Happiness - The gift for the culture that has everything

[wizdum]

Happiness - The gift for the culture that has everything
By Andi McDaniel

It says so in the Declaration of Independence—you have a right to pursue happiness. So go on, grin away. As a scolded seventh grader would say, with an irreverent cock of the head, “It’s a free country.” What are you waiting for?

If you’re like me, you’ve been pursuing happiness for much of your life. Our aspirations aren’t novel; the quest for the ultimate contentment is ancient and infamously lacking resolution. But now, in addition to Buddha, Ronald McDonald and Bobby “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” McFerrin, modern science wants us to be happy too.

That’s right; researchers in the growing field of “positive psychology” are doing what scientists do best—conducting experiments, gathering evidence and proving theories. Their hypotheses just happen to center on humanity’s most heartfelt desire.

Some of their findings confirm what many of us have already surmised: that money can’t buy happiness (though it doesn’t stop us from trying) and that truly happy people are less likely to, say, steal candy from babies. But “positive psychology”—a term coined by famed psychologist Abraham Maslow, whose theory of human motivation evolved into what we know as self-actualization—has its own nuggets of wisdom to contribute. <snip>

Find Your Happy Place

Perhaps the most startling, and paradoxical, truth about happiness is that we basically know how to achieve it. We at least claim to recognize that money, youth and even education provide only transient satisfaction. And yet, in spite of ourselves, we chase these false gods and feel surprise and dismay when they remain just slightly beyond our grasp.

The idea of achieving happiness in the midst of sorrow or pain seems inconceivable—we’re practically hard-wired to head in the opposite direction. But it’s funny what happens when you simply observe your reaction to unpleasant feelings. Through mindfulness meditation, I’ve learned that emotional pain, just like an itch, will go from dull to acute, cresting and then fading away. To wait out an itch is to accept that nothing—not even the pleasant feelings—will stay the same. <snip>

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