The word Happiness is really an Intangible to our new so called advanced and sophisticated society! But historically…and back quite a while, ‘stoics’ were more accepting of events…and therefore more capable of doing something about the circumstances, rather than bemoaning as to what could have been! Today we all fall into this nasty trap! BUT once accepting ‘reality of reality’, somehow one’s mind becomes more positive to dealing with that eventuality! There are overwhelming studies indicating pessimism, or expectation of the worse, INCREASES risk of dying before 65 by as much as 25%…this is SIGNIFICANT! It’s as much as fourteen years in an average lifespan! Often we keep thinking in terms of notion: that if x occurs…’THEN I will be conten’t…and monetary notions invariably predominate. Happiness Important Health!
Recently Time Magazine article by Eric Barker on: How to become Happier …discusses clues to be found in literature…it was ALSO an indictment on SELF HELP books. Classic writings likely gave better health pointers! Happiness Important Health!
Much of this is Perception…excellent article by Dr. Joseph Mercola, whom I admire for his ongoing analytical mind; and some good book references on this subject: Ryan Holiday, author of several books, including “The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living,” Ryan’s conclusion: that Shakespeare and the Stoics consider the world around us ‘indifferent and objective’…so they accordingly comment: “this happened to me”, which is not the same as “this happened to me and that’s bad”..! It is the extra mouthful that causes the problem! By way of example… really good question after loss of a job…maybe the next will be even better! Now reality sometimes comes into this…but what we think as reality unfortunately can have the habit of being a self-fulfilling prophesy!
Let us take some advice so frequently cited by centenarians…stress is a killer…control or suppress stress and then 100 is well within range! Our French cyclist breaking records at 105 and excellent example! Otherwise stress is a real killer! WHY?…it’s ultimately inflammation, that all too pervasive and silent killer that over time so damaging to our health… that we tend to overlook or even promote with our unfortunate way of life! Happiness Important Health!
