Posts Tagged ‘happiness’

Vacation Blog

// July 22nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Glenn

So I’m on vacation and I am not as happy as I’d hoped I’d be. Why? Because happiness is not found here.

The pointlessness I feel at work is worse than this because there I must continually perform mind-numbing and pointless tasks. Here, I can do nothing and be much more content. But I don’t feel fulfilled or “happy”. What can I possibly due to make myself happy? Can’t think of a thing. The best I have come up with so far is to distract myself from actually thinking about life – which is a temporary solution at best. I’ve become much more of a social creature, meeting new people, hanging out with groups of people. I think I enjoy the unpredictability of meeting people and the surprises that occasionally happen with them. Apart from that…nothing.

I’ve noticed that my moods are greatly influenced by the weather. A warm sunny day makes me feel really good (as long as I am outside and immersed in it). Exercising also makes me feel good, but I haven’t figured out why yet. I wonder if it has to do with prolonging my life. Some moments I want to live forever and am afraid of death…other moments, the opposite.

I also enjoy talking and debating philosophical issues. Not may people enjoy this, so it’s difficult to find a listener. Also, what kind of jobs are there in philosophy besides “teaching philosophy”? I guess this blog is the next best thing.

The Ups and Downs of Life

// June 30th, 2008 // No Comments » // Glenn

For many years I have tried to live my life on a very even keel. I don’t get too depressed or angry about anything, and I also don’t get too excited or wild about anything. Once I read the book Shogun, I thought I had found the perfect justification for this type of life. The book talks about samurai warriors in ancient Japan and how they were able to be calm in any type of situation. It didn’t matter to them if they were standing in a freezing cold wind and rain, or facing certain death, they remained calm and composed. I really admired that type of self discipline. My wife kept telling me to be more passionate about life but I just simply disagreed.

Recently I’ve changed this viewpoint. You see, the problem has been that life just drags on slowly with this point of view. When I keep my expectations low about an upcoming event, I have nothing to look forward to, so life becomes pretty depressing. Sure, by not getting excited about an upcoming event that turns into a dud, I protect myself from disappointment, but I have found that when the event turns out to be even more fun than I anticipated, I have missed out on much of the possible, previous excitement.

Anyways, I have now decided to allow myself to get really excited about anything that sounds fun. I let myself dream about how great it’s going to be. It’s like waiting for Christmas presents as a kid – it sometimes ends up being more fun than the actual presents you get. This way, if I have a fun event planned for the weekend, I can allow myself to get all excited all week at work, and work doesn’t seem so bad this way. Sure, the event might suck in the end and I’ll be really disappointed and possible spiral into a depression, but I think the pros outweigh the cons.

So say hello to the new me, somebody who is becoming more passionate, more wild, more unpredictable, and more enjoying of life!

And tell me something…do any of you out there find yourself changing and experimenting with different approaches to life as I do? I can’t think of anyone I know that is bold like this, but if you are one of these people, let’s talk. OK?

By the way, sorry about this site being so slow. Chris is really busy with work right now and is not able to fix it up. We’ll get to it as soon as possible.

Happiness

// May 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // Glenn

A well-worded portion of my latest book

During the first part of your life, you only become aware of happiness once you have lost it. Then an age comes, a second one, in which you already know, at the moment when you begin to experience true happiness, that you are, at the end of the day, going to lose it. When i met Belle, I understood that I had just entered this second age. I also understood that I hadn’t reached the third age, in which anticipation of the loss of happiness prevents you from living.

Right after this part, the main character falls “head over heels” in love and really enjoys life…for a time.