What really creates happiness?

A Word on Happiness and Means ofAchieving it

Isn'tit the most curious thing that when a person attempts to pursuehappiness the "achievement" so often ends in tears andreturns unhappiness instead?This is becaus the pursuit of happinessoften also involves the pursuit of changing the way a person feelsabout those relevant to his or her life, as well as oneself. That is tosay, it is also the pursuit of "the evolution of the soul",if you please.

Soaccordingly, this article discusses the different ways of pursuinghappiness. Without further ado, ahead is a list of three differentways of doing so.

The first and simplest of ways is mentally equating happiness and pleasure. This means that the pursuit of happiness is just about the same thing as the pursuit of engaging in activities which involve drugs, alcohol, nicotine, food, sex, gambling or shopping.

The second method would involve enjoying work. This one is most likely to be chosen by people who are fairly career-oriented as well as those who place the importance of money pretty high up on their lists of priorities. Thus, the highlighted points of this method would be accumulating and managing money.

Lastly, but not least importantly, the last method is targeting people who find their social lives to be amongst their top priorities. These people will pursue getting control over achieving love, approval, attention, admiration or acknowledgment.

Theseare three different paths that are employed by different types ofpeople, but they all share a thing in common. Namely, the pursuit ofmomentary happiness. This is to say that a person enjoys a pleasure,which feels good for a while, and then it is over. The person thenfeels urged to relive the sensation in order to feel happy again, andthis is exactly the type of behavior which leads to "addictions"– since the effects of such rewards are always momentary.

Thisis to say that true happiness is not a result of doing something, butis rather a way of being. What this aims at is that achieving truehappiness would involve a state of happiness which is a bit deeper than the result of the pursuit of the simplest of momentarypleasures (which are all fine in their own right, but incompetent tofill the big pictures).

So what does thismean?

Bluntly put, achieving a state of ongoing happiness would mean changing thelifestyle to one of kindness, compassion understanding andacceptance. But - as many have found - being nice to others isn't enough. That's why it would also involve studying oneself (per reflection)and understanding what are the most loving and compassionate gesturestowards the particular self, then paying attention to satisfying theaspects.