IF NOT HAPPINESS, WHAT?

The call to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” leads to thoughts like these:

Image from Making Every Day Brighter

emotional fitness tHOUGHTS

As I noted in a earlier post the push to “Be Happy” is mainly an advertising ploy that works all too well in our  consumer society. We all want to be happy.  But thinking it is a right or actually possible all the time is dangerous to far too many people.

If you are happy most of the time, you need to fall on your knees and thank all the forces above and beyond our understanding, for you are truly among the blessed.

The Dali Lama suggests happiness as a goal, but with this change: “Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” and he also says: “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

Here are ten  more quotes from those who have  pondered the idea of happiness:

...happiness does not consist in amusement. In fact, it would be strange if our end were amusement, and if we were to labor and suffer hardships all our life long merely to amuse ourselves…. The happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spent in amusement….

Aristotle

The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness.  You have to catch it yourself.  

Author unknown, commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.  

Joseph Addison

Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.  

Nathaniel Hawthorne  

Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so.

John Stuart Mill 

It’s pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness.  Poverty and wealth have both failed.  

Frank McKinney “Kin” Hubbard

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.

George Bernard Shaw

We cannot be happy if we expect to live all the time at the highest peak of intensity.  Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.

Thomas Merton

If someone loves a flower of which just one example exists among all the millions and millions of stars, that’s enough to make him happy when he looks at the stars.  

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.

 Laura Ingalls Wilder

The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.  

William Saroyan

EMOTIONAL FITNESS EXERCISE

Pick the quote from my list that appeals to you. Write it where you will see it throughout the day.  When you see it, take a calming breath, think about what the quote means to you, take another calming breath and say “Thank you.”

STAYING EMOTIONALLY FIT

Life is a struggle, full of hurt. Some hurt from acts of evil, some from the randomness of nature. Relationships also bring pain, but without caring connections life is bleak.  Expecting happiness is unrealistic, as Alice Walker notes it is better to “live frugally on surprise.

Here is my thank you gift for those joining me for the first time.  Click here to be taken to an introduction to the Daily Twelve Emotional Fitness Exercises.

Liking, commenting, sharing are acts of social media kindness and very easy to practice.  So be kind to me and all your media friends. I promise you will be repaid.

Katherine

THE USUAL PROMOTIONAL STUFF

Visit me at: Emotional Fitness Training on Pinterest  or When Good Kids Do Bad Things Facebook Page.

All my books are available  at Katherine Gordy Levine on Amazon.

DISCLAIMER ONE: EMOTIONAL FITNESS TRAINING IS NOT THERAPY.

Even the most learned researchers and therapists quarrel about much.  Take their advice and mine carefully.  Don’t just listen to your heart, but also think; don’t just think, listen to your heart.  Heart and head working together increase the odds you will find useful advice amid all the promises and hopes pushed at you be others.  As others have noted, take what seems useful, leave the rest.

DISCLAIMER TWO: FORGIVE MY GRAMMATICAL ERRORS

If  you need perfect posts, you will not find them  here;  I will understand if you don’t follow, like or share what  like me.  Not only am I dealing with an aging brain, but all of my life I have been plagued by dysgraphia–a learning disability,  Some of my posts might be peppered with bad spelling, poor punctuation, and worse words that make no sense.  If  you want to hang in with me, thank you; you are kind. If a post doesn’t make sense or bugs you too much, try reading it a few days later.  Often I catch the worse mistakes when I read the post after a few days.