Seriously, Happiness?

in a quest for a meritorious post, i sought to explore the younger generations’ depressed mood. what is with all these downers? is happiness the problem?

with a magnifying glass in hand, my first stop to evaluate if there is a happiness dilemma was to grab a used softcover copy of talk show host dennis prager’s best seller happiness is a serious problem. the dollar investment along with some reading time was my start of this venture.

while mr. prager’s book is chocked full of helpful common sense, he auspiciously does not try to provide clarity as to happiness’ definition. defining happiness, i contend, is important to understand it.

while there may be many definitions of happiness, we know it is something. it is an emotion and emotions constitute, in a cognitive view, a variety of programs which brains – including non-humans- employ to survive. for instance, the emotion “fear” can get the heart racing to enable one to suddenly run for their lives.

emotions can also be a sign of mental illness. for instance, while it is expected that someone be sad over the death of a loved one, a person’s persistent sadness, i.e. not getting out of the house for month after one’s passing, could be the sign of an emotion run amok. the emotion of sadness extended out beyond normal can lead to depression.

what function does happiness have as an emotion?

while working as an associate lawyers, many years ago, my secretary left and my boss never replaced her. i went five months without help. frustrated, i complained and he finally hired someone. the friday before she was to start work however, she had a death in her family and needed to go back east. already wrought with a fever pitch of anxiety, my thoughts that she may decide to not take the job drove me to the point that i experienced stroke-like facial numbness. i went to the doctor and was prescribed ativan.

for awhile, i took the pills which are also known as lorazepam. they helped. i named them my “happy pills”. in the end, i discovered that there was a muscle relaxing component to the drug. i finished the prescription and stopped. the medication, i was told, is addictive. this moment lead me to appreciate that there is a connection between happiness and muscular stress or tension. was a component of happiness being free from stress and tension?

with this knowledge, i posit that happiness, as an emotion, is meant to serve a restorative function to one’s body. when our bodies are free of stress, they can heal from life’s stressors. happiness is perhaps the wakening version of sleep.

are drug users pursuing happiness? many people, who are sad, take drugs. for some, the search is not to be happy. their journey is to not feel; to be numb to the world.

for the younger generations, they are inundated with over amplification of world crises combined with limiting opportunities. this is in contrast with past generations which also had bad news. they, however, did not have the heightened awareness that social media provides. many are stressed and don’t know how to solve their problems.

ironically, the direction that many people seek medically is actually a state that one can reach with hard work, planning and diligence. rather than being happy, perhaps the ultimate state of mind is to be at peace. achieving peace in one’s life is a great challenge. being content can be more satisfying than being happy.

while people may think this position is ridiculous, i offer the following defense. i the priestly blessing’s final request asks that “the lord bestow his favor upon you and grant you peace”. the sensation of peace, in the grand scheme of things, may trump happiness. a true peace, however, takes effort to achieve.

be well!!

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