Realisation
It is a long time since I have penned anything down. I seem to have misplaced my muse and you have no idea how difficult it is to find a misplaced muse. And, like all things misplaced you always find it in the last place you look.
You may have been wondering how my happiness project is coming along? At first I bought into the idea that I could plan my happiness and that, that would get me there. I must admit that I had a sense of fulfilment to a degree and felt better, but happiness? Well not quite. A sense of fulfilment and a sense that I achieved something, but definitely not happiness. I kinda figured out that happiness is a state of mind and in todays world there very few have this state of mind.
One thing the media has got right is to distort our view on what happiness is. Ever see an ad where someone does not end up happy? Even washing powder adds, now don't get me wrong I love my clothes to be clean, but how does washing powder contribute directly to my happiness? And does it mean that if my clothes look like I have been through a quicksand pit I am not happy? Or if you don't have that famous brand of punch it out, dirt busting washing powder you probably not happy?
The only thing the media has done is to promote the view that the more of a particular product you have the more happy you will be! So they have manipulated us, albeit subtlety, into the view that the world is divided into those that have, and are therefore happy, and those that do not, and are therefore unhappy.
Society has also created some interesting perceptions, so if you are not "with" a certain crowd you are not "in" and therefore must be boring and unhappy. And being human beings, and very social and our innate requirement to belong, it is easy to coax us into making this assumption. Ever been in the company of a name dropper? See what I mean.
So now we have an additional measure implying that if you do not have "things" and are not "with it" then by implication you cannot be happy. We have the perfect measures to make judgements! But these are fickle measures and, by definition imply, that if your possessions are lost or you fall out with the "in" crowd, you have automatically lost your happiness.
Happiness is a many faceted and at its root lies the sense of contentment. To be truly happy you first have to be content. In the absence of contentment there is nothing but elation which soon fades leaving the a void. "Retail therapy" is an excellent example of this phenomena. There is much elation while making the purchase and more elation when opening the box for a few minutes or hours or even days before another dose of retail therapy is required. Nothing from outside can fill the void, no matter how hard we try. Many fool themselves into thinking that their "stuff" fills the void and they believe it. I ask but one question, have they turned to their heart of hearts and have they had a truly honest conversation with themselves?
So how do you achieve contentment? It is rather simple and much more difficult to achieve. The trick really, is to figure out that which can be changed and changing it, and that which cannot, accepting it. By accepting the things we cannot change we begin to fill the void and thus become content and thereby fulfilled and ultimately happy.
Comparatively speaking there is very little we can really change, but a heck of a lot we cannot. As for me I am still trying to figure it out which is which ;-)
You may have been wondering how my happiness project is coming along? At first I bought into the idea that I could plan my happiness and that, that would get me there. I must admit that I had a sense of fulfilment to a degree and felt better, but happiness? Well not quite. A sense of fulfilment and a sense that I achieved something, but definitely not happiness. I kinda figured out that happiness is a state of mind and in todays world there very few have this state of mind.
One thing the media has got right is to distort our view on what happiness is. Ever see an ad where someone does not end up happy? Even washing powder adds, now don't get me wrong I love my clothes to be clean, but how does washing powder contribute directly to my happiness? And does it mean that if my clothes look like I have been through a quicksand pit I am not happy? Or if you don't have that famous brand of punch it out, dirt busting washing powder you probably not happy?
The only thing the media has done is to promote the view that the more of a particular product you have the more happy you will be! So they have manipulated us, albeit subtlety, into the view that the world is divided into those that have, and are therefore happy, and those that do not, and are therefore unhappy.
Society has also created some interesting perceptions, so if you are not "with" a certain crowd you are not "in" and therefore must be boring and unhappy. And being human beings, and very social and our innate requirement to belong, it is easy to coax us into making this assumption. Ever been in the company of a name dropper? See what I mean.
So now we have an additional measure implying that if you do not have "things" and are not "with it" then by implication you cannot be happy. We have the perfect measures to make judgements! But these are fickle measures and, by definition imply, that if your possessions are lost or you fall out with the "in" crowd, you have automatically lost your happiness.
Happiness is a many faceted and at its root lies the sense of contentment. To be truly happy you first have to be content. In the absence of contentment there is nothing but elation which soon fades leaving the a void. "Retail therapy" is an excellent example of this phenomena. There is much elation while making the purchase and more elation when opening the box for a few minutes or hours or even days before another dose of retail therapy is required. Nothing from outside can fill the void, no matter how hard we try. Many fool themselves into thinking that their "stuff" fills the void and they believe it. I ask but one question, have they turned to their heart of hearts and have they had a truly honest conversation with themselves?
So how do you achieve contentment? It is rather simple and much more difficult to achieve. The trick really, is to figure out that which can be changed and changing it, and that which cannot, accepting it. By accepting the things we cannot change we begin to fill the void and thus become content and thereby fulfilled and ultimately happy.
Comparatively speaking there is very little we can really change, but a heck of a lot we cannot. As for me I am still trying to figure it out which is which ;-)
Comments
Post a Comment