The Exceptional Happiness Ideas and Thinking Thread

[disarray]

You have hurt my happy.

yeah but you just added to mine with that comment. i do need to wipe the coffee of my monitor though. it all balances out

 

[wayneL]

Absolutely agree with all your points ,Julia...but to take the discussion further into the philisophical..

Perhaps happiness is more related to your "horizons"...and those can be influenced by many factors. Age. Career prospects. Bank balance.Spiritual state or relationship with others.

Maybe Happiness is all relativistic nonsense..cant be measured or defined systematically ,only emperically.

Wonder what Plato and Socrates would have to say if they were posting today?

Cheers Ya'll

I like some of Epicurus' views on this, in a nutshell:

You need enough money, but more than enough won't make you any happier.
You need friends
You should eat well (as in fresh and healthy, not gluttony)
You should eat with friends

yep great thread

anyone define happiness tho ?

is it a puff on a joint and having the giggles , doing the moonwalk and having a fat ole time ?

is it seeing your first child born ?

is it missing catastrophy by the skin of your nose ?

mmmmmmm this thread too deep for me , im going back to the stock threads where i can ramp everything i own like a mindless dweeb instead

That's a really great point Nun, I was just reflecting on how each person in this thread has a different idea about what happiness means. I guess that issomething for each person to figure out.

Happiness is having a joint, then narrowly avoiding being hit by a bus while you moonwalk your way to the hospital to witness the birth of your first child.

Everything else is just contentment.

Gold!

 

[IFocus]

Happiness = combination of different chemical reactions occurring in the brain.

Understand / control your brain = feel what ever you want

Any thing else...........your a victim of some ones values

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Great thread, gals and guys, keep it up.

It should be required reading for all the unhappy people out there.

gg

 

[disarray]

health (psychological and physical), love (interpersonal relationships and partner), and money (job, career, financial security etc.)

at any one time you should be happy if you've got 2 of the 3. this is the happiest you should expect to be.

if you're fit and stable, content with your woman / whatever, enjoy a regular sex life, have a stable career with future prospects and reliable cash flow then you've got the trifecta. take a picture, life is good.

if not, address the imbalance.

 

[nunthewiser]

Hi everybody

today i made 3 days wages trading NEU ..... did it make me happy ? nah was just another day at the office

on the way home i got pulled over for driving 15 km,s over the speed limit , then i was let off with a stern word and no penaltys

was i happy ..........hell yeah

today i texted a poster that has dissapeared from the chatroom to find out if she was ok .... she replied with a logical reason for not being there lately .....

it made me happy to hear all was well

man this happiness is sure confusing stuff and personally think its got squat to do with money

 

[nunthewiser]

Great thread, gals and guys, keep it up.

It should be required reading for all the unhappy people out there.

gg

it makes me happy that your happy GG

 

[Julia]

Hi everybody

today i made 3 days wages trading NEU ..... did it make me happy ? nah was just another day at the office

on the way home i got pulled over for driving 15 km,s over the speed limit , then i was let off with a stern word and no penaltys

was i happy ..........hell yeah

today i texted a poster that has dissapeared from the chatroom to find out if she was ok .... she replied with a logical reason for not being there lately .....

it made me happy to hear all was well

man this happiness is sure confusing stuff and personally think its got squat to do with money

Absolutely agree when you have enough. Whole different story if you haven't.

 

[Tink]

LOL @ Nun -- good one

 

[Ageo]

Ok quick question

* you have $100 billion but you only live 1 yr

* you are poor financially but live 150yrs

Now if you lived both lives list the happiness from each lifestyle and perhaps we can get some sort of answer going from both perspectives.....

 

[nunthewiser]

Ok quick question

* you have $100 billion but you only live 1 yr

* you are poor financially but live 150yrs

Now if you lived both lives list the happiness from each lifestyle and perhaps we can get some sort of answer going from both perspectives.....

i wouldnt remeber a thing on scenario 1 and would give the change to the bloke in scenario 2

edit .....actually bugga the bloke in scenario 2 , id get frozen until they found a cure

 

[Boyou]

Some very thought provoking posts on this thread! Wayne L you have started something positive here.
After all,the question is so fundamental..but also,I am finding it is impossible to come to objective conclusions..our perception of happiness must be,by nature,subjective.

I have one suggestion.Perhaps you can only know if you are happy if you have experienced misery or extreme unhappiness...Does a gazelle know it is travelling fast?..not unless it knows what it is to be a tortoise!

Maybe a better analogy could be found ,but thats al I can come up with right now.

Cheers Ya'll

 

[Timmy]

Why hasn't Happy posted to this thread?

 

[bluelabel]

To give you a perspective of what chance you have.

Imagine your in the middle of AAMI Stadium in Adelaide.
54000 seats.
On each seat is 2 reams of paper 1000 sheets
Now all the sheets are WHITE except one which is BLUE.

Now tell me which seat and which numbered sheet of paper it is.

(Its Seat 23655 and sheet no 265)

Bout time the seats at AAMI were filled with something, cause there sure arent many footy fans heading there.

:bier:

blue

 

[prawn_86]

Bout time the seats at AAMI were filled with something, cause there sure arent many footy fans heading there.

>38000 on the weekend to watch the Crows. They always pack it out, its just the Port supporters that dont have much money left for a ticket after their ciggies and slab of VB for the weekend

 

[Sean K]

I think we've concluded that happiness will be found in very individual ways.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

I am happy therefore I am.

gg

 

[Gundini]

I am happy that I have no debt, and a **** load of Gold....

 

[RamonR]

People interested in Happiness should investigate "Flow"

This occurs when you are doing something very interesting to you.
You become completely caught up in the moment.

I have experienced it a few times when doing a long distance bike ride.
Pushing myself a little bit to keep speed up with just a bit of pain.

A few minutes later I have had no thoughts and great feeling of euphoria.

 

[Trevor_S]

I have no intention of full retirement from the workforce....am semi retired now...and its boring.....

This I DO NO GET This is the best time of my life, being semi retired.

My entire working life has been towards perusing enough (which is subjective) material wealth to allow myself to enjoy doing things that have no fiscal reward. I can't think of anything I do that has a fiscal reward that makes me happy, it's a means to an ends... I am happiest reading a book, or hiking in the bush to a wonderful waterhole, or exploring to find that waterfall or ... but I would rather "shoot myself" then have to write a review of that book to get paid, or take an escorted tour (after setting up my own wilderness guide company for example) to that enchanted spot to get paid, or having to take photos to get paid etc etc

My new sea kayak arrives in the next day or so, I am excited by the wonders I will find when out on it, the places I will explore

On another tact, I thought this book interesting:

http://www.amazon.com/Against-Happiness-Melancholy-Eric-Wilson/dp/0374240663