Happiness.
- Thread starter photonrider
- 233 comments
- 17,580 views
Chad Daddy
(Banned)
- 160
- Canada
- AngryGERMANkid1
Happiness is when you are not posting on the GT6 Epic Whining an Crying thread.... unless you are joking,
- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
I like small positives; I look for them constantly.
At many points in the day I remind myself of the extraordinary good health I have - that I don't have a cold, that I can walk, that I can use my hands.. . .
That I have a car, that I can enjoy most any food without undue side-effects, that I don't have to sleep out on the cold, wet pavement - whether for financial reasons or because I'm half mad, or because my family cast me out.
That I can see someone smile, hear someone laugh, and are educated enough to have gotten over programmed racial bigotry.
The list is endless.. . .
Maybe they are not big positives (like being super-rich, or a famous celebrity, or Mr. Superstar Studmuffin - which qualities much of the world adores) but it's all these small positives added that weigh the scales heavy on the side of personal happiness.
But, of course . . . happiness is personal.
To each their own.
- 4,735
- Kansas City, MO
- FlyingAGasoline
Honestly, I have forgotten what happiness feels like. I don't think there's been a single day of 2013 where I thought, "yes, I am a happy person." It's all been excrement. I've made some bad decisions and bad investments, got screwed over on one of them, had to check into a psych ward twice, and have pretty much given up on dating. On top of all that, My Dad may as well hate me right now because apparently I'm his emotional punching bag. My relationship with my Dad is on the rocks, my relationship with my best friend is on the rocks, and my so-called friends are unreliable pusheads.
And it sucks all the more because 2012 was the best year of my life. 2013 has been nothing but a steaming pile of excrement that gets thrown in my face every day.
And it sucks all the more because 2012 was the best year of my life. 2013 has been nothing but a steaming pile of excrement that gets thrown in my face every day.
The opposite of a depression, euphoria is not always pleasant. Sometimes when you're soooo happy (euphoric) you want to go out and buy very expensive things, in my case a Porsche 911. Or hug people randomly, do crazy stuff, etc... . Problem is that you can't do these things and you get stuck with this incredible euphoric feeling, which you can't do anything with.
Crazy......
Crazy......
- 4,735
- Kansas City, MO
- FlyingAGasoline
I've had the high highs. I'm Type II Bipolar. So, Type I people are a funny looking people's car, whereas I'm a much more useful minibus. In any case, my manic episodes are a little scary. spending gets loose, cigarettes taste REALLY GOOD, I tend to speak, think, and act rapidly, even in french, and I'm an unstoppable force of creativity. But, the episodes only last for 18 hours max. And what happens when they end is ugly.
- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
Sometimes it so happens that as one gets older one gets tired of being sad and just settles for being happy. Could be a 'time running out' thing. 'Make hay while there's still some sunshine left' sort of thing.
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That's intriguing; what kind of Test was it - and why would it be a part of the curriculum? Did you have to take it in Japanese (of course?) and what would you use to express your ideas? Ideograms? Hope I'm not probing too much - but I'm a nosey sort of guy about such stuff. Feel free to ignore me though.
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That's intriguing; what kind of Test was it - and why would it be a part of the curriculum? Did you have to take it in Japanese (of course?) and what would you use to express your ideas? Ideograms? Hope I'm not probing too much - but I'm a nosey sort of guy about such stuff. Feel free to ignore me though.
dylansan
Premium
- 4,987
- Massachusetts
- GTP_dylansan
- MINICOOPER120
It wasn't anything as interesting as you think. It was just a standard chapter test, testing our understanding of vocab and grammar. She asked that question so get us to use the conditional "if/then" grammar form. Though she does have a tendency to ask interesting questions on tests (which can be annoying, when you not only have to be able to write in Japanese, you have to think of an answer first).
If you're interested, my response was something like:
犬といつも遊べれば、幸せになると思います。
I'm not sure if it makes sense because it combines potential with conditional, but she didn't mark it wrong.
If you're interested, my response was something like:
犬といつも遊べれば、幸せになると思います。
I'm not sure if it makes sense because it combines potential with conditional, but she didn't mark it wrong.
- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
Yes - I see it now - though translations are always inefficient:
The potential for happiness is great if you and a dog were to be together.
Asobere - happy together?
Dogs make me happy, too. But only some dogs - happy dogs. Happiness is infectious, whatever it is, there is no doubt about it. We did talk about that at length some pages ago, about how stuff like happiness or depression are transmittable.
It's for good reason we run away from Gloomy Gus. Maybe even instinct, though I doubt 'Happiness' is anything else but human.
Animals feel pleasure. Is a dog happy to see you? Maybe. We don't really know. It could be merely anticipation of pleasure or reward, food or petting.
I haven't read any research on happiness measurement carried out on animals via fMRI, but it would be surely interesting data.
After all - brainwaves are brainwaves. Whatever brain it comes from.
The potential for happiness is great if you and a dog were to be together.
Asobere - happy together?
Dogs make me happy, too. But only some dogs - happy dogs. Happiness is infectious, whatever it is, there is no doubt about it. We did talk about that at length some pages ago, about how stuff like happiness or depression are transmittable.
It's for good reason we run away from Gloomy Gus. Maybe even instinct, though I doubt 'Happiness' is anything else but human.
Animals feel pleasure. Is a dog happy to see you? Maybe. We don't really know. It could be merely anticipation of pleasure or reward, food or petting.
I haven't read any research on happiness measurement carried out on animals via fMRI, but it would be surely interesting data.
After all - brainwaves are brainwaves. Whatever brain it comes from.
Happiness, a subject on GTP which already covered 6 pages and #163. Let me add another post trying to explain what I just came up with. 
As I said before, happiness, the feeling of being happy is all about brain chemistry. Of that I'm sure of. It is part of your genetic make up if you're a happy person or not. BUT I think, no I believe that you can influence your brain chemistry (and rewire your brain) and become more happy on a daily basis. No, I'm not talking about taking drugs or meds or drinking alcoholic beverages. I'm talking about trying to reduce stress, anxiety, fatique, adrenaline, cortisol, etc... .
If you take care of your body by eating well, have enough sleep and drinking enough water you probably keep your body in good shape. A body that is in good shape, functions well and that will influence your brain chemistry in a good way.
A couple of months ago, somebody said to me that if you don't drink enough water, you probably have more changes to feel bad or even get depressed. Let me explain what he told me.
According to him, a brain needs water. Your body needs water, so we have to drink water to keep our body healthy/function well. If you don’t drink enough water, your brain will take the water out of your body because it needs to function properly. If there is not enough water, in your body, your brain can’t function as it should, hence people don’t feel well or get depressed. Maybe even compromise your immune system. Many of you know the feeling of what is called a hangover. Which is nothing more of a dehydration of the body and ofcourse the chemicals used in e.g. beer.
I have found out that when I go for an interval run, not jogging but really pushing your stamina to the limits, that I feel much better during the training and afterwards as well.
So sports is a good way of making you feel better/happy.
I remember in juin until august 2006 when I was admitted to the hospital, I was kicking a soccer ball to the wall over and over again. While I was doing this, the incredible and overwhelming depressed and sick making feeling I constantly had, went away. And only as long as I was kicking the football. The theory behind this is that I was making my brain concentrate on something and it didn’t have time to feel depressed. So I can actually say that I was feeling much better and almost happy. Once I stopped kicking the soccer ball, the overwhelming depressed feeling came back.
Years ago (around 2000), I learned how to meditate and while meditating I had to visualise a white round sun like object, which was shining very brightly. This source of cosmic energy had to give off beams of pure white energy beams onto my body. I also had to visualise (found out this myself) that this energy beam purged my aura and got rid of all the negative things in my body.
I started to do this excersise every day for half a year. Well I felt as good as I do feel now with the meds I have to take every day. I was feeling very happy every day for many months.
The mind/imagination is a very powerful tool.
Another thing I tried was to think positive every day, all day long. This didn’t really work as you are forcing yourself to think positive. The positivity has to be a natural process, not a forced thought.
But I think that it is possible to rewire your brain is such a way that your positive thinking can become a natural process which makes you feel positive every day. Problem is, and this my theory, that once you stop with this positive attidude (even the meditiation) your genetic make up will rewire your brain again, reversing all the efforts you made.
Meds does the same thing but without any effort. Stopping meds could result in relapsing.
I also think that you can have a very happy feeling if something good happens or if you’re in a situation you like and makes you happy. This situation will probably increase the dopamine levels in your brain instantly, which makes you happy at that moment.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that can increase and drop in a very short time. It is also, besides serotonin, a neurotransmitter that can give you an instant happy feeling.
Serotonin on the other hand is a neurotransmitter that is always available in your body but has to travel to your brain and get through the brain/blood barrier. If there is a malfunction in your brain that causes for you to have much less serotonin in your brain cells, you become depressed, psychotic, get fobia, anxiety attacks and have other psychological problems.
This is not the way to experience happiness.
In 2008, a blood test shows that my serotonin levels were at the bare minimum. Result, the most severy clinical depression one can have.
In my case, I think that I also have two slightly oversensitive amygdalae which cause anxiety attacks as a result. If this anxiety and the stress related to the anxiety stays at a relative high level for several weeks or even moths, I relapse in a severe clinical depression because my serotonin levels drop and my serotonin reuptake pumps start to increase their reuptake speed to the point that I don’t have enough serotonin between the two synapses.
Enough of this rant. What I was trying to say is that it is probably possible to influence your happiness yourself.
As I said before, happiness, the feeling of being happy is all about brain chemistry. Of that I'm sure of. It is part of your genetic make up if you're a happy person or not. BUT I think, no I believe that you can influence your brain chemistry (and rewire your brain) and become more happy on a daily basis. No, I'm not talking about taking drugs or meds or drinking alcoholic beverages. I'm talking about trying to reduce stress, anxiety, fatique, adrenaline, cortisol, etc... .
If you take care of your body by eating well, have enough sleep and drinking enough water you probably keep your body in good shape. A body that is in good shape, functions well and that will influence your brain chemistry in a good way.
A couple of months ago, somebody said to me that if you don't drink enough water, you probably have more changes to feel bad or even get depressed. Let me explain what he told me.
According to him, a brain needs water. Your body needs water, so we have to drink water to keep our body healthy/function well. If you don’t drink enough water, your brain will take the water out of your body because it needs to function properly. If there is not enough water, in your body, your brain can’t function as it should, hence people don’t feel well or get depressed. Maybe even compromise your immune system. Many of you know the feeling of what is called a hangover.
Which is nothing more of a dehydration of the body and ofcourse the chemicals used in e.g. beer.I have found out that when I go for an interval run, not jogging but really pushing your stamina to the limits, that I feel much better during the training and afterwards as well.
So sports is a good way of making you feel better/happy.
I remember in juin until august 2006 when I was admitted to the hospital, I was kicking a soccer ball to the wall over and over again. While I was doing this, the incredible and overwhelming depressed and sick making feeling I constantly had, went away. And only as long as I was kicking the football. The theory behind this is that I was making my brain concentrate on something and it didn’t have time to feel depressed. So I can actually say that I was feeling much better and almost happy. Once I stopped kicking the soccer ball, the overwhelming depressed feeling came back.
Years ago (around 2000), I learned how to meditate and while meditating I had to visualise a white round sun like object, which was shining very brightly. This source of cosmic energy had to give off beams of pure white energy beams onto my body. I also had to visualise (found out this myself) that this energy beam purged my aura and got rid of all the negative things in my body.
I started to do this excersise every day for half a year. Well I felt as good as I do feel now with the meds I have to take every day. I was feeling very happy every day for many months.
The mind/imagination is a very powerful tool.
Another thing I tried was to think positive every day, all day long. This didn’t really work as you are forcing yourself to think positive. The positivity has to be a natural process, not a forced thought.
But I think that it is possible to rewire your brain is such a way that your positive thinking can become a natural process which makes you feel positive every day. Problem is, and this my theory, that once you stop with this positive attidude (even the meditiation) your genetic make up will rewire your brain again, reversing all the efforts you made.
Meds does the same thing but without any effort. Stopping meds could result in relapsing.
I also think that you can have a very happy feeling if something good happens or if you’re in a situation you like and makes you happy. This situation will probably increase the dopamine levels in your brain instantly, which makes you happy at that moment.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that can increase and drop in a very short time. It is also, besides serotonin, a neurotransmitter that can give you an instant happy feeling.
Serotonin on the other hand is a neurotransmitter that is always available in your body but has to travel to your brain and get through the brain/blood barrier. If there is a malfunction in your brain that causes for you to have much less serotonin in your brain cells, you become depressed, psychotic, get fobia, anxiety attacks and have other psychological problems.
This is not the way to experience happiness.
In 2008, a blood test shows that my serotonin levels were at the bare minimum. Result, the most severy clinical depression one can have.
In my case, I think that I also have two slightly oversensitive amygdalae which cause anxiety attacks as a result. If this anxiety and the stress related to the anxiety stays at a relative high level for several weeks or even moths, I relapse in a severe clinical depression because my serotonin levels drop and my serotonin reuptake pumps start to increase their reuptake speed to the point that I don’t have enough serotonin between the two synapses.
Enough of this rant. What I was trying to say is that it is probably possible to influence your happiness yourself.
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- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
Great post, Chris - summarizes a lot of what we have spoken about before. Yes, the feeling of 'happiness' can even be produced electronically in the brain with an implant.
We can even say 'Happiness' is an illusion.
Which kind of takes it further than Einstein - who postulated that universal reality is an illusion, since we all perceive it from different perspectives.
We can even say 'Happiness' is an illusion.
Which kind of takes it further than Einstein - who postulated that universal reality is an illusion, since we all perceive it from different perspectives.
I have heard/read about these implants. Aren't they used for depressed patients to give back their lives when nothing and no meds helps?
Reality is what we make of it. So is probably happiness. I wonder if everybody preceives happiness in a different way. The basic biological and physical make up of a human brain is the same for all humans but every brain of every human is unique, which raizes the question; do we all preceive happiness in a different and unique way?
Reality is what we make of it. So is probably happiness. I wonder if everybody preceives happiness in a different way. The basic biological and physical make up of a human brain is the same for all humans but every brain of every human is unique, which raizes the question; do we all preceive happiness in a different and unique way?
- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
I posted the sources and results of the whole phenomenon - IIRC, at the time, there were about 150 patients word-wide who were hardwired for happiness with implants; they are on a constant high. It's buried somewhere in the depths of this discussion.
Well, happiness can be a reality . . . though reality may not be constant happiness. Medically, clinically, happiness is no different from human to human - the feelings of happiness felt by humans is the same, as the feelings of depression (in varying degrees) is the same from human to human. Insanity is universal. (Or so they say.
)When patient brainwaves are measured by technicians and comparative readouts are looked at, it's the same parts of the brain in every human that generate particular wavelengths when happy, or sad, or fearful . . . or euphoric.
Meds target these areas in need.
The different emotional make-ups that make up individuals differs, which is why there are so many different 'cures'.
This is a deeper issue. Because now we're going beyond the biology and into the realm of psyche.
To some brains, psyche is not even an option - the soul-less brain is beyond psychology, taking into consideration that the term psyche, and all the forward and back formations of it come from the word 'soul' or concept similar thereof.
This takes us to attention.
Or to put it another way - are we all paying the same kind of attention?
Are we all 'experiencing' happiness in the same way, though the brain patterns are the same?
How can we test that?
Your take on water is quite interesting. The brain is a lot of water. A lot of water that feeds on blood.
I've addressed the power of water, in relation to attention, in another discussion, but for now only one piece of the puzzle in place, others to follow soon when I have a moment.
Don't worry . . . be happy.
These deeper issues has always intrigued me. Not only on this "happiness or brain thing subject" but deeper issues, paradoxes etc... in general. Too bad I can't discus it in Dutch. English is too difficult for me to write about the philosophical thoughts/believes I have.
- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
Happiness is experienced within.
And can be expressed without.*
_______________________________________________
*
without
wɪðˈaʊt/
adverb
archaicliterary
And can be expressed without.*
_______________________________________________
*
without
wɪðˈaʊt/
adverb
archaicliterary
- 1.
outside.
"the enemy without"
- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
The World Happiness Report concludes this year that Canada is the 5th happiest country in the world. We've actually moved up a notch.
Meanwhile there seem to be some other world-class countries out there that have come off as decidedly unhappier - news we should keep away from them lest they become even more unhappy.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/world-happiness-report-ranks-canada-5th-1.3044556
http://worldhappiness.report/
Meanwhile there seem to be some other world-class countries out there that have come off as decidedly unhappier - news we should keep away from them lest they become even more unhappy.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/world-happiness-report-ranks-canada-5th-1.3044556
http://worldhappiness.report/
- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
In which case, so would be sadness . . .
I'm happy to hear that. As we go along in time, and such changes are recorded here, it is heartening to see people improve in their outlook.
And why am I happy to see that? Because happiness shared is multiplied, in the same way that misery loves company.
- 3,475
- Vilnius
Neighbours put a "Happiness is homemade" (in english) sign up on their kid's playground treehouse. My parents think it says "something about the homos".
That's all, scroll on.
That's all, scroll on.
- 4,019
- Derbyshire, UK
- DG Silva
I can't say I've been truly happy for a good few years now. Granted, I've had moments where I've had joy in doing something, or feeling contentment, but for the majority of the time, all I've felt is a plodding along, an existence, because being with my fiancee is the only thing worth staying alive for.
I've been forced out of two jobs I've enjoyed doing (not to say my new one isn't going to be one to enjoy), a mortgage, not much of a retirement to look forward to, and I just have these days where I feel utterly despondant. I know that happiness comes from within, but I can't see a way out sometimes.
I've been forced out of two jobs I've enjoyed doing (not to say my new one isn't going to be one to enjoy), a mortgage, not much of a retirement to look forward to, and I just have these days where I feel utterly despondant. I know that happiness comes from within, but I can't see a way out sometimes.
