{"id":3852,"date":"2021-08-19T13:41:41","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T13:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=3852"},"modified":"2021-08-19T13:41:48","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T13:41:48","slug":"how-happiness-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/how-happiness-works\/","title":{"rendered":"How Happiness Works"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last\u2019 week\u2019s \u201ccode red for humanity\u201d got me thinking \u2013 ironically \u2013 about happiness. What makes you happy? Actually, let\u2019s back up. What IS happiness, that feeling of positive lightness that makes the world seem rosy? \u201cHap\u201d is the Middle English word for \u201cchance, luck, a chance occurrence\u201d. Sounds about right. \u201cHappy\u201d is defined as \u201chap + y\u201d. Happiness can indeed arise from a chance encounter with a friend, or even a smile from a stranger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Valuing<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So if the very root of the definition of happiness is \u201cchance\u201d, can you purposefully make yourself happy? Of course. List 5 things that you would be extremely unhappy without. When you really focus on those things, without thinking about what you don\u2019t have, or want but don\u2019t need, you\u2019ll fell pretty grateful and happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are fundamental things that we need before happiness comes easily \u2013 food, shelter, and some sense of fulfilment. Money makes us happy to a degree, after which its effect plateaus (this has been studied). So if you\u2019ve got food, shelter, something that gives you fulfilment, and a bit of money to spare \u2013 which is a good chunk of those of us living in developed countries \u2013 are we happy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems not. It seems we want \u201cgrowth\u201d, more, bigger, better, faster. Are you ready for less yet? Less stuff, fewer holidays, less food security \u2013 yes, even in Ireland? Remember the Brennan\u2019s Bread panic buying when the dramatically named Beast from the East brought us some snow? We\u2019re all heading for less stability: Climate change is creating headlines globally with floods, fires, drought. We\u2019re afraid to scale back because of the economy. If you don\u2019t buy my beans, I can\u2019t buy your grapes, and then I\u2019ll be unhappy! The economy is more complicated than that, but a change in how we measure economic success is much needed, and includes success without growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the midst of the increasing climate volatility, the pandemic has thrown our lives up into the air, and how things fall back down will hopefully be by thoughtful choice by each of us, based on a long-term view of what we need if we are to survive on this planet. Happily, and not by chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Butler\u2019s book <\/em>Common Sense discusses how we value happiness, and how to change our minds to change our world. Get your paperback copy at https:\/\/astraea.net\/shop\/books_etc\/common_sense_paperback<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

or e-book at<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/astraea.net\/shop\/books_etc\/common_sense_ebook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last\u2019 week\u2019s \u201ccode red for humanity\u201d got me thinking \u2013 ironically \u2013 about happiness. What makes you happy? Actually, let\u2019s back up. What IS happiness, that feeling of positive lightness that makes the world seem rosy? \u201cHap\u201d is the Middle English word for \u201cchance, luck, a chance occurrence\u201d. Sounds about right. \u201cHappy\u201d is defined as …
Continue reading How Happiness Works<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,15,22,4],"tags":[352],"class_list":["post-3852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-perspective","category-holonics-and-life","category-living","category-philosophy","tag-valuehappiness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/beanspage.png?fit=800%2C421&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hwcd-108","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3855,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions\/3855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}