Thoughts on happiness #2

[WhiteLove]

This is my second thread on the topic "happiness". In my previous post I mentioned some of the concepts developed by Positive Psychology Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar, that happiness is the result of on a daily basis not doing a bunch of stuff that is not meaningful and doesn't produce any pleasure, instead happiness is on the journey where you do stuff that you love that gives you both meaning and pleasure. Tal has extended this idea to what he calls the "spire" model, that happiness is forming out of doing meaningful pleasure rich stuff when it improves your well-being spiritually, physically, intellectually, socially and emotionally. Becoming more happy is about going deeper and deeper into (in other words scaling) these well-being areas by choosing to do that kind of stuff while at the same time managing things towards simplicity.

In my previous post I also hinted at the fact that by understanding happiness at this level you can hence also manage and track the process of maximizing your happiness by providing authentic feedback to yourself about what you do daily, from a happiness perspective, and what happiness scores that turns into.

Mathematically, the happiness formula would be something like:

dHt = dHp + dHa

and reads like:

your total amount of happiness is your amount of potential happiness plus your amount of actual happiness.

The potential happiness is whatever happiness correlating stuff that you know you could do if you decided to and that you are aiming for, while the actual happiness is whatever happiness correlating stuff you are doing. The potential is scaled by going in the right direction with your actuals, it is scaled because as you feel more happy and those tasks are opening happiness doors, you are inviting- and you are able to see what more stuff you can do towards even more happiness. This path becomes meaningful and provides pleasure, hence you become more happy.

Essentially what happens under the hood is that you become more oriented around the positive, the exciting, the truthful, the limitation breaking/overcoming, the hopeful, the non-evil and similar, hence you are actually dumping false stuff from your consciousness and remove limitations from your subjective inner visions of happiness and when you follow that higher less and less limited inner vision of happiness you begin to accelerate your journey towards true fulfillment, I believe nature is by design also intelligently arranging things beyond that potential, it is not trying to actively block you.

Kris Krohn runs a very inspirational YouTube channel on this theme - Limitless TV. I find that his channel is great because it delivers a message authentically aligned to what I just explained and that can be a great "food" and supporting source towards happiness, especially since he is adding content quite regularly and his channel has not yet so many subscribers. In this video he talks about how to achieve greatness in life:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qsGCnXzkLgA

[mojo]

passion, purpose and mission... lets go on a little head hunt...lol

<---- you didnt say it had to be a little human head....

[WhiteLove]

Posted by mojo (here)
passion, purpose and mission... lets go on a little head hunt...lol

<---- you didnt say it had to be a little human head....

Cool

[transiten]

Without good health it's a challange. esp if it's psychological like depression and agony. I would say it's impossible. So what's most valued among things that make you happy? Good Health every time.

[WhiteLove]

Posted by transiten (here)
Without good health it's a challange. esp if it's psychological like depression and agony. I would say it's impossible. So what's most valued among things that make you happy? Good Health every time.

Interesting, this is the physical area, the 'p' in the spire model. (guess you already knew) I have several times thought about how to rank the spire areas, I am generally so far of the opinion that the 'S' - the spiritual well being, is most important, but I have not made that definitive conclusion yet. However, I am open to the idea that if in fact these areas can be ranked relative to your total amount of happiness, then that knowledge as well as what the optimal ranking is, would be of high value and guide you with higher precision towards happiness. How do you rank/sort the spire letters?

My current idea is maybe something like:

1. S
2. E
3. P
4. R
5. I

[enigma3]

Happiness = basking in the peace that passes all understanding. The sages who have awakened state in no uncertain terms that true, lasting happiness is not to be found in duality. Temporary happiness can be experienced in the realm of the senses, but it, like everything else in duality, is cyclical and eventually passes. Lasting happiness is only discovered in non-duality beyond the senses. They all say that.
When we seek the source of love, begin basking in the heart and find a way to live in the now, we will see that permanent happiness has been there all along. Waiting for our discovery. No goals, no foundation, no responsibilities. Just a continuous outpouring of love. A love that couldn't be happier.

[Cardillac]

the only thing that can create happiness is love; it's that easy; anything that explains otherwise is an illusion/lie-

Larry

[transiten]

Posted by WhiteLove (here)

Posted by transiten (here)
Without good health it's a challange. esp if it's psychological like depression and agony. I would say it's impossible. So what's most valued among things that make you happy? Good Health every time.

Interesting, this is the physical area, the 'p' in the spire model. (guess you already knew) I have several times thought about how to rank the spire areas, I am generally so far of the opinion that the 'S' - the spiritual well being, is most important, but I have not made that definitive conclusion yet. However, I am open to the idea that if in fact these areas can be ranked relative to your total amount of happiness, then that knowledge as well as what the optimal ranking is, would be of high value and guide you with higher precision towards happiness. How do you rank/sort the spire letters?

My current idea is maybe something like:

1. S
2. E
3. P
4. R
5. I

That surpasses my level of intelligence.

And Cardillac, someone who is in the grip of depression and agony may not be able to recieve the love someone gives and absolutely not be able to give love.

[Caliban]

[/QUOTE]That surpasses my level of intelligence.

And Cardillac, someone who is in the grip of depression and agony may not be able to recieve the love someone gives and absolutely not be able to give love.[/QUOTE]

They may not be able to receive it in that moment, but if anything can break through deep depression it is love, unconditional love. I don't agree that someone in that state can't give love. It may not be as full as they'd like but they can give. Love is present through every moment, including our worst. It's just -- can we see it?