Here's a thought
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This is Serious Discussion. If you want to tell us how your day was or just get some things off your chest, you will find ample opportunity to find a corner to discuss all the good things we see, or reach out to anyone who needs help. Just remember to pay attention to the Principles of Serious Discussion, and link to the source if posting news.
Here's a thought
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by Bogdan » September 1st, 2016, 1:21 pm
I guess most of you are alreadt familiar with The Oatmeal. Recently he made a new comic called How to be perfetly unhappy and after reading it, I came to the conclusion I didn't actually think of thinking that way.
Here's the thing. We all want to be happy, right? We have various motivational topics on the forum that gives us advice on being happy. We have topics about people crying out for help on how to be happy or others that claim to have achieved that. But is it true? The feeling of "happiness" or our definition of it? Or is it just the psychological version of an Utopia we hope to achieve?
I'll be honest, I hardly took any advice from the "be happy" discussions, whenether they are on the forum, on the whole internet or in real life. I always felt like most of those suggestions or advice, although with good intention didn't apply to me. Might apply to others or might be merely a placebo, but I did actually tried to make myself busy and occupied with something, so I cannot be "sad" at that moment, rather to try to fight to get the felling of happiness, a battle which would ultimately be lost. In other words, my mind being occupied on something else, rather than being occupied with feelings in general.
To further solidify that affirmation, I'll give you an actual example. As you may know, I am into webdesign, coding and a little bit of digital art. Months ago, when I had some creativity boost and I created a few Runouw CSS Themes [shameless self advertising] I literally spent hours in front of my monitor, taping a keyboard and doing nothing else at all. I hardly ate, I had pretzels and soda around and the only "breaks" would be either bathroom breaks or "let's see what's on the internet" breaks. I was absorbed in the activity and in the end, when I considered it should be enough work, I had a good feeling. I got so absorbed into that activity that I actually felt and was productive with my time, time that could have been wasted being bored, sad or angry. I didn't feel good because I did something, I felt good because I had no time to feel bad.
And that doesn't limit only to coding experience. I've made a bunch of flag concepts in my free time, I've rode the bike when felt too much computer is enough, hell even before I was aware of all this, about 5 years ago I'd do nothing but constantly clean and "maintain" my mum's old car, a car I personally liked. It was the same activity everyday, but I felt pleasure doing it.
Regardless of all my views, experience and conclusion, I'd like to know, how do you view happiness. It's just that comic that made me courious and surprised me.
And this kind of discussions are another "occupation" I enjoy.
Here's the thing. We all want to be happy, right? We have various motivational topics on the forum that gives us advice on being happy. We have topics about people crying out for help on how to be happy or others that claim to have achieved that. But is it true? The feeling of "happiness" or our definition of it? Or is it just the psychological version of an Utopia we hope to achieve?
I'll be honest, I hardly took any advice from the "be happy" discussions, whenether they are on the forum, on the whole internet or in real life. I always felt like most of those suggestions or advice, although with good intention didn't apply to me. Might apply to others or might be merely a placebo, but I did actually tried to make myself busy and occupied with something, so I cannot be "sad" at that moment, rather to try to fight to get the felling of happiness, a battle which would ultimately be lost. In other words, my mind being occupied on something else, rather than being occupied with feelings in general.
To further solidify that affirmation, I'll give you an actual example. As you may know, I am into webdesign, coding and a little bit of digital art. Months ago, when I had some creativity boost and I created a few Runouw CSS Themes [shameless self advertising] I literally spent hours in front of my monitor, taping a keyboard and doing nothing else at all. I hardly ate, I had pretzels and soda around and the only "breaks" would be either bathroom breaks or "let's see what's on the internet" breaks. I was absorbed in the activity and in the end, when I considered it should be enough work, I had a good feeling. I got so absorbed into that activity that I actually felt and was productive with my time, time that could have been wasted being bored, sad or angry. I didn't feel good because I did something, I felt good because I had no time to feel bad.
And that doesn't limit only to coding experience. I've made a bunch of flag concepts in my free time, I've rode the bike when felt too much computer is enough, hell even before I was aware of all this, about 5 years ago I'd do nothing but constantly clean and "maintain" my mum's old car, a car I personally liked. It was the same activity everyday, but I felt pleasure doing it.
Regardless of all my views, experience and conclusion, I'd like to know, how do you view happiness. It's just that comic that made me courious and surprised me.
And this kind of discussions are another "occupation" I enjoy.
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Bogdan - The Legacy
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Re: Here's a thought
by Harmless » September 9th, 2016, 11:42 pm
Hm.
Happy in itself is pretty vague, if you ask me. And that's okay - Sometimes, we need really vague words to fill our massive dictionary of the English language.
So really, when I do a lot of things I could see myself as happy, such as - composing music, doing progress on homework, exercising, etc. Really, like the comic stated, I tend to be more fascinated and at work than I am happy, but that doesn't mean I can't be both at the same time. If anything, being fascinated is what makes me happy because it means I am learning, and it's something new. New things are surprising, which bring excitement to me. All I have to do then is just hope I don't forget what I learned.
Some of it is honestly just mindset. What fascinates yourself? Does it make you happy? Do you have fun doing something, even if it's repetitive or requires patience? Do you even want to be happy? How do you view life? How successful do you want to be in life? What determines success?
Constantly thinking helps you answer a lot of said questions, which is another one of my favorite past times.
Happy in itself is pretty vague, if you ask me. And that's okay - Sometimes, we need really vague words to fill our massive dictionary of the English language.
So really, when I do a lot of things I could see myself as happy, such as - composing music, doing progress on homework, exercising, etc. Really, like the comic stated, I tend to be more fascinated and at work than I am happy, but that doesn't mean I can't be both at the same time. If anything, being fascinated is what makes me happy because it means I am learning, and it's something new. New things are surprising, which bring excitement to me. All I have to do then is just hope I don't forget what I learned.
Some of it is honestly just mindset. What fascinates yourself? Does it make you happy? Do you have fun doing something, even if it's repetitive or requires patience? Do you even want to be happy? How do you view life? How successful do you want to be in life? What determines success?
Constantly thinking helps you answer a lot of said questions, which is another one of my favorite past times.
~ Tesla Bromonovich
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Re: Here's a thought
by Oranjui » September 10th, 2016, 6:57 am
I wrote a big long post but then deleted it because it felt too wordy and angsty for me. The gist of it was, though, that I don't think "unhappiness"/feeling bad is my default state of being. I want to experience negative emotions just as much as I want to experience positive emotions, but I don't want to permanently feel good/happy, nor do I want to permanently feel bad/"unhappy". (which itself is just as vague of a word as "happy", I think; Oatmeal uses unhappy to mean anything that isn't happiness, but I kind of see the same problems with that that he sees with happy.) I feel because I care about things, and I think about things, and it reminds me that I'm a living, breathing human, and while there might not be an ultimate purpose to life, I'm going to take the opportunity and experience as much of it as I can, while I can--the good and the bad both, without trying to run away from either.
The alternative is apathy, depression, emptiness, coldness; I don't really find any of those states of being to be particularly enjoyable. So I do as much as I can to take interest in things, care about them, think about them, and have enthusiasm about them, whether the experience makes me feel good or not.
The alternative is apathy, depression, emptiness, coldness; I don't really find any of those states of being to be particularly enjoyable. So I do as much as I can to take interest in things, care about them, think about them, and have enthusiasm about them, whether the experience makes me feel good or not.
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Re: Here's a thought
by NanTheDark » September 10th, 2016, 8:22 am
For me being happy means to be ok with how your life is. Which would agree with how this comic thinks.
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