Why Are We Happy?

There is nothing good nor bad but thinking makes it so?

Well, sort of. At least according to Dan Gilbert.

90% of what we believe to be life is nothing but personal perspective. Our sphere of happiness is almost entirely of our own creation, same as our sphere of sadness. The way other peoples perspectives clash with ours causes happiness or sadness that we have no control over. When confronted with a situation; any situation; your perspective on it will govern how you feel. Having spent 20 years being deeply depressed, I can honestly tell you that I'm only happy some days because I choose to be. I get up in the morning and I don't want to feel the way I feel then, all day long.

As I've said a couple times, I don't believe there to be good or bad, or good and evil. Most of it is perceived to be either good or bad. Things that we view to be good could easily turn out for the worst and the things we think are bad could have a way of turning out for the best. There will always be people who serve as good and bad examples of how we should conduct ourselves, but it all pans out for both the good and bad, making both on an even and equal balance. Non-existent.

The point of it all is, I think, is that you have the choice of being happy or sad. Many people don't realize they have this choice, but they do. Depending on your perspective, you could be just as dissatisfied with a trip to Paris as a gall bladder surgery; to use his analogy. Depending on your perspective, one could thoroughly enjoy being in prison as an enriching and thought-provoking experience. Once you become cognizant of your ability to change your mood, it becomes so much easier to move on to better moods. Of course, a further extension of this is changing your perspective and even further, a complete flip in personality. All of these things you have control over and yet you either never learned how to control them or never knew you could; both of which would effectively stop you from doing so. Not just the little things that give happiness and sadness on a daily basis; if you had the willpower, you could change everything you thought you knew in the blink of an eye. Most people only do so after something incredibly big happens that changes how they think.

I actually did enjoy this presentation, though. Really interesting.