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How to Live a Happy Life (2016)

ox.ac.uk

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Re: How to Live a Happy Life (2016)

#51

Post by arvinsim »

FrenchAmerican wrote: post #25
timoth3y wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> you could be joyful but think your life is worthless > I find this hard to believe. Albert Camus developed the philosophy of Absurdism around a very similar idea. A gross oversimplification is that in the grand scheme of things, logically and objectively our lives have no meaning, but our brains are wired to need meaning. The solution is to create that meaning for ourselves even while acknowledging that meaning is…

Why should the meaning of life we choose for ourselves be a delusion? I get the point that this meaning is arbitrary (in the sense that it has no ground since the world is absurd). But as long as this meaning works for you, who cares if others find it meaningless? Loneliness may be an issue though, but this is where the internet, among other ways, makes a difference. You can look for like-minded people or publish you…

> Create a community of intention, so that you live in the world you want.

I would love for you to expound on this

Re: How to Live a Happy Life (2016)

#52

Post by madaxe_again »

mbrodersen wrote: post #7

It’s actually quite easy: simply lower your expectations until your life is better than you expected. Sounds like a joke. But is it really?

Happiness is a marketing term. It isn’t a real thing, it’s an aspirational state which we are told we can attain through a lifetime of hard work, through buying things, through reading this book, with this one simple trick, click to read more.

As long as you seek happiness, you will never, ever find contentment, as you will forever be chasing the tail of a dragon.

For me, I just one day gave up on the idea that I could ever be happy. I had a long, dark teatime of the soul, but came out of it absolutely content with my lot. Completely changed my life and how I live, and while I wouldn’t say I live in some kind of state of exuberant ecstasy day to day, I am content, and am no longer burdened by the quest for a reified concept.

Re: How to Live a Happy Life (2016)

#55

Post by psychoslave »

erilbeth wrote: post #53

I'm gonna kill myself if i see one more mindfullness suggestion.

I wouldn’t like to sound like I’m making (meta-) preterition, so please let me tell you that I won’t recommend the reading of https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3383812/

Re: How to Live a Happy Life (2016)

#56

Post by jmstfv »

How do you define happiness in the first place? Is it a bliss, joy, pleasure, an ecstatic state of mind, the satisfaction of one's desires, or the absence of them? All of the above? Perhaps none of them?

Personally, I define happiness as being content with where you are right now - you wouldn't want to be in any other place, in any other time, in any other state of mind. You're happy here, right now. You have your inner peace.

I was listening to a podcast some time ago, and one quote struck a chord with me: “Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want”.

Perhaps happiness is a choice after all.

Re: How to Live a Happy Life (2016)

#57

Post by psychoslave »

motohagiography wrote: post #24

Nice, but a lot of words. Happiness is how you choose to relate - that is, happily. It takes practice and exercise, and then over time, it's who you are. If it sounds simplistic, think of it like body building, where instead of lifting weights, you choose to relate happily, It's within the reach of every conscious being with choice. That said, choosing happiness is obviously often difficult, and also easier if you ha…

Even as atheist one can converse with fictive entities. I would even go as far as telling that in any society that have any form of administration, one will have to deal with fictive entities.

Back on the focus to happiness, I just finished to read ACT Made Simple: An Easy-To-Read Primer on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy[1]. I recommend it to anyone who thinks there is too much hindrances between them and happiness, or any life-according-to-own-values aim. What I especially appreciated in the book:

- humor is often used at right level

- it doesn’t sell itself as a stack of miracle turn-key solutions that works 100% of time

- the work itself doesn’t simply expose practical skills and techniques, it is a living example of applying them

[1] https://www.amazon.com/ACT-Made-Simple-Easy-Read/dp/16840330...

Re: How to Live a Happy Life (2016)

#58

Post by kashyapc »

There's a reason why Kahneman famously gave up[1] on happiness research, because of our muddled thinking about it.

Instead, he argues (which I fully agree with) that we should focus on reducing misery. As a society it is far more difficult to agree on "maximizing well-being", but "minimizing suffering" is an objective we can all agree on as a measure of policy.

And he says, setting "reduction of misery" as an objective for policy would result in very different activities.

[1] https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-why-no...

Re: How to Live a Happy Life (2016)

#59

Post by psychoslave »

madaxe_again wrote: post #52
mbrodersen wrote: post #7

It’s actually quite easy: simply lower your expectations until your life is better than you expected. Sounds like a joke. But is it really?

Happiness is a marketing term. It isn’t a real thing, it’s an aspirational state which we are told we can attain through a lifetime of hard work, through buying things, through reading this book, with this one simple trick, click to read more. As long as you seek happiness, you will never, ever find contentment, as you will forever be chasing the tail of a dragon. For me, I just one day gave up on the idea that I cou…

>Happiness is a marketing term.

You can apply marketing methodologies on basically anything and "flood market with it" to the point where it is depleted of any positive impact it might have when used properly.

If you look at people who are flagged as "happiest man in the world", people like Matthieu Ricard[1], you will be very far from the image of someone that reached "some kind of state of exuberant ecstasy day to day".

[1] https://www.matthieuricard.org/en/medias/matthieu-ricard-why...

Re: How to Live a Happy Life (2016)

#60

Post by psychoslave »

timoth3y wrote: post #4
alecbz wrote: post #2

> you could be joyful but think your life is worthless I find this hard to believe. At a certain point I think a lack of meaning in your life is going to make you day-to-day unhappy, whatever you’re spending those days doing.

>> you could be joyful but think your life is worthless > I find this hard to believe. Albert Camus developed the philosophy of Absurdism around a very similar idea. A gross oversimplification is that in the grand scheme of things, logically and objectively our lives have no meaning, but our brains are wired to need meaning. The solution is to create that meaning for ourselves even while acknowledging that meaning is…

>The solution is to create that meaning for ourselves even while acknowledging that meaning is a delusion.

Well, that also can be presented as "freedom of purpose". If you associate freedom to some positive and desirable situation, then you should welcome with gratitude that universe doesn’t come with any pre-established meaning for your life.

You still have to deal with the fact that you can’t write on the book of universe as easily as you can fantasize any made up story, and that you are not alone with accreditations to write with some level of freedom.

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