Happiness, and what it really means

Sadness is an unnatural state :-)

You all know what happiness is, right? Give me a definition.... not so easy was it?  Happiness is different for every person on this planet. What makes me happy is profoundly different from what makes you happy. I will admit, however, that there are subjects of overlap (e.g. a fluffy kitty makes me happy and also makes you happy)  But in the grand scheme of things we all want to have our own little brand of happiness and carry on our lives comfortably.

But what happens if your arm gets cut off?!?! Most people say something like this: "I would never be completely happy again". Here's where I'm going to blow your mind away; people who actually have had their arms removed report the SAME level of happiness they experienced before the amputation, roughly six months after the amputation. This is our mind's immune system at work. Once we learn to cope with a loss (whether it be losing an arm, family member, job, etc...) We return to how we were before the loss. There are some confounding factors though; for example, if you were to lose your job, and end up working much more demanding and stressful jobs for the rest of your life it would only stand to reason that you might not be quite as happy as before. However, when you consider this... how likely is that situation? Not very, if you have the experience, you can always find a job that you are at least moderately happy in doing.

At this juncture, you're probably wondering if I have a point to all of this; well, I do. And it comes down to making decisions. There are almost NO decisions that you can make, that you are going to be stuck with for the rest of your life (maybe a tattoo doesn't fall under that category though...). For example, if you decide to move across the world for a job, and that job turns out to be a big mistake... you can always change your mind and move back. It may take a little work to pull yourself you, but you can make the change. So, when it comes to making a decision; don't stress too much over it, science has shown that you will be happy regardless of what you decide (even if you decide to remove your arm [please don't do this though]) There is a difference between knowing your options and making educated decisions and wasting time waiting for the right opportunity, or analyzing an opportunity so much that you convince yourself that it's a bad idea; when in the end, it really isn't.

I'm going to share a video that goes into a little more detail about happiness that I believe you should ALL watch. It's on the TED website (which, by the way, is a fantastic place to get information)  A great deal of the information that I used in my everyday life came from this video and other psychological journals; let me know if you want some further reading and I will e-mail you some great PDFs.

Dan Gilbert on Happiness

Cheers!