Are You Happy?

in #philosophy7 years ago (edited)

When was the last time somebody asked you this simple question?

We live in a status driven society. Hectic cities full of strangers running around impatiently, trying to catch up with their goals and aspirations. Your worth is now defined by your ''success'', which is supposedly defined by your job, but actually it all comes down to your wallet. If you seem to have funds, then everything's okay. Society approves. But even if that's the case, nobody wonders if you're truly happy. It's not even about gathering resources in order to achieve happiness anymore; it's just about gathering resources.

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''No, but at least I'm successful. Look at all those happy idiots with no money...''
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Growing up in this world you're constantly reminded of everyone's expectations of you. You need to be ''successful'' in order to be accepted. You need to achieve this, then be this , then do that and then go there in order to make everyone proud. Just being yourself and helping the world isn't enough. Just being a normal, kind and benevolent person isn't enough. You're barely ever asked if you're truly happy like it doesn't even matter. Are you smart? Are you strong? Are you rich? Are you beautiful?That's what counts and that's what the world is expecting from you. Nobody is truly expecting you to be happy.

Even people that love you and have been supporting you all along need you to be successful. It's like some sort of a secret condition even in cases of unconditional love. Your parents do love you more than life but they also perceive you as a younger version of themselves and therefore try to push you to be as ''successful'' as they couldn't be themselves. Not judging, it's only natural if parents feel this way and want their progeny to surpass their own accomplishments, however this adds a lot of unwanted pressure and anxiety to a young kid's early years or a teenager's social acclimatization. As a result, relationships between parents and kids are ruined and nobody's ever happy again, regardless of how successful anyone might be.

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"All conflict stems from the unwillingness of humans to see the world through the other's eyes.''
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Life looks like a competition between total strangers who would step on each other's heads in order to ''succeed''. See, your success is relevant to my failure. There's no room for everyone at the top. If your skills are better than mine then you're the one getting paid, but if we all had the same skills then there would be only so much ''success'' one could attain. Boring, isn't it? The whole concept of ''success'' is based on competition. This of course promotes scientific and economic progress but also guarantees that the vast majority of people will be ''unsuccessful'' and therefore unhappy. The whole concept of society is based on a system that produces and preserves inequalities. Ironically enough, we all grow up getting conditioned in a system that promotes competition, dreaming about a world of justice and equality while doing our best to make sure we actively participate in this race against everyone else.

Your millions would be worth nothing if everyone was a millionaire. Your scientific knowledge would be worthless as well if everybody was a scientist. Nobody would pay doctors that much if everybody had anatomy or pathology knowledge. Your kids' maths teachers would be unemployed if you could teach your kids maths and your car mechanic would be starving if you could fix your car on your own. All those repeated analogies show that one's success is always relevant to somebody else's failure. You are born to join this race that helped our species evolve, probably saved us from exctinction and could potentially lead to the destruction of our planet's ecosystems, all fueled by human greed for success and domination.

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''Would we still need each other in a world without competitiveness?''
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You weren't born to live. You were born to succeed.
You weren't born to experience life. You were born to achieve.

But you can choose to just be happy. You can choose to be grateful for anything and everything you have. In fact you SHOULD be thankful for your health and the ability to see, hear, speak and breath. It's not granted. Today is a gift, that's why they call it the present. We humans get too caught up in our business and earthly troubles that we forget about what really matters, like our family and our health. Your health is your wealth and your family is all you need in order to be happy. And happiness is all you need in life.

You shape your own life with the power of Love.
Thank you for your attention!

Highest Regards
@lordneroo

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I have just about everything I want. I live within my means and don't envy those who have more, but rather am thankful for what I have.

@skiponeill That's it. True happiness starts when you don't care about other people's material possessions.

@evileddy Loveliest comment I've read in a long time.

Good. Live simple and frugal and only worry if others don't have enough.

In the history of the world there has never been so much illness, so much insanity, so much addition.....this is the most unhappy people have ever been

Really? I see joy and happiness everywhere. You just have to look in the right places :) So humans are destroying the world; really, though? What if we were superseded by bacteria, what would the world look like then? LOL - enjoy what you have. This life is all that there is - leave a happy footprint and as much joy as you can muster...

Same!

Though it doesn't hurt to be a little crazy to adapt to this crazy world!

@evileddy It is no sign of mental stability to be perfectly adjusted into this profoundly crazy society. Craziness all the way!

@kimwilsontv You make your own happiness and seize the moment when it presents itself.

@kimwilsontv That's a pretty pessimistic view on the issue. Hope things get better regardless.

An optimist in the modern world is a realistic pessimist @andyfishman

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I am not sure if I am happy but I am content. I think being content matters more than being happy. We all have moments in our lives in which we are happy and those in which we are sad, these I feel are mostly defined by the activities of others around us (or at least we tie them to that) and are episodic. I did not get the job I wanted therefor I am sad. I am in love today I am happy. Being content is deeper, it is knowing who you are and where you want to be in life, and being ok with being where you are now, working to get where you want to go and loving and serving others. Competition is part of human nature but we can never get to contentment if we are always striving to be better than others.

@adletuli I see you, thank you for your insight.

Being content is a great way to find inner peace. I personally believe it is all about letting go of one's ego.

I totally agree that to find inner peace you need to let go of your ego. Trying to fulfill the needs of the ego is what leads to discontentment and thus unhappiness.

What a piece this is, you just hit the nail on the head. Thanks for giving me something to punder about

@haypee Thank you for your kind words!

I cannot remember the last time I was actually "Happy", I don't remember what it means as I never see it. Life and living is not anything we were lead to believe as children, another socially engineered lie like XMAS and Santa, finding a good/appropriate job, partner etc. all proven to be BS in a world full of nothing but liars!

@jamesdeweaverart Hope you find true happiness in life! Focus on your loves ones. Forget about the world and society and just be you. Their lies are there but it's up to you whether they can harm you or not. Don't allow them such power.

@jamesdeweaverart Sad to read this comment. I know what you are saying, and empathise, as I thought this way not long ago. But. I decided FTW I can be happy on my own merits. The mistake comes when you apply societies expectations upon yourself and you fall for the lies because of this. Once you realise that you do not need to take on their expectations and free yourself of these chattels, then you can be happy with nothing, be happy doing what you do and not care what others perception of you might be.

Drop those expectations you are placing on yourself, accept that you are a good person just by being a good person and you do not need wealth, fame, and success to be truly happy. In fact, these things bring their own share of grief. I have never met someone satisfied with their wealth.

Nice writing. I think many people are confusing between "Happiness" and "Having more than others". Each one's happiness would be different depending on what you are focussing on. Also, the true happiness can't be from others, it should be from yourself.

@aruka Thank you for your positive input! Agreed, true happiness comes from the inside.

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This is the best thing I've read all day, now you got my follow, i would love if you follow me back @lordneoo

Everybody has good and bad moments, I guess. But if I'm ask if I'm happy, I say yes I am Happy!
I enjoy little things, every day I am happy! At leas for a moment ;-)

The idea of being happy is a deep subject. It is about how we percieve a situation.

But you can choose to just be happy. You can >choose to be grateful for anything and >everything you have. In fact you SHOULD be >thankful for your health and the ability to see, >hear, speak and breath.

That speaks volumes!

I don't think anybody is always happy but you enjoy moments of happiness and be grateful for them when you're not. I don't think happyness is that one sided either. Those moments that supposedly you don't feel high on life, it's just reflection time and doesn't mean you're not happy.

@leap8 Interesting insight. Thank you for your thoughtful comment. It's all up to the observer, so happiness is just a mental state.

This is an interesting topic that I believe is very misunderstood. not that I understand it lol
I don't it's just "mental". it's when everything that's you is in alignment to its zero point as close as possible. That's what some cultures call "being still" . It's kind of hard to be happy when you just stabbed your toe on the bed and in pain.

I am very happy. Because I live a simple life. God gave me everything. I can walk, see or hear. There are those who lost something of that, what it feels. The problem is that he finds him happier. And thanks to God Almighty in blessing us. thank God.

@walid.larbi Beautiful is simple. But it's hard to be simple. Thank you for your input!

Welcome. Of course it is not that simple. You just have to make your heart happy and try to live simply. Good luck

I think im atleast satisfied now

@kinleytenzin Glad to hear this, keep it up!

If someone were to ask me if I was happy, I'd tell them "I dunno, I don't really care."
And that's how you know.

@atherz Caring less certainly helps a lot.

Profound.

In the modern world the rich, successful, unethical, immoral person is placed higher than the moral, ethical person with little money. Success, as so rightly pointed out in your article, comes from the bank balance, not from whether a person is good.

Sad and not something I participate in. Most people see me a failure as I have little in the way of assets and resources, but, hey, I also have no debt. And that makes me very happy!

@andyfishman True happiness starts when you no longer care what people think about you. Most people are unfortunately excessively ignorant and this is on purpose; this is the only way they will keep looking at you as you say they do, and therefore continue to work like slaves to generate a currency in order to satisfy needs they don't actually have with funds they don't actually own.

Yes. And not caring about what others think is, strangely, the door to true freedom and happiness. My ex-wife keep s carrying on (only been divorced for 18 years, but hey, kids...) about how I could be really successful if I just paid attention to the best groomed, best dressed and best presented bullshit that society seems to judge you on. The fact I will give my last dollar to the guy begging in the street with no regard as to where MY next meal is coming from counts for nothing.

And strangely, I don't care and am still happy. I think that pisses her off most!

Dear lordneroo, you have great words describing the state in which people live now. people struggle to find happiness. and they will keep struggling until they realize that happiness is not tied to success, money and accomplishments. it is not even tied to anything.

happiness is a natural state. When your desires fade and mind calms down happiness emerges. people keep interrupting their happiness by all what you mentioned earlier. it is not something to chase or to look for rather it is something you allow.

Thanks for bringing this topic to steemit and you are already happy.

@alignment Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful response. I really do believe that happiness is just a mental state, it's up to you to be happy!

I also strongly agree that happiness can thrive when desires fade away. Happiness is not about having , it is about not needing to have.

@lordneroo You are a true philosopher my friend and I am pleased to add my following to your numbers, for what little it is worth. That last sentence sums it all up!

@andyfishman I truly appreciate your support more than you can imagine! Thank you for your kind words!

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Hola bienvenido a esta maravillosa comunidad espero sea de mucho éxitos para ti y puedas aprender cosas nuevas te saluda tu amigo @juan24

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