The Guide to Happiness

[VIVAlasVEGASBaby]

VIVAlasVEGASBaby is back. With more of his ramblings on happiness and all of that other garbage. Happiness is one of the most rare things in our society today. Just think about it. Granted, not everyone is depressed, but how few do you think are truly happy? Most people wouldn’t even be able to tell you what happiness is or where it comes from. It really all comes down to you though. If you want to be happy, then you have the power to be happy. If you want to worry about every little thing then you have the power to.

Really take a look at people. So far the worst thing I have ran into on this “being a DJ” thing is the loneliness. I can see people for what they really are now. Girls aren’t all that great and guys aren’t as tough as they try to make themselves look. I am a part of an insecure world where people cry and hate and pull **** that doesn’t even make sense. So in all honesty, being a DJ isn’t all fun and games. It’s a hell of a lot better than being an AFC, but that decision is up to you to make. Anyways, here is my guide to happiness.

Epicurus
http://www.epicurus.net/index.html

Letter to Menoeceus

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come, or that it is past and gone, is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more. Therefore, both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom, the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come. So we must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed towards attaining it.

Accustom yourself to believing that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply the capacity for sensation, and death is the privation of all sentience; therefore a correct understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life a limitless time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terrors for him who has thoroughly understood that there are no terrors for him in ceasing to live. Foolish, therefore, is the man who says that he fears death, not because it will pain when it comes, but because it pains in the prospect. Whatever causes no annoyance when it is present, causes only a groundless pain in the expectation. Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not. It is nothing, then, either to the living or to the dead, for with the living it is not and the dead exist no longer.

We must remember that the future is neither wholly ours nor wholly not ours, so that neither must we count upon it as quite certain to come nor despair of it as quite certain not to come.

We must also reflect that of desires some are natural, others are groundless; and that of the natural some are necessary as well as natural, and some natural only. And of the necessary desires some are necessary if we are to be happy, some if the body is to be rid of uneasiness, some if we are even to live. He who has a clear and certain understanding of these things will direct every preference and aversion toward securing health of body and tranquillity of mind, seeing that this is the sum and end of a blessed life. For the end of all our actions is to be free from pain and fear, and, when once we have attained all this, the tempest of the soul is laid; seeing that the living creature has no need to go in search of something that is lacking, nor to look for anything else by which the good of the soul and of the body will be fulfilled. When we are pained because of the absence of pleasure, then, and then only, do we feel the need of pleasure. Wherefore we call pleasure the alpha and omega of a blessed life. Pleasure is our first and kindred good. It is the starting-point of every choice and of every aversion, and to it we come back, inasmuch as we make feeling the rule by which to judge of every good thing.

And since pleasure is our first and native good, for that reason we do not choose every pleasure whatsoever, but will often pass over many pleasures when a greater annoyance ensues from them. And often we consider pains superior to pleasures when submission to the pains for a long time brings us as a consequence a greater pleasure. While therefore all pleasure because it is naturally akin to us is good, not all pleasure is should be chosen, just as all pain is an evil and yet not all pain is to be shunned. It is, however, by measuring one against another, and by looking at the conveniences and inconveniences, that all these matters must be judged. Sometimes we treat the good as an evil, and the evil, on the contrary, as a good.

Again, we regard independence of ******d things as a great good, not so as in all cases to use little, but so as to be contented with little if we have not much, being honestly persuaded that they have the sweetest enjoyment of luxury who stand least in need of it, and that whatever is natural is easily procured and only the vain and worthless hard to win. Plain fare gives as much pleasure as a costly diet, when once the pain of want has been removed, while bread and water confer the highest possible pleasure when they are brought to hungry lips. To habituate one's self, therefore, to simple and inexpensive diet supplies all that is needful for health, and enables a man to meet the necessary requirements of life without shrinking, and it places us in a better condition when we approach at intervals a costly fare and renders us fearless of fortune.

When we say, then, that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sensuality, as we are understood to do by some through ignorance, prejudice, or willful misrepresentation. By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. It is not an unbroken succession of drinking-bouts and of revelry, not sexual lust, not the enjoyment of the fish and other delicacies of a luxurious table, which produce a pleasant life; it is sober reasoning, searching out the grounds of every choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which the greatest tumults take possession of the soul. Of all this the beginning and the greatest good is wisdom. Therefore wisdom is a more precious thing even than philosophy ; from it spring all the other virtues, for it teaches that we cannot live pleasantly without living wisely, honorably, and justly; nor live wisely, honorably, and justly without living pleasantly. For the virtues have grown into one with a pleasant life, and a pleasant life is inseparable from them.

Letter to Herodotus

There is yet one more point to seize, namely, that the greatest ,anxiety of the human mind arises through the belief that the heavenly bodies are blessed and indestructible, and that at the same time they have volition and actions and causality inconsistent with this belief; and through expecting or apprehending some everlasting evil, either because of the myths, or because we are in dread of the mere insensibility of death, as if it had to do with us; and through being reduced to this state not by conviction but by a certain irrational perversity, so that, if men do not set bounds to their terror, they endure as much or even more intense anxiety than the man whose views on these matters are quite vague. But mental tranquillity means being released from all these troubles and cherishing a continual remembrance of the highest and most important truths.

Hence we must attend to present feelings and sense perceptions, whether those of mankind in general or those peculiar to the individual, and also attend to all the clear evidence available, as given by each of the standards of truth. For by studying them we shall rightly trace to its cause and banish the source of disturbance and dread, accounting for celestial phenomena and for all other things which from time to time befall us and cause the utmost alarm to the rest of mankind.

 

[VIVAlasVEGASBaby]

What is Happiness?
http://www.drkenner.com/

What is Happiness?

A puzzling situation:
Billy won the lottery. A cool $25 million! He appeared to be a good man with a good character. Of the many types of people who might have won, his friends were happy it was Billy. But two years later he was arrested for drunk driving, resisting arrest, soliciting a prostitute, and having drugs in his car. The arrests continued over the next few years. The excitement of winning did not grow into a lifelong happiness.

Tom, a successful businessman, was a loner who worked long hours, saving and re-investing most of his profits. He was disliked for his independence and envied for his wealth. Yet his was a life full of contentment and happiness. Why does wealth bring happiness to some and misery to others?

If wealth is not a shortcut to happiness, what about sacrificing for others? Terry volunteers at the soup kitchen 6 days /week, 52 weeks a year, but hates it, hates her life, and has grown especially bitter towards the people she serves. Dora, an engineer, never does volunteer work. If she gives to charity, she does so very selectively and sparingly. Acquaintances envious of her success call her selfish. Yet Dora is very happy.

There are many people who we think should be happy but are not. (Billy the ``lucky" lottery winner and Terry the ``serious" volunteer.)

There are many people who we think should be miserable but are not. (Tom the ``loner" businessman and Dora the ``selfish" engineer.)

Some people who seem to have nothing are very happy. Some people who seem to have everything are not. Yet some jet-setters seem happy while some moral crusaders have become miserable old grouches. Happiness seems very unpredictable, inconsistent, irrational.

What follows is an explanation as to the rational basis of happiness.

Happiness
Happiness is an emotion. So is sadness, love, hate, curiosity, revulsion, excitement, jealousy, contentment, depression, anxiety, fear, guilt and anger. All emotions have causes, causes which can be understood and controlled.

The emotion of happiness is not caused simply by entertaining your whims. (Whims are an obstacle to happiness.) Happiness is not merely a life lived by accumulating moments of pleasure. On the contrary, happiness is a long lasting enduring enjoyment of life, it is being in love with living. It is your reward for achieving a good character and personal rational values in life. Some important values are a productive career, romance, friendship and hobbies.

Achieving these values requires rationality and takes effort and skill. Two types of skills you can use are thinking skills and valuing skills.

Once you learn to have confidence in your own mind and once you discover the virtues that make it possible for you to achieve your values and that make your life worth living, then you will experience the result - an earned pride and a genuine self-esteem. And of course happiness.

Depression
http://www.zoloft.com/index.asp?pageid=2&o=7782679|5364995|0

More people suffer from depression than you might think. Depression strikes people of all ages, backgrounds, and ethnic groups. It is estimated that about 20 million adults in the U.S. suffer from depression each year, and that up to 25% of all women and up to 12% of all men in the U.S. will experience an episode of major depression some time in their lives. About 1 out of 6 American adults have depression during their lifetimes.

Happy People May Have More Immunities To Common Cold
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/07/030722073530.htm

People who are energetic, happy and relaxed are less likely to catch colds, while those who are depressed, nervous or angry are more likely to complain about cold symptoms, whether or not they get bitten by the cold bug, according to a recent study.

Study participants who had a positive emotional style weren't infected as often and experienced fewer symptoms compared to people with a negative emotional style, say Sheldon Cohen, Ph.D., of Carnegie Mellon University and colleagues, writing in the July issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

Cohen's team interviewed 334 healthy volunteers three evenings a week for two weeks to assess their emotional states. The volunteers described how they felt that day in three positive-emotion areas: vigor, well-being and calm. They were also questioned about three categories of negative feelings: depression, anxiety and hostility.

Other scientists have speculated that people who typically report experiencing negative emotions are at greater risk for disease and those who report positive emotions have less risk, says Cohen.

After their assessment, each volunteer got a squirt in the nose of a rhinovirus -- the germ that causes colds. The researchers kept the subjects under observation for five days to see whether or not they became infected and how they manifested symptoms.

"We found that experiencing positive emotions was associated with greater resistance to developing a common cold," Cohen reports. "Increases in positive emotional styles were linked with decreases in the rate of clinical colds, but a negative emotional style had no effect on whether or not people got sick."

A positive emotional style actually had no effect on how often volunteers were infected (as measured by replication of the virus) but produced fewer signs and symptoms of the illness, says Cohen. This suggests that inflammatory chemicals produced by the body may link the positive emotional style with colds.

Further analysis revealed that good health practices and lower levels of certain hormones did not account for the link between positive emotional style and illness.

Since the average person catches two to five colds a year, developing psychological risk profiles and considering ways to enhance positive emotion might reduce the risk of colds -- and by extension, other infectious diseases.

The study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health.

 

[VIVAlasVEGASBaby]

Death
http://www.solveyourproblem.com/artman/publish/article_205.shtml

Everybody is afraid of death. Because our own consciousness is the only consciousness we really know, we all have trouble conceiving of our own death. It is difficult for each of us to imagine the universe going on without us because it is our consciousness that makes the cosmos exist for us, Death is something that happens to other people, we like to tell ourselves.

The modern American attitude towards death has not been a healthy one. With our glorification of bodily pleasure and youth, we seem to fear and shun old age and death.-. In contrast to our ancestors, death is a stranger, a rarely seen event. In the past, most people had more of a first hand acquaintance with death than we do today. People died in their homes, surrounded by their families, not shunted away in an impersonal hospital. One fourth of all children died in infancy, while another fourth died by adolescence, so parents had only a fifty percent chance of seeing a child grow to adulthood. Our attitude towards death is changing, however. Death and dying are becoming respectable academic subjects, while hospice care is becoming more accepted by the medical and lay communities.

There are three different and separate death fears, each calling for a different response if the fear of death is to be reduced. The first is the fear of the actual process or event of dying. For some, the manner in which one dies is a measure of the way in which he has lived. All living is a preparation for death, so a good death is indicative of a good life.

Consequently, we are afraid that we will die in great pain, or we will be frightened, terrified and resist death, or we will "crack" during the process of dying and not die with peace and dignity. _But recent psychological evidence suggests that this does not have to be the case. In studies of near death experiences in which people have had a close brush with death, or of cases in which people have been clinically dead but brought back to life, we are beginning to gather evidence that death, once accepted, may be a pleasant experience. Although not universal, many people in near death situations describe a sense of joy and peace they have never known before. Some also describe the perception of a light that loves and welcomes them. Whether these experiences are "proof" of an afterlife or simply explained in biochemical terms, science cannot tell. But we do know that the experiences are so beautiful that the subjects have not wanted to return to life, or have done so only reluctantly.. And they learned some things as a result of their experiences: to be more loving, to learn more about life and, above all, not to be afraid of death again.

The second fear of death concerns what happens after we die. Most people believe in an afterlife, and as long as they believe that afterlife will be pleasant or happy, they have nothing to fear. But if a person believes his or her afterlife is going to be painful or unpleasant, that he will be punished in some kind of hell, then obviously he will fear death.

The third death fear, the one that is most basic, is the fear of extinction. Death as an end of all consciousness, as a blank or nothingness, is something to fear, although if it is true, we will fear it before death but not afterwards. Studies of people who are actually near death, however - the elderly and the terminally ill - indicate that fear is not a universal or strong reaction to impending death. The famed psychiatrist, Elizabeth Kubler Ross, for example, has found that the terminally ill go through a series of stages - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance – which can result in the eventual acceptance of death and a peaceful expiration. _Studies of the elderly reveal that impending death brings more depression than fear, although some elderly actually welcome death Younger, healthier people further from death have a greater fear of death than people who are old or ill and closer to it.

From a murky distance, especially when you are young and healthy, death can be seen as a frightening event to be avoided at all costs. Up close, it may lose some of its terror. Besides, who among us would really want to live forever?

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
-Mark Twain

I think I have proved enough points. Happiness is the thing we all chase, we all wish we had more of, the thing we all want and need. Happy people are proven to live more healthy and long lives. Depression and anxiety and socially acceptable disasters plaguing American society, and people are to afraid to let go. Welcome to the real world.

So we briefly touched on some things that can lead to happiness and some that can lead to a feeling of insignificance and fear. In the scheme of things, does any of it matter? Will that “special” chick that blew you off matter once you‘re dead? Give me a break. We all die, get over it. We all feel pain, get over it. I believe the biggest thing holding people back from happiness is a fear of losing pain. Just let go. Let go of your pain and suffering and just be free. Happiness is our only real freedom. Stop thinking happiness is for others but not for yourself. There is one thing I have been telling myself and others since I started this DJ stuff, and it applies to anything in your life. If you want it, go and ****ing get it. I wish you all the best of luck overcoming your fears and entering into that DJ thing. I’m going to leave you all on this note.

“So we must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed towards attaining it.”
-Epicurus, Letter to Menoceus

 

[raven_82]

Nice post! I came to the exact same realization about using the fact that I will die as motivation and credit that revelation to my success right now.

 

[aBAzLLnA]

goddam this post is long, havent read it yet, and probably won't.

a guide to happiness is the awakening of inner peace. After that, man, women, cars, and money dont even matter.

Maybe this was said in your post, but i think its important for people to learn to be happy within themselve and not to be happy for people or to put a front of happiness, but to be truly happy.

~ivan