Albert Camus:
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.
I was reading Ode Magazine and came upon an article about happiness written by a self catagorized pessimist, a French therapist who has written extensively about the subject and I was happily delighted with his six lessons for a happier life quoted in the magazine, especially since recently some of these points appeared in various forms in the Sunday Messages.
Here are the Doctor's orders for happiness:
1. Accept that there will be unpleasant things in life
2. Open your eyes and look around.
3. Take time out.
4. Pay attention to family and friends.
5. Try to get in touch with nature every day.
6. Express your gratitude and respect for the good things you experience.
Here's how he explains it. Every day, all of the time, there are set backs. Stuff that makes you late or irritated, mistakes, mishaps, stupid choices. I know this flies in the face of optimistic metaphysicians, yet my time in this field has proven that indeed, optimistic metaphysicians face the same daily carnival of life idiocies that the rest of the world does. There is just no point, the good doctor says, in being disappointed when things don't go your way.
Further, he explains something that you'll find in just about any metaphysical manual for spiritual discover, and that is there are many more opportunities for happiness than a person regularly things there are -- especially if you are a Westener in this century. Metaphysics talks about it in terms of focus of attention and how what we aim attention on becomes dominant in our personal landscape.
Dr. C. Andre says that the ability to pause, mentally as well as physically, is important. I would add that the quality of the pause can substantially add to the general well being of taking a break when a person practices pausing with relaxed intention - I think it's called meditation.Grin. And in my opinion develops caring.
Social ties are the other things he mentions as important for happiness and he advises us not to go a day without thinking of, or seeing someone you love. Along with point number six, expressing gratitude, this is a wonderful practice I have discovered and just about is a non negotiable constant in my life: Spend time with, talk to, email, text message, call at least 4 people in my social circle every single day. I don't tell them enough how much I love them. But then, some of them don't enjoy hearing that. It's a balancing act.
Finally, Dr. Christophe says that a walk in the park and a few minutes looking at nature are key activities when trying to cultivate a happier life. I would add, that nature can be in your home too in the form of caring for a pet, nuturing a house plant back to health, sprouting some sprouts, and any number of activities that reconnect you to creation.
More on caring here
This reminds me of something I heard last week on NPR. Author Eric G. Wilson was talking about his new book "Against Happiness". He was talking about the value of sadness, which we often overlook. Also ties into something else I read in this month's Science of Mind magazine about how we need the dark to appreciate the light. I love it when things all tie together like that- hearing the message 3 times in 3 different ways but all pointing in the same direction.
ReplyDeleteHere's the link to the NPR story if you're interested.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19008602