By Carolyn Baker — 2016
Will we spend the rest of our days either dining on doom or drowning in denial or feast on what lights us up?
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CLEAR ALL
Pleasure can be a boon or a burden, depending on our relationship to it. It can leaven laborious days, or lead us to waste them. The pleasures of a mild stimulant such as caffeine can be harmless or even beneficial, but the pleasures of amphetamines can be deadly.
What is happiness, and is it achievable? Moreover, is the pursuit of happiness really where we ought to be putting our efforts, or as people of faith and morals, are there other more virtuous pursuits that we should be pursuing?
People who are happy but have little-to-no sense of meaning in their lives have the same gene expression patterns as people who are enduring chronic adversity.
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These days, many of us suffer from a loss of meaning, direction, vitality, mission, purpose, identity, and genuine connection—a deep unhappiness that most of us have come to consider as simply ordinary.
Studies of polar researchers, astronauts, and others in isolation shed light on possible effects of social distancing, including increased forgetfulness, depression and heart attacks.
Many of us treat joy like the good china, only warranted on special occasions. Even if we know it is within our reach, we may not see it is within our control.
Happiness is fleeting but meaning is forever.