About Change and Personal Happiness

Day 528 – I just finished reading a book called A Brief History of Mankind and came across a very interesting statement – each person has a personal “happiness capability”. Some people no matter how many wonderful things happened in their life will not dwell in the 8-9 area and on the other end some people no matter how bad things are will not dwell in the 2-3 side of the scale. Both characters might have a temporary spike to these numbers but will get back to their more gloomy or more cheerful attitude regardless of the external situation very fast. So the obvious question is – if we have an inherent capability for happiness or lack-there-of then our constant search for happiness, something that is really pushed by our current views of “the personal right for happiness and fulfillment”, is futile. We might have a temporary change but at the end of the day we will end up in the very same type of mood as we were before. So is change worth it at all? 

I was thinking about it a lot today, after reading this statement and yes, there are self-help books who say exactly that – don’t fight your reality but learn to accept and you’ll be much happier. But my conclusion is different. yes, I belong to the more cheery crowd, I am not a 10 kind of person but definitely an 8, but I think that while it’s true that I will probably end up in the same area of the scale, I prefer to be in a less stressful or oppressing external situation. I am doing a project on Cambodia right now and I was thinking about the statement with that in mind; I am sure everyone will prefer to be a gloomy person in a free country that a gloomy person in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge era. So while my personal happiness ability might not change there is a great importance to what happens in my life; change can be a good thing even if eventually we will end up more or less on the same place on the happiness scale.

 

I am thankful for this very interesting and intriguing book I finally finished reading; so many of its pages are highlighted by now, and require serious pondering, just like the statement I mentioned above. I am thankful for few hours I got to spend on the beach reading – it was so much fun. I am thankful for a beautiful sunset, I didn’t get to see any lately and I am so thankful to be back in the game. I am thankful for an evening of research, starting to get back to my project; it is due in less than a month and I really have to start working on it.