaginably horrible thing is happening God is ultimately in control orchestrating things for maximal good, of which maximal good is also at some fundamental level in line…

> And if God doesn't exist, then nothing matters anyways, so why worry? I'm not trying to start a pointless debate, your comment really made me curious. Let's imagine the Christian god doesnt't exist. How does that logically lead to nothing mattering? As a lifelong atheist there are plenty of things that matter to me: the well-being of people (particularly those around me), peace, justice, climate change, etc. Are th…

> Let's imagine the Christian god doesnt't exist. How does that logically lead to nothing mattering?

The entire book of Ecclesiastes is about this. I wouldn't presume to summarize it all in a comment box, but it does cover a lot of grounds in different approaches to the meaning of life. It claims none of them really work all that well.

And no, it doesn't say, "But you die and go to heaven or hell anyway" over and over. It's not very supernatural at all, actually.

Re: A 70-year-old's secret to a full and happy life

#117

Post by humanrebar »

NateEag wrote: post #99
outworlder wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Heaven isnt eternal punishment? It could be. Think of all the boring people that would supposedly be in there. Now think that you get to spend infinity time with them.

Newton and Pascal are boring, I suppose. Certainly one wouldn't want to live in a place where J. S. Bach got to write music for eternity. Imagine the torture.

Also MLK Jr., Mr. Rogers, and Teddy Roosevelt. Very boring.

Re: A 70-year-old's secret to a full and happy life

#118

Post by m463 »

seppin wrote: post #94
WalterBright wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He said little, but one phrase he did repeat more than any other was simple: "Any day you're breathing is a good day." To him, every day, every year, every one of the six decades past 1944 was a cherry on top gift. My father, B-17 navigator, said he accepted that he was going to die in combat. The odds at the time of surviving were terrible (about 80% casualties). He did survive (hence my existence), and told me th…

> Upon return to civilian life, he said he was astounded by the triviality of peoples' everyday life concerns. They were going to live another day, what did they have to be concerned about? Perhaps the key to a well-adjusted view of life is trauma? To show you how good the rest of life can be.

I've learned the most about life from "character building experiences". They are usually unpleasant. They could be as simple as somone telling you not to be stupid, or as complicated as finding lessons out the hard way.

The experiences give you the resolve or clues or whatever to avoid bad choices, or appreciate good ones. Or help others understand (if they're receptive).

Re: A 70-year-old's secret to a full and happy life

#119

Post by elSidCampeador »

crtccnt wrote: post #101
Diederich wrote: post #23

I was raised by my grandparents. They were born in the 1910s, and grew up in the midwest during the dust bowl and great depression. My grandfather lost most of his buddies in Guadalcanal and Burma during World War II, and, in his own words, fully expected to become worm food himself. He said little, but one phrase he did repeat more than any other was simple: "Any day you're breathing is a good day." To him, every da…

"Every day you're breathing is a good day." isn't something that happy people or grateful people say. If you are happy or grateful, you wouldn't even think to say it. Being happy is a state of being that doesn't require rationalization or justification. Happy children or even happy dogs are in the state of happiness and don't require lies like "Every day you're breathing is a good day.". It's been my experience that…

I respectfully disagree. What's "trite" for you might not be trite for someone else.

> Honestly, if the only thing you can be grateful for is "breathing", then you might as well be a plant.

What a weird time to be alive - apparently there is a minimum inescapable standard of what I (or anyone else) can be grateful for.

Re: A 70-year-old's secret to a full and happy life

#120

Post by honzzz »

bamboozled wrote: post #107
trevyn wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really think this is true. I don't know how to extract a prescription from that, though.

Can’t you just read about others stories like this and put yourself in their shoes, I guess it’s enough. There is suffering on an immense scale daily. * Warning - Following is Graphic not for sensitive people * For example I read from the comfort of my bed last night that a beekeeper just lost practically everything in Australia and when fires ripped through his property, to add insult to injury, when he went into th…

I have to admit that the warning (multiple) for sensitive people bugs me. I believe you mean well but I think this meme should die. If this is not overprotectiveness then I do not know what is. You are not leading people to fire, you are leading them to an article about fire. Everybody reading it should be happy they can just read about it and they do not have to live it.
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