Happiness is not a fish you can catch
Or so the Our Lady Peace album goes.
We as the crazy humans we are decide to "scientifically" study what makes people happy or not happy. As an analytical mind, I find them interesting to read, but I don't really buy into them b/c I think it's ridiculous to study and measure anything subjective. It's like asking your mom how lovable you are. It's ridiculous and quite a bit insecure to do so; it also weirdly reminds me of Tickle-Me-Elmo. I mean, I'm sure I could come up with a scale for lovability, and make people rate it, and come up with things like how much someone's eye twitches when they yell out that I'm 87% lovable. Some of this "science" we do, I'm not so sure about. I mean, didn't they tell us to stop eating eggs and butter in the 80's b/c they were 'bad' for us?
What determines your happiness level? Apparently genes, giving away stuff, exercising, thinking happy thoughts, and being old are the 5 keys to happiness. There's tons of studies out there talking about if you want to spend your money wisely, spend it on experiences instead of stuff. I've got to be honest, happiness is really subjective and day to day happiness generally has more to do with the absence or presence of certain stresses rather than anything else. I have a theory that these people who are "happier" aren't actually experiencing anything different than the less happy, but rather express/exaggerate/understand whatever their experiences are. It's like how some people like to brag about their awesome Honda Civic, and other people never talk about their Audi S4. It's not that the person with the S4 likes their car less than the person with the Civic - it's just how they express it. So I'm not sure if it's more genetics - or the environment you were raised in that has more of an effect. I might be wrong. All of these happiness studies must have be done on twins separated at birth (TSAB) (b/c you know those are a dime a dozen and all 'genetic studies' are done on TSAB to prove that it's in fact nature and not nurture that has more of an effect.)
I also have a theory about a competitiveness gene but I'll save that for another day.
Oh and P.S. You know why people only remember the good times? It's b/c no one ever talks about the bad times when you're hanging out, people don't like to talk about sad/uncomfortable things. You know what they say, use it or lose it. I think the same applies to memories. No one is going to purposefully make themsleves sad. Unless they're emo of course, like Donald Trump.
All in all, after psych101 freshman year of college, I don't really take psychology seriously, I measurement of non subjective things. 'Big' is not a measurement in my book, it's a Tom Hanks movie from the 80's.
We as the crazy humans we are decide to "scientifically" study what makes people happy or not happy. As an analytical mind, I find them interesting to read, but I don't really buy into them b/c I think it's ridiculous to study and measure anything subjective. It's like asking your mom how lovable you are. It's ridiculous and quite a bit insecure to do so; it also weirdly reminds me of Tickle-Me-Elmo. I mean, I'm sure I could come up with a scale for lovability, and make people rate it, and come up with things like how much someone's eye twitches when they yell out that I'm 87% lovable. Some of this "science" we do, I'm not so sure about. I mean, didn't they tell us to stop eating eggs and butter in the 80's b/c they were 'bad' for us?
What determines your happiness level? Apparently genes, giving away stuff, exercising, thinking happy thoughts, and being old are the 5 keys to happiness. There's tons of studies out there talking about if you want to spend your money wisely, spend it on experiences instead of stuff. I've got to be honest, happiness is really subjective and day to day happiness generally has more to do with the absence or presence of certain stresses rather than anything else. I have a theory that these people who are "happier" aren't actually experiencing anything different than the less happy, but rather express/exaggerate/understand whatever their experiences are. It's like how some people like to brag about their awesome Honda Civic, and other people never talk about their Audi S4. It's not that the person with the S4 likes their car less than the person with the Civic - it's just how they express it. So I'm not sure if it's more genetics - or the environment you were raised in that has more of an effect. I might be wrong. All of these happiness studies must have be done on twins separated at birth (TSAB) (b/c you know those are a dime a dozen and all 'genetic studies' are done on TSAB to prove that it's in fact nature and not nurture that has more of an effect.)
I also have a theory about a competitiveness gene but I'll save that for another day.
Oh and P.S. You know why people only remember the good times? It's b/c no one ever talks about the bad times when you're hanging out, people don't like to talk about sad/uncomfortable things. You know what they say, use it or lose it. I think the same applies to memories. No one is going to purposefully make themsleves sad. Unless they're emo of course, like Donald Trump.
All in all, after psych101 freshman year of college, I don't really take psychology seriously, I measurement of non subjective things. 'Big' is not a measurement in my book, it's a Tom Hanks movie from the 80's.
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