Happiness is elusive, impossible to control and it does not last. And it is important.
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Happiness is much more than a feeling. It is about our meaning, it is spiritual. Spiritual (but not necessarily religious), because it connects with something important inside of us.
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Happy.
It’s difficult to define, but we all know what it feels like when you don’t have it.
When you try to define happiness, you quickly fall into the domains of the existential and the transcendental: “Happiness is a feeling of pleasure or contentment”
Happiness is much more than a feeling. It is about our meaning, it is spiritual. Spiritual (but not necessarily religious), because it connects with something important inside of us.
Can you live without happiness?
Sure you can, but who would want to?
Happiness and recovery
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Recovery from addiction or mental health is about holding on to happiness, while being very conscious about the source of your happiness. It is about finding happiness from deep and lasting sources.
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Recovery: Can you recover without happiness?
Sure you can, but who would want to?
Recovery from addiction or mental health is about holding on to happiness, while being very conscious about the source of your happiness. It is about finding happiness from deep and lasting sources.
The thing that sucks about happiness is that you cannot control it: It fades as quickly as it came.
Enjoy it when you feel happiness from healthy sources, because that is a sign that you are healing. Just know that it will leave you soon because happiness never lasts.
Don’t take it personally.
The thing about happiness is that the more you look for it, the more it will evade you. The more you live your life, you will find happiness.
A happy memory is a lie
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Enjoy it when you feel happiness from healthy sources, because that is a sign that you are healing. Just know that it will leave you soon because happiness never lasts.
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Your mind is not in the habit of lying to you.
It’s just that your memories degrade over time. That is where your mind adds to your memories, to fill in the gaps. Be suspicious of memories that are recalled as completely happy or completely unhappy. They likely have extra ‘code’ added to them.
Life is never completely happy or completely unhappy.
Recovery moves forward when we accept that happiness is out of our control, but we can make choices that invest in a healthy life. We cannot control our moods, we can choose our attitudes and the focus of our lives.
Happiness is not the end point, it accompanies us as we pursue something meaningful.
Happiness is like a fingerprint or a personality: It is unique to you and it fits you. What makes someone else happy may not be your thing. That is why it makes you unhappy to measure yourself against another person.
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Recovery moves forward when we accept that happiness is out of our control, but we can make choices that invest in a healthy life. We cannot control our moods, we can choose our attitudes and the focus of our lives.
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Remember that you are at your happiest when you are engaged in something important to you and when you are forgetting yourself. When you have people who love you and that you love. When you do something that matters.
That sound’s a lot like recovery.
It may be tough to define for you or hold onto, that’s because it is important.
The most important things are like that. You can’t control them.
Be happy.
Keep it Real
Photo by Daniel Pink
Getting High on Recovery 