What does happiness mean to you?
I think as a society we’ve started to think PLEASURE = happiness. So we sweeten up our foods more to taste better in the moment - only for us to feel worse later.
We binge-watch episodes of Netflix, even though we want to spend more time with loved ones.
Watching a sunset and being fully present = happiness.
Eating a meal with loved ones and feeling safe = happiness.
Happiness is fullness, contentment, enduring. Pleasure is fleeting and insatiable.
Biologically, pleasure-seeking is driven by the molecule dopamine - to go out an acquire what you lack.
Happiness is associated with serotonin - to be grateful for what you have.
Seeking material goods is fundamentally rooted from a perspective of scarcity. Can you be happy coming from lack? I don’t think so. That’s why there are many millionaires who are depressed.
There is still always more to do, more to get, more to prove.
Every morning I try to take the sun in; feel in on my skin. I watch my dogs frolic and play - it’s comical because one is a huge male German Shepherd, the other a tiny female little terrier. He is old, she is young.
I can find her whole head in his mouth - which he loves to do when they play fight.
I’ll tell you this - I’m a millionaire many times over, but I am not any happier than these dogs who live in the present, accepting what they have in that moment, making the best of it. I FEEL happier when I give in to the moment of watching those two, engaged in perfection, unaware of past and future.
Then I feel full within. Which sets the tone for a wonderful day.