Happiness: Enough Already

I think Happiness and Saddness are what they are a state of mind at any given time or circumstance. Trying to be happy all the time is virtually impossible. Eventually something happens to someone or something to remind us of what it means to be happy or sad, Like the writer says life runs it's course. How we choose to look and/or feel towards everyday events creates the state of mind of which we choose to feel. Just a thought because life is ful of choices and some can be as we all know life altering. Happy or sad, being a live to feel such emotions can be the best experience to living.

This stuff is very true. If people weren???t so happy all the time than they could wake up, and finally do something about the condition of our world. It's to bad though that the only reason that they made this article was because of some studies that if people weren???t so happy then they would try harder to make more money. They just want to try and manipulate people so that they can raise the economy.
We have the power though to use this sad energy how ever we choose. This energy is coming from the world that is now in decay. It is a warning sign for us to wake up and make some changes. Don???t listen to the warning signs that they are putting out there for us. Listen to the warning signs inside of yourselves. They try and say that we are going through global warming, but how do you explain our whole solar system warming up. That right, every planet is getting warmer. They are just using this stuff for political reasons. The new people trying to get into higher places are using these tactics to get the old people out of office so that they can be voted in. They don???t really want to do anything to help the world. They don???t really want to give us any real information on what???s going on because it will ruin profits. 30 years ago they were talking about global cooling in the same way that they are talking about global warming today. Look it up for your selves and see. You still might be able to catch the last failed attempts of the politicians still in office a few years ago trying to fight for their stand.
The only things that they claim are good for our planet are things that will help them sell their products. For example when companies say, ???we???ve gone green! 30% less plastic because we care about the environment,??? they are just saying that to appeal to the new political stands. They are only using 30% less plastic because it saves them millions in production. We don???t need them to tell us what???s wrong with us, our planet and what we need to do about it. It???s already inside of us.

This stuff is very true. If people weren???t so happy all the time than they could wake up, and finally do something about the condition of our world. It's to bad though that the only reason that they made this article was because of some studies that if people weren???t so happy then they would try harder to make more money. They just want to try and manipulate people so that they can raise the economy.
We have the power though to use this sad energy how ever we choose. This energy is coming from the world that is now in decay. It is a warning sign for us to wake up and make some changes. Don???t listen to the warning signs that they are putting out there for us. Listen to the warning signs inside of yourselves. They try and say that we are going through global warming, but how do you explain our whole solar system warming up. That right, every planet is getting warmer. They are just using this stuff for political reasons. The new people trying to get into higher places are using these tactics to get the old people out of office so that they can be voted in. They don???t really want to do anything to help the world. They don???t really want to give us any real information on what???s going on because it will ruin profits. 30 years ago they were talking about global cooling in the same way that they are talking about global warming today. Look it up for your selves and see. You still might be able to catch the last failed attempts of the politicians still in office a few years ago trying to fight for their stand.
The only things that they claim are good for our planet are things that will help them sell their products. For example when companies say, ???we???ve gone green! 30% less plastic because we care about the environment,??? they are just saying that to appeal to the new political stands. They are only using 30% less plastic because it saves them millions in production. We don???t need them to tell us what???s wrong with us, our planet and what we need to do about it. It???s already inside of us.

TV has one happines guru after another parade their joy and advice for happiness on the air. Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra and all the health and anti-aging gurus as well. It's an overwhelming bombardment of "wise" people telling you how to live happily and healthily. Personally, I can't take them anymore. There's too much to do. Too many things to remember. Too many changes to make. Too many books to buy. THAT'S what makes me sad.....the fact that I'll NEVER be as happy and blissful as they say I can and should be, because all of them together have too much to say and little old me gets overwhelmed and mixed up and don't know where to even start ! I can't watch them anymore or tv. It's just to hard seeing that unreachable goal.

cobi

i just wonder how many depressed people will actually feel happy after reading their sadness is not a bad thing....

I just wonder how many depressed people will feel "happy" after reading their sadness is not a bad thing.

At last! A glimmer of sanity is fighting its way through the relentless selfishness of American culture. The happiness brigades are the continuing outgrowth of the Me generation and the image-driven intolerance for imperfection. If you're weeping you must be somehow aberrant, because "real" people don't make scenes, don't allow "negative" emotions to spill out in public, don't drag their friends down, etc. Per the popular view, obviously these poor twits m!ust be unable to handle life if they can't be up and happy all the time. I have resented the "smile, be happy!" foot soldiers since I was 5 years old watching a parade from the curb and a clown got in my face trying to make me smile. I didn't want to smile on command. i would smile if there was something worth smiling about, thank you. I will not smile to make you happy. I am not such a hypocrit as to pretend nothing is wrong so I don't ruin your perfect day. Failure of compassion is half of what is wrong with our society. Failing to understand that people do actually have bad days and sometimes need to vent emotions, which may include tears, rage, sadness, and the full gamut of "negative" emotions, is a manifestation of the utter selfishness of most people, who require that no one bother them or make them uncomfortable in any way. "Take a pill" is indeed the modern mantra. Zone out, become a zombie, don't bother me with your problems. Geez, how much effort does it take to set your hand on someone's shoulder and say, "Are you having a bad day?" when they take your head off or are crying in their car. Instead, most people make it all about themselves, taking another's sadness or anger as an imposition or a personal attack. God forbid we should reach out and find out what's wrong and offer our help.

Thank you for your enlightening article, which I hope will open many eyes which see only what they want to see--a person they feel uncomfortable helping and therefore ignore as much as possible, because they themselves have swallowed hook, line, and sinker the stupid notion that only happiness is normal and everything else is a "condition".

I am from Pakistan's south easteran part known as Sindh. We have many philosophies for happiness and sorrows. In my school I remmeber I read one of the local philosopher who gave me the meaning of happiness. He says "The happiness is like a person who is weeping out sorrows with tears and a bowl is kept below his face tears drop into the bowel. When the bowel is full some tears drop on the floor those tears that drop on floor are actually the happiness."

Happiness is product of sadness.

An other big philosopher of ours say in a poem.

Sorrows come before the pleausres.
I will sacrifice pleasure
with the sweet sorrows.

Jamal Panhwar

I am from Pakistan's south easteran part known as Sindh. We have many philosophies for happiness and sorrows. In my school I remmeber I read one of the local philosopher who gave me the meaning of happiness. He says "The happiness is like a person who is weeping out sorrows with tears and a bowl is kept below his face tears drop into the bowel. When the bowel is full some tears drop on the floor those tears that drop on floor are actually the happiness."

Happiness is product of sadness.

An other big philosopher of ours say in a poem.

Sorrows come before the pleausres.
I will sacrifice pleasure
with the sweet sorrows.

Jamal Panhwar

Agreed! The feeling of happiness only exits because of the existance of sadness. It is a frame of reference to help us quanitfy and measure life's outcomes as per our individual determination of needs from life. What makes one person happy may have no relation to what another person may find as joyful. Our feelings are what make us different, unique, and serves to provide opportunities to shake things up when not happy, or stick your head in the sand to stay happy. Contentment is another story.

Agreed! "Happy" people just want to maintain the status quo and not dig into the heart of any matters. You need sad to appreciate happy and vice versa. It provides a natural frame of reference.

I am glad for this article. I work full-time providing grief support for families of hospice patients and others in the community. So many times others are impatient with sadness that is so much a part of grief. Doctors want to give a pill when someone's just lost a spouse of 50 years. It's healthier to allow ourselves all the feelings that come rather than to push down everything but the acceptable ones. For me, my biggest struggle with depression was when I was a teen, with no place to talk about my sadness after my mother died. It took finally working through that sadness to come back to joy.

Oh yes, there are certainly good things about sadness. Sad people tend to see the world in more realistic terms than happy people. And there are certainly plenty of situations in which sadness is completely appropriate and understandable. And sadness comes in many levels. Someone may be mildly sad or downright suicidal. To say someone is depressed doesn't really mean much until you find out what this means for the individual. How deep is their depression? What one person with depression is feeling may be vastly different from what someone else with depression may be dealing with. I think you should be careful about using labels such as sad or happy to describe someone. These labels are meaningless. They don't tell us exactly how the person is feeling and what thoughts are going through their head. I must also mention the side effects of these medications, which you brought up in your article. Anti-depressants don't have any debilitating side effects. In this sense they are much more easy to deal with than other medications, say for instance, anti-psychotics. Really all that most of them do is give people more energy and some of them have sexual side effects. I must also point out that often they don't work. Anyway, just some thoughts to think about. Good article.

There is a huge, HUGE difference between riding out a difficult time and "crying a little and getting over it" and not being able to get out of bed for reasons you don't even knopw yourself. Yes, I agree there are some people who can't stand the thought of being sad and will turn to prescription or illegal meds to keep from feeling the pain. But when it is caused by a chemical imbalance to where you can remember being sad and suicidal as an 8 year old , even though you grew up in a beautiful house with a loving family and nothing that would anywhere respresnt a difficult childhood, simply letting yourself be miserable for no reason for 25 years is not a way to live.

I take antidepressants, and guess what? It didn't stop my divorce from hurting. it didn't stop me from being scared and depressed when I had a cancer scare. I can feel sadness, and trust me, I do. But when the time to grief is over I can be happy again instead of just a lesser degree of sad.

i really enjoyed the perspective here... it's true... there is an ebb and flow to life and the sad times can make a life just that much deeper and richer. Very good.

people who do not believe in medicating depression have never experienced true depression. Period. What you are talking about is feeling down or sad as a result of something disappointing that happened. Of course this should not be medicated. Also, it is extremely ignorant to think that anti-deppressants cure depression. They barely put a dent in it. They do however prevent suicide and self injurous behavior. What you are saying is dangerous. You run the risk of making someone feel ashamed of seeking help or attempting treatment. You think your better because you're not medicated. The truth is, you're just lucky. You were blessed with good brain chemistry. Don't assume for one second that you can imagine what depression feels like, and don't stigmatize those who suffer in ways you can't comprehend. Dumped by a boyfriend. Honestly. You insult everyone who suffers from mental illness by thinking this qualifies as depression.