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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)

#81

Post by Bradlinc »

gunfighthacksaw wrote: post #31
openknot wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. It's more likely that [certain] studies show [a proportion of] people expect their break-ups to be longer and more painful than they actually are. I would have liked to see links to those studies in the article to evaluate them. I was unexpectedly broken up with once (after committing for around 'just' a couple months), and it hurt for far longer and was more painful than I thought it might be. Things were mostl…

I’ve heard a rule of thumb that a break-up will sting for twice the length of the relationship. Assuming you were not the instigator.

I've heard a rule that it was half the time of the relationship. From my experience your rule is more accurate!

Re: How to Live a Happy Life (2016)

#82

Post by mbrodersen »

gundmc wrote: post #46
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?

On one level, this has an appealing certain kind of logic. But in practice I've found this leads to depression and cynicism.

Not my experience at all. It leads to joy and happiness when things go better than I expected. Also, I never stop working on improving things. There is always a chance that things are actually better than I expect.

Re: How to Live a Happy Life (2016)

#83

Post by graderjs »

Actually the regions have comparable life satisfaction, but people say California because they think of the weather and fail to take account of other things, such as the fact that California is full of tedious hippies.

Hahaha. He just slipped that one in there :p;) xx ;p x

Re: How to Live a Happy Life (2016)

#84

Post by katzgrau »

chii wrote: post #41
katzgrau wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a better argument is that there is no objectivity to begin with. It's all subjective. If you believe life is meaningless, it is. If you believe there's meaning, there is.

> If you believe life is meaningless, it is. If you believe there's meaning, there is. If you believe that there's meaning, and struggle to achieve said meaning, but ultimately failing, or ultimately proven that the struggle was ineffective at achieving said meaning, you will turn bitter and end up unhappy. If you believe life is meaningless, you will observe that your internal model is correct, and thus be vindicate…

> you will observe that your internal model is correct

What I was saying is that there is nothing extrinsic to compare an internal model to, so you should know that any meaning created is your own. Creating meaning that requires you achieve something and possibly fail seems unnecessary.

I view willful ignorance as a method of resisting potential pain - and resisting anything usually introduces its own pain at some level. I find that being aware of, and accepting of pain works well for me, although I'm not always good at it.

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