“Happiness is a state where nothing is missing.” — Naval Ravikant
“Peace is happiness at rest, and happiness is peace in motion. You can always convert peace into happiness” — Naval Ravikant
“Happiness is not about positive or negative thoughts — it’s about the absence of desire, especially the absence of desire for external things.” — Naval Ravikant
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of.” — Albert Camus
“As soon as we wish to be happier, we are no longer happy.” — Walter Landor
“Happiness is holding someone in your arms and knowing you hold the whole world.” — Orhan Pamu
“Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.” — Viktor E. Frankl
“Happiness is good health and a bad memory.” — Ingrid Bergman
Happy people love people, use things, and worship the divine; unhappy people use people, love things, and worship themselves.
Happiness is a skill that can be learned/developed/practiced and a choice that can be made.
Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.
- The secret of the pursuit of happiness is that happiness is in the pursuit.
Happiness is abundant by design, scarce by luck.
Happiness is a choice/practice, not a condition.
Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.
Happiness is not a destination you reach by hitting an arbitrary set of goals, but rather an accumulation of the small choices you make every day.
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
True happiness is not just pleasure, but comes out of peace and fundamentally understanding oneself.
- Physical pleasure (Oh, that tasted good.)
- Momentary pleasure (Oh, he/she loves me.)
Happiness
= Health + Relationships + Wealth
= Agency + Gratitude
= Reality - Expectations 1
= Do what you love + Live where you like + Be with who you love
#226 ‒ The science of happiness | Arthur Brooks, Ph.D. - Peter Attia (peterattiamd.com)
- The three “macronutrients” of happiness:
- Enjoyment: Enjoy your life
- Satisfaction: The feeling of reward from a job well done
- Purpose: Big picture meaning and significance
- To be a happy person, you need to have these three in balance and abundance.
- The happiest people have a transcendental understanding of life. It’s just to say that they have an understanding of life bigger than themselves.
“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” — Denis Waitley
There are two ways to be happier:
- Change the situation.
- Change the way you look at it.
You always have 3 options/choices in any circumstance/situation in life — that is:
- You can accept it. (by changing your attitude toward it.)
- You can change it.
- You can leave it.
But resisting reality is always the wrong choice / the worst option is sitting around, wishing you would change it but not changing it, or wishing you would leave it but not leaving and not accepting it. This is the struggle that is responsible for most of our misery, anger, and unhappiness.
Two Types of Happiness
- Hedonic Happiness
- Achieved through pleasure, enjoyment, or satisfaction
- Associated with the maximization of short-term pleasure
- The happiness you feel when you seek instant gratification
- Eudaimonic Happiness
- Achieved through purpose, meaning, or authenticity
- Associated with a focus on long-term, value-oriented, and higher-order living
- The happiness you feel when you embrace delayed gratification
Internal v.s External Benchmarks
- Visible metrics → e.g., money
- Hidden metrics → e.g., time with family, peace of mind
- Remember: The hidden metrics only become visible when it’s too late…
People are often not present to what they are doing (the mismatch between being in an activity and having our mind elsewhere), and that is a great source of unhappiness, even if their thoughts are those of happy, joyful thoughts. But equally, if not more important, is to have the ability to be fully engaged in what you are doing at a given moment. That is the strongest predictor of being happy.
A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. [@killingsworthWanderingMindUnhappy2010]
The ability to think about what is not happening in a moment is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.
How Do You Tell if Someone’s Actually Happy in Life?
- They’re happy for other people’s happiness.
- Rarely put others down/criticize. They assume positive intent of others.
- Not on social media/not on their phone too much. Deeply present when you talk to them.
要有隨時可以獲得快樂的能力
- 幸福罐
- 把日常遇到開心的大小事寫在色彩繽紛的小紙條上，放進一個玻璃罐內
- 感恩
- “今天我還活著”
- Assurance
- “It will all be okay.”
- 祝福
- 聽音樂
- 大掃除/環境整潔
- Meal preparation
- Take a nap
- Take a long walk
- etc.
If you want happiness for an hour—take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day—go fishing.
If you want happiness for a year—inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime—help someone else.
Simple story on “Happiness is found through service of others.”
A teacher asked her students to write their names on a balloon and release them in her classroom. Thirty balloons jumbled around in the air. She then gave the students one minute to find the balloon that had their name on it. After a minute passed, none were able to find their balloon. The teacher then asked the students to take the first balloon they found and give it to the person whose name was on it. Within seconds, everyone had their balloon.
The teacher then explained: These balloons represent your happiness. Focus on your own happiness, and you may never find it. Focus on helping others find their happiness, and you will find yours as well.
[@XiaoYeZhu.YouXieShiZheXieNianWoCaiDongXiaoYeDeRenShengSiKao2012]
如何獲得幸福?
這一題應該是前面六題的總結。獲得幸福的步驟就是要先認識自己，接受真實的自己，進而喜愛自己。然後就會知道自己要什麼? 為何而活? 進而找到自己的信仰，也找到自己靈魂的主宰。這時候的你，已經可以和這個世界愉快的相處，從大自然裡得到快樂和寧靜，和身邊遇到的任何人都能和平相處、相互尊重。最後當你學會了承擔世間的痛苦，幸福將隨時隨處俯拾皆是。
媽媽是個笑口常開的幸福之人。因為她覺得自己很平庸但很幸運，她總覺得別人都比她聰明，所似他發自內心的欣賞別人，讚美別人，也常給別人溫暖和方便。我幾乎沒聽過她怨天怨地怨別人，她也不會怨自己，所以她是一個完全能接受自己的人。
我的二姊最像媽媽，我問起她關於幸福的感覺，她燦爛的笑起來說:「我常常感到幸福。看到窗外綠意盎然，感到腸光曬在身上，有體力爬山，兒子弄一桌飯菜，替我鋪好被單，衣服洗好被曬起來，看一本好書，聽一場講道，親友們的問候和體貼，和家人聊天或回憶。」
幸福就是這樣隨手可得的。每個人每天每時每刻都有可能體驗到幸福，除非你是一個非常頑強又自以爲是的人，把幸福當成是不能回收的垃圾，隨手丟棄，讓垃圾筒裡堆滿了你丟棄的幸福，兀自嘆息。
Footnotes
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Satisfaction = What you have ÷ What you want ↩