Ustwo

Are you happy with your life? Perhaps this is the most important question of all, that only you can answer.

For me I'd have to say yes, I'm happy.

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CSflim

I am as happy as I can be. I do my best to be positive, but it is very difficult given all of the highly negative things that exist around us.

Being happy isn't easy...but I do my best!

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Lebell

In the end, yes.

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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

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ARTelevision

totally man.
I don't see any sensible alternative either.

I've always thought it was suspiciously self-serving not to be...

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WarWagon

No, I am not. Hopefully some positive change will come about. As of right now, it seems that I'm doing far too much to please others, rather than doing what will make me happy.

stuyguy24

Yes I am. Thanks for asking.

filtherton

I'm okay. Things could be better, they could always be worse. That being said it has been a long time since i've had one of those moments where i felt that everything was truly right in the world. That's probably more a matter of choice than anything else though.

prosequence

Yes, but not with some others.

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And now here I stand because of you, Mister Anderson, because of you I'm no longer an agent of the system, because of you I've changed...

sexymama

Absolutely yes! I love life -- even the hard times as that is the time I'm growing. But the memorable/fun times are best of all.

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If you can go deeply into lovemaking, the ego disappears. That is the beauty of lovemaking, that it is another source of a glimpse of god

It's not about being perfect; it's about developing some skill at managing imperfection.

Anomaly_

Nope, not at all. I only have myself to blame though.

KellyC

Not really happy yet...I'm sastisfied with my life though. I wish to find happiness real soon

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Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe?
Me: Shit happens.

iamnormal

There is no such thing.

Mephex

I am at a point in my life where I am on autopilot, waiting for the next great thing to take me away.

There isn't anything in my life that enables me to be truly happy right now. That's really all there is to it.

I mean, should I decide to lower my standards of life, I could be happy, but I feel I deserve more, and I refuse to accept the fact that what I am currently dealing with, is what I have been "dealt".

The_wall

As of right now I'm not. I'm a lonely person, however its my fault I'm not happy.

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"We do what we like and we like what we do!"~andrew Wk

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Mephex

Heh, what a depressing thread. Bleeeeeeeah.

mr sticky

I am, but I have a tendency to find happiness in the small things. Usually the large events that we normally think would ensure happiness, just add a different form of misery.

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The sad thing is... as you get older you come to realize that you don't so much pilot your life, as you just try to hold on, in a screaming, defiant ball of white-knuckle anxious fury

teflonian

I think Art and mr. sticky have something there... Though I am not a full time practicer of their beliefs quite yet... I am unsatisfied with my career, but very happy with most other parts of my life. Hopefully I can fully answer yes to this question soon...

Mantus

One can never have a happy life. It is the nature of happiness to always be beside sorrow. One can’t exist without the other therefore in order to experience happiness one must first experience a proportional amount of grief.

I believe that those who claim to have happy lives are are simply using selective memory or lying.

ARTelevision

No. I just have standards for the concept "personal happiness" that differ from yours.

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Lebell

Or perhaps because you are not happy, you cannot stand the thought that someone else is, and therefore are trying to rationalize it away.

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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

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filtherton

I'm fairly certain that being happy is a choice. It just depends on whether you choose a perspective that allows you to be happy in the face of suffering or a perspective that forces you to suffer regardless of circumstances.

Mantus

I never said I wasn’t happy. I am happy, at the moment for example though yesterday was a rather depressing day for me. If I get laid on Wednesday as I hope too then ill be in an even better mood, though I will feel worse the next day because of my mixed feelings towards this awkward relationships, so perhaps ill just go and hang out with my friends instead which will make me happy.

That’s just the way things are. You can’t escape grief, without it there would be no joy. If everything made you happy the novelty of the feeling would soon wear off and you would become bored with it. Why do you think great artists and unimaginably rich people suffer from bouts of depression? There is no such thing as permanent happiness. There is no such thing as a mostly happy life.

Ustwo

Suddenly....feel.urge....to.wear....all.black.
(Note my Will Shattner cadence)

Perhaps you are just oversensative. My life hasn't been all Roses, but I'm still happy. I remember all the pain but pain is fleeting.

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Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

wilbjammin

Sounds like Mantus is talking about something we might relate to as the Greek tragic mode of existence. Living in the tension between the Dionysian and the Apollonian.

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Mantus

So is the happiness.

Why do you people find this prospect troublesome? If happiness was easy to attain and keep then it would have no value.

Ustwo

You could say the same thing about air, and it doesn't make air any less needed to be healthy.

Happiness has no value beyond the owner. I can't give you my happiness and you being happy doesn't make my happy supply worth less.

Its not supply and demand, it just is, and if you need pain to know when you should be happy thats kinda sad. (but I'll manage to stay happy and hope you find it someday too)

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Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

Mantus

En contraire,

Air is easy to get. When you wake up in the morning do you feel happy at your first conscious inhalation? No. But go snorkeling and stay bellow water for a minute. When you come up air never tasted so sweet. Now trying having an astma attack. What euphoria you feel when the lungs are clear at last and you are able to take a deep breath.

The two example of happiness mentioned above would have never happened if air did not become scarce. The person had to suffer in order to be happy. This happiness won’t last though. Air becomes a common substance once again and the novelty quickly wears off.

Further more.

You can give happiness. Haven’t you ever been happy for some one? Haven’t you ever been around a perky person and picked up their mood?

Now you say that you being happy doesn’t make my happiness worthless. That is wrong as well. Happiness may be just a byproduct but so is oxigen. Every human on this planet wants it and will do anything to make it happen. If you are happy I will envy you, I will want whatever it is that makes you happy and vice versa. If I am happy with my new car and find out that you have a better car my happiness will be diminished, because the value of the object which made me happy is lowered in my mind. If I am dating a girl and meet a more beautiful girl my happiness in the first relationship will diminish, this is why people break up, because they find some one better that will give them more happiness.

Let me ask you this: what was that last thing that made you happy that came without a price?

Any object you have you have only gave you happiness because you didn’t have it before. Most of those object you had to work hard for.

You lover had to be won. The relationship has to be sustained and allot of commitment has to be put into it. Further more you are always in fear of loosing the one you love.

A warm summer day is only made beautiful because one has to work in the office for 40 hours a week.

A walk bearfoot on the beech is wonderful because the weather wont permit it for the other half of the year.

A quiet morning is only blissful because you have to be driving though rush hour in an hour.

The first hot summer day brightens your mood because you just had to live though a bitter cold winter.

The first big snowfall make you giddy because you just had to live though a hot summer.

Everything comes at a price, the price is not always obvious but it’s always there. If happiness were as easy to get as air then you would not even know you had it. Like air and everything else the only way we can see the value of it is by feeling the lack of it.

CinnamonGirl

At the moment? No, I'm definitely not...but, changes are coming up, and I intend to make the best of them.

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"...for though she was ordinary, she possessed health, wit, courage, charm, and cheerfulness. But because she was not beautiful, no one ever seemed to notice these other qualities, which is so often the way of the world."


"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

ARTelevision

Mantus, how is it that you are convinced you can tell someone else what is true for them?

We're talking about a subjective state here - and you're discussing it objectively.

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Lebell

Perhaps he is being a buddhist: Life is suffering and all that.

__________________
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

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Ustwo

Having come close to drowning twice I know that feeling quite well but its really unrelated. I was very relieved to be back on dry land both times, and quite happy to be alive, but all it did was make me appreciate the air (and life) more, it did not change it.

Suffering only makes you appreciate it more, and remind you of why you should be happy, but it does not bring happiness in itself.

No, I can't give you MY happiness. Maybe I can make someone happy, and in fact I do so almost every day in my work, but again its not a commodity. If I am happy, I can't transfer it directly to you. Maybe I can make you happy, but I could do the same even if I were unhappy by saying the same things.

Now this is shallow and petty. If you judge your happiness based on what others have you will always be miserable. Even if you reach great heights of wealth and power you will still be miserable. You will be filled with envy first at those richer and who have 'more' then you, and then at those who should be miserable by your definition but are somehow happier then you. Jealousy is a distructive emotion in the long run.

First thing? Who knows, I was most likely soiling my diapers still, smiling at my mother from a bassenet. Currently I'd say my wife is the best example and before someone says something about women being expensive, I'd say you haven't found a good relationship yet. But even if she were out of the picture the saddness over losing her would be temperary, and I could still be happy again.

Another thing that brings me a bit of joy is fishing. I love to fish. Fishing equpment does cost money I know, but its pretty minor. Monetary value alone doesn't bring happiness, otherwise I'd just love April 15th.

True but also false. Winning my wife wasn't work, it was fun, and sustaining my relationship isn't a chore. Fear of loss is always there, but once you come to accept your mortality, it too can be beared.

No, it will always be beautiful. Some may not recognize it, but such is their loss.

The same as above. Also you should go to Hawaii.

Nope again sorry.

It again might make you appreciated it more, but its still a nice day all by itself.

Nah, snow is fun.

This reminds me of the villian at the end of some movie saying 'You need me! What is good without evil?'. This is of course a false argument. While having contrast will help you define something, lack of contrast doesn't diminish. Lets pretend everyone was happy. We would not be having this debate since there would be no need to. Happiness would just be what we are, but it doesn't diminish the happiness. I couldn't look at someone and think how lucky I was to be happy while that poor slob of miserable, but that wouldn't make me any less happy. I wouldn't become unhappy because there was no one less happy then me.

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Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

tecoyah

True happiness is a state of mind, and an understanding of the reasons for adversity. I am happy with my life. If only because I know this is where I need to be.

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Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

thingstodo

Totally happy. I have been blessed with opportunities and sometimes the good sense to recognize them. This has all lead to having far more experiences and things than I ever would have thought possible. And the funny thing is that I appreciate everything more each day, even though I am getting older.

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twilightfoix

when you've been arrested in the past 6 days, happiness isn't close in sight. but i gotta say that i was very happy until i was arrested, which is why i was arrested for in the first place. but i'll be back there soon, real soon.

Mantus

Well I finally came up with the appropriate response after all this time:

Whatever makes you happy. After all that is what is important, if what works for you does the trick then this is not the thread to push my ideas on you.

Perhaps I will make a thread on the concept of happiness later on and we can discuss it then.

Yakk

Remember, the most important part is to keep your endorphin levels high.

If reality is a viel of tears, simply close your eyes and smile.

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Last edited by JHVH : 10-29-4004 BC at 09:00 PM. Reason: Time for a rest.

Shpoop

Am I the only one who sees the inherent contradiction here? You say that one must experience grief before they can experience happiness. Then you say that anyone who claims to be happy is using selective memory? What? If they were to use selective memory, they would block out the bad memories (the grief), which would disable them from being happy. That being said, i disagree. I am, by most of your standards, a kid...still in high school, still mooching off of his parents. I probably been through alot less grief that a lot of people here, but I am happy. Perhaps getting over hard times in the future will eventually make me happier than I am now, but I am happy. Kind of a "one step backwards, two steps forwards" type of thing, I guess.


Wow that was a long post

Mantus

You are right, Shpoop that is a contradiction.

Grothendieck

It's getting better all the ti-i-ime.

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip...better-ly.html

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Didn't remember how intense love could be... Thank you B.

Tholo

yes.

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"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."