Out of the many thoughts that I have, one of the major reoccurring themes is happiness. While happiness is most easily approached purely by feeling on a daily basis, I can’t help but give a more cerebral view- to have a more abstract thought into what makes me happier in a given day. In doing so, I am not looking to influence or to provide a framework for how others should view happiness. Like my other writings, the motivation for this passage is rather selfish: to make my thoughts pointed versus circular (my thoughts often lead into one another with no motivation nor conclusion) and to create a bookmark to see how my thoughts evolve over time as I refer back to this passage sometime in the future.
To establish a baseline of how I see happiness, I first refer to psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, where he applies logotherapy- a school of psychology that frames human’s central motivation as a search for life’s meaning- to his experiences as a prisoner in Germany’s World War 2 concentration camps. In the book, he outlines 3 sources of meaning: “(1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take towards unavoidable suffering,” which I like to respectively reword into: (1) pursuing passions, (2) supporting friends and family, and (3) controlling mindset (though the reframe may not comprehensively encapsulate the original principles, I find it easier to apply to my personal life). Frankl further postulates that only in the pursuit of success can happiness ensue- happiness is not the central goal of life, but a (welcomed) by-product of dedication towards an individualized path of meaning.
While I largely subscribe to Frankl’s framework, I would like to add a couple additions to contributors of happiness due to my difficulty of attributing the micro daily happiness I experience to the macro happiness over a lifespan derived from pursuing fundamental meaning. I believe there is also a source of happiness which arises from the small beauties of life- insignificant tidbits, which pale in comparison to the grandness of life’s greater meanings. Random things like the the stillness of air during meditation, the juiciness of watermelon, and the bounce of an ergonomic chair all instil a smile in my face externally indistinguishable to the smile I would have while actively pursuing my meaning. Perhaps these small details can be categorized under (2) experiencing something, but they truly fall short in terms of macro significance: on my deathbed, I would not be thinking about the feeling of my ergonomic chair over the people, the milestones, and the passions I have experienced over a lifetime.
The experience of happiness from the little things in life make the pursuit of greater means much easier, despite not being effortless to experience themselves. Over my early adult life post university, I, at times, find it difficult to see the beauty in the little things. It’s easy to see a bright sunny day and be happy, but what about a prolonged bout of cloud and rain? What about not even getting a chance to see the sun due to arriving in office before sunrise and leaving after sunset? There are also confounding effects of hardships which may arise from the failures inevitably stumbled across when pursuing life’s greater meanings and of cynicism when soaking in the darkness of the great world as widely preached by media. In spite of all these factors, I know I must try to keep smiling- for happiness is not easy nor will it ever be; even in times of ease, sudden tragedy and intrinsic lurking demons can mitigate the joys of greater meanings, much less the little beauties.
Happiness itself is a complex subject for me to think about. I know I want to be happy (who doesn't?), but the question is: how can I be more happy? It is without a doubt, in my mind, that happiness does ensue with rising meaning, but also requires an unexpectedly large amount of discipline to maintain through the constant efforts of up-keeping a peaceful mental state, applying positive reframing, and having genuine appreciation. It is hard, but the challenge is definitely welcome. After all, what would be the feeling of happiness without resistance? A life fueled by easy ecstasy cannot be much fun can it?
These have been some initial thoughts into happiness~