Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The Happiness Thermostat



In all life and all situations, it has been said there is a set level of happiness, what Dr. Csikszentmihalyi called a “set thermostat.” A set level of happiness is false, I think, for it affords a view that we can never be any happier despite what may happen to us. Considerable, yes, there is a mellow mean to which we can average our days’ stress, but joy can be boosted, can be increased. To continue the original topic, I believe my core happiness “temperature,” if you will, lies within a malleable range, capable of being changed and set. I can become irritable or joyous by the simple flick of a switch, the press of a button and the decompression of a valve. What I would call happy, others may very well call melancholy, but I like to think on it in a different light.



If I could literally set my mood instantly, it could offer enjoyable opportunities. Maybe I needn’t worry about so many things if I could immediately find everything around me appropriate. Maybe, in a grander scheme and an even grander scope, I could teach others to do this. we could all live in even harmony, manipulating only our own emotions, like drugs, but without the side effects and without the addiction or cost. It would simply be our bodies and our minds.


We would not hate, we would not loathe, we would find adequacy and tranquility. Material things would seem pointless, unneeded. At least wars would not be about money, or "need." They would be about true conflict, a real difference and a real hate, which is from within us all. Maybe there wouldn't be wars because we'd realize its' folly.


These wars, these past mistakes, they are becoming our bane. The bane of humanity and its' own self preservation. Tossing bombs and nukes at each other like a child would throw a ball. If they only had a child's volition and thought. A child does not want to destroy, or at least it does not destroy willingly. A child creates and as it was created. It is only as we grow out of childhood that we find the want to destroy something beautiful, to destroy what was and has been built. A child is its' mood. What it is, is what its' mood reflects. If a child is sad, it acts in manners of being sad. If a child is happy, it acts in a fashion that is happy. Growing older, rarely anyone does that. Only a child feels safe enough to do so, but an adult, will hide it, will mask it, destroying the point, the reason behind it. Why? It is of no knowledge, but if you find out, come tell me.


God knows your lonely souls,
Matthias

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