What the hell are we after?

Just what IS happiness? Most all of us "just want to be happy". What is it we expect to get in life? Is happiness an inner feeling that is made up primarily of a mental and emotional status that we only do not find threatening and uncertain? Does our personal happiness include other people’s happiness? If we are looking for happiness beyond our self, how far should that circle be? Is it just for one other person or does it include every member of our family? Is the target an isolated existence or does it reach out our front door, down the street and around the world? What are realistic expectations for you and how much of YOUR happiness involves the happiness of somebody else? Can our personal happiness be much different than the happiness of someone we want to share our life with?

We’ve all had moments of ecstatic pleasure, but few of us think this will be a permanent state of being. Unfortunately we’ve all had experience with times of crushing sadness and paralyzing inner pain that we can not imagine ever passing, but it does. Is the state (hopefully closer to ecstatic pleasure) in-between what most of us refer to as happiness?

Is happiness something that we hope becomes a constant state covering every minute of our consciousness? I don’t think we expect that. Then this means we know happiness will have some moments that are closer to the pleasant feelings we strive for, than others. Therefore there will be expected times of disappointment and sadness we accept as part of happiness. Does this make happiness something with a width band with top and bottom limits? If so, is the width of that band the key to what we strive for? Or is the centerline of that band the important issue? Is the goal to narrow that band and keep trying to push the center, higher and higher?

Just what constitutes “happiness” for you and how has it changed and how do you expect it to change?



(That should make for some interesting posts ) lmao

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