Happiness

Cute comic I found, contemplating happiness:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/unhappy

I've run across this one, too. It's one of my favorites on the subject. <--Not-unhappy-face

WOW!
Loved this! It's so well written! I've thought of myself being in a state like this but never thought to put it in those words.

Thank you. I have never actually contemplated it in that way

Thank you for this , this is so true and if it is not its surely a good way of looking at it

It's a very well done and thoughtful critique.

I definitely think happiness is a scale of emotion. I think the person who made it is/was happy but maybe not according to someone else's definition.

I think its kind of like masculinity. Often males pick on each other for any behavior that doesn't fit into the idea of absolute masculinity.

As if there is no scale...

As if every man has exactly the same amount of testosterone and if you don't have that amount then you must be homosexual. And while many young kids suffer bullying based on a standard that is probably not true for the vast majority, still the idea of what is masculine remains.

I do not have a bubbly personality. I don't smile just because I'm so happy I feel like smiling. No when I smile people think that means something specific. I'm reacting to something funny. I would describe myself as happy but that doesn't mean I have the same chemical reactions that define the "expression" of happiness that our culture agrees that happiness looks like.

Women often suffer from negative body image because society thinks they should look like a barbie. No offense to california but it almost feels like it is a different country of fake body parts; designer humans.

That's not real. So I think the definition of the happy person is also an exaggeration of real life. It's a standard almost impossible to reach because we all have good things in our lives and bad things. If good things make me smile and bad things make me frown then my face is an expression of balance.

But it's funny how some people use the definition of happy to assume you're "balanced" face, which is neither smile or frown, is unhappy. And society programs people so much with labels and definitions that I think a lot of people fake their smiles in order to look happy. And because they do the standard definition of happy can never be realistic. It maybe what we want but it's not what we have. To make matters more complicated I would say the opposite of happy is sad, not unhappy. It's just that unhappy is considered to be a little sad.

Interesting read. I had never considered the definition of happiness. Really it seems this person recognizes that happiness holds little definition, and is more of a shared societal idea. Or perhaps it's even defined by the individual. Interesting nonetheless.

Alfuria wrote: Really it seems this person recognizes that happiness holds little definition, and is more of a shared societal idea. Or perhaps it's even defined by the individual. Interesting nonetheless.

I think we've been raised with that myth of "and they lived happily ever after". We see happiness as a before and after, as if we ever reached a point in our lives when suddenly everything we ever wanted was in our grasp and from thereon we would experience no setbacks or challenges ever again.

To me, happiness is an attitude. You decide to be happy. Or not. Similar to deciding what clothes to wear, you either decide to "put on" your happiness today or not.

Thus, there is no need to constantly re-examine, am I happy? For if the answer is no, then all you need to do is decide to smile. I do not know the repercussions of this methodology on people who suffer clinical depression, though, but I do believe there is a strong "push" by society to "be happy" that leaves us all exhausted and dissatisfied, chasing after a carrot on a stick.