It seems very strange to me to want to turn the pursuit of happiness into work. I'm reasonably happy, but don't feel it's something that I should be slaving to improve. I agree with Mill that happiness is usually found in pursuing some other end.
https://t.co/AiLjiAVxmR
(https://twitter.com/philosophybites/status/1495789596428414983?s=02)
Maybe not necessarily "pursuing some other end." Although there is aspects that go into one's happiness that relate to learning new information or achieving a goal etc; I don't feel that happiness is necessarily something that you should have to work towards; only in the sense of balancing the aspects that make up your own happiness, but other than that, I feel that happiness itself is something that should come naturally (from the balance of the things that attribute to it.) A good example would be you hear people say that, they found the love when they weren't looking for it, or something of that nature; I don't feel like trying to force happiness, is ever going to make it happen for you. Although there are factors that may be attributable to ones happiness, I feel that happiness itself is something that is just inevitable. I don't think there is anyone who could ever get to the end of their life and said they have never felt happiness of any nature or in any sense of the word.
ReplyDeleteI agree, there are too many things we are instructed to work towards. Happiness should not be one of those. I think that defeats what happiness is. We then get focused on the pursuit, missing any opportunity to see happiness along the way. I would say too that happiness is like that statement about love; it presents itself when we aren't exactly looking for it. It is kind of always there, more so waiting for an acknowledgement.
ReplyDeleteThe years that I intensely battled depression from PTSD, I was focusing on being happy and never found it. Not that is wasn't there, I missing it because I was looking at the wrong thing. Looking back, my attention was on the wrong aspect of life. It was work. However, work in a false sense. I haven't mastered my depression by any means, however, I stopped focusing on the end goal of happiness, as if it was something I could grasp, and began recognizing each moment for what it is.
There's that saying "you can't see the forest for all the trees". Regarding not being able to see the big picture, because you're too focused on the details. That was me in reverse. I couldn't see the growth in one tree, because I was too focused on the entire forest and what I was "supposed" to find in it. The happiness was right in front of me.