So it seems most of what we do to get happy doesn’t actually make us happy. Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, outlines some guidelines for getting happy in the Washington Post. (via Lifehacker)
The guidelines are pretty simple. For example, don’t break up the things that make you happy into parts that are so small that they no longer make you happy. “Breaking two cookies into quarters and eating one piece on each of eight days is likely to produce no happiness at all. Better to eat two cookies at once, and then wait a week before grabbing another two.”
Also, make decisions. “Keeping your options open won’t necessarily make you happier. And indecision makes you less happy than a bad decision.”
The lesson I take away from this: Don’t ration — just enjoy. And decide definitively to take more risks.
I’m not sure how to apply that to the drinking habit. Both parts seem to encourage binge drinking, which I already know is unhealthy. Hmmm….
Another overall message of this article seems to be that happiness comes in small, everyday forms. This means that even if something wonderful happens, the happiness that brings’ll only be temporary –
Somehow that makes me sad, but the feeling may just be alcohol withdrawal symptoms….
Earlier: The Happiness Trip
January 10th, 2008 at 2:24 am
I think part of being happy is not chasing happiness. Honestly, I find myself feeling really happy at the oddest moments. I’m starting to think it’s all just chemicals and hormones. Nothing we can do will make us happy, but being open to our feelings might help us notice happiness when it drops by for a visit. And drinking dulls the senses so that we can’t feel anything, right? Many of us drink to dull bad feelings, but then maybe we don’t feel genuine good feelings either.
(She says while enjoying a glass of Chateau St. Jean 2006 Sonoma County chardonnay which comes with a natural cork stopper, even though she doesn’t really like chardonnay but this was a birthday gift and who can say no to free booze?)
:-)