What Does It Mean To Be Happy? “As children, we’re taught that the ideal outcome for any story is to live ‘happily ever after.” Happiness - we all want it, and we all believe that it’s the ultimate measure of success. Our life choices and circumstances are often selected by how much they lead us to the happiness we crave. We regret paths we’ve taken that didn’t lead us to it and we make changes in order to have a better chance of getting us there. Our faith in the possibility of reaching happiness is never undeterred.
hours playing Sudoku and any other brain power apps you can download. You are becoming smarter. You are winning Trivial Pursuit and scrabble and you now understand the complex workings of our nervous systems. Unfortunately, you still want to be smarter and are not yet as smart as you thought you might be. So, you learn more and try harder in an effort to reach your goal.
So, can we ever really reach our goal of happiness? Or, is our constant pursuit of happiness leading many of us to experience more sadness?
Now, change that goal to be wanting to be happy. You buy the latest books, repeat positive mantras and journal every evening, yet you are not as happy as you thought you would be. The disappointment tends to make you feel less happy. Less successful in your pursuit. Right?
Let’s look at that idea. Imagine your goal and it is to become smarter, so you enrol in a medical degree, you spend
w w w.re s i s ta n c ema g a z i n e.c om
17
