I think it’s possible to have a certain level of happiness underlie all of our experiences, the good, the bad or the ugly, if we are aware of them. That’s possibly what is meant by having a set-point for happiness. It’s there, somewhere. I wonder if we can set our set-point higher with a little awareness.

“Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.” ~ Georges Bernanos (1888-1948)

Back to some thoughts from the article in US Airways:

Psychologists have been studying happiness since the 1960’s, but it didn’t become a discipline in its own right until 1998 with the adoption of the term ‘positive psychology.’ There are now research centers such as a lab at the U of N Carolina or a center at U of Pennsylvania.

Happy people live longer, enjoy healthier lives, achieve more success, and maintain stronger relationships than the chronically unhappy. “This doesn’t mean that people need to be euphoric or ecstatic all the time, but rather that people who are in a positive state the majority of the time have an advantage in terms of success.” Ed Diener, professor of psychology at the U of Illinois quoted by Liz Seymour

It’s a good thing happiness is not dependent upon being ecstatic all the time. It would elude me completely. Does fighting for a level of happiness count? I think it should. At any rate, what is, is. I don’t think we should rate ourselves against other people but compare ourselves to ourselves. There are tough things in life. It would be too much to think we should go through them without a bit of sorrow. Sometimes sorrow shows our compassion.

The belief is that anyone can become happier. So stay tuned to other parts.

Meantime, the day that books leapt out at me in the library, another one did about happiness (now returned, so I don’t have the title in front of me.) In this book the author tells the story of a concentration camp survivor who was too happy, according to her family, and they wanted her to see a psychologist. He is amazed at her capacity for happiness and in several chapters, he details her thoughts to him. In one instance, she points to the tattoo of the number on her arm and says that that is a sign of her happiness — that others have signs too, but they might be less easy to find.

Lest this sound too ethereal, she was grounded in reality. One thing she said was that during her camp experience she often held the hand of a man who would shake when the guards came by. Finding a sense of worth in the camps, doing something good for others, helped to save her. She says that he survived and waved to her from the truck that released him.

I know someone who seems happy all the time. For her, it comes easily. Or maybe she demonstrated it over a long life and knows the value of holding on to it even in the face of tragedy, as she has had some. It does seem to come more easily to her than to me.

What do you do to consciously bring happiness into your life, maybe especially if you are going through some hard times? Readers of this blog would like to know.

There even comes a time when being like Scarlett O’Hara is not such a bad thing: resolving to think about it another day, because there isn’t anything more that can be done today.

Karin

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Categories:

Books, Inspirational, Joy and happiness, Just thinking

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