Originally published June 29 2005
Happiness a choice, not a pursuit
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A recent article in the Indy Star suggests that happiness is a result of choices made, not the accomplishment or accumulation of exterior events.
What's wrong with "the pursuit of happiness"?
A dictionary defines "pursue" as "to try to find, get or win."
Alternate definitions use words such as "chase" and "hunt."
I suggest that any search for happiness outside oneself will fail.
Happiness is an attitude, a state of mind, level of consciousness and degree of acceptance.
Yes, externals can help us attain these internal states.
However, dependence on external occurrences, including other people, means our happiness is dependent on factors beyond our control.
Some argue that prolonged happiness is simply a sign that the person is not aware of how bad his plight in life is.
Some argue that only those with a Pollyanna attitude, optimism regardless of the reality of the situation, say they are regularly happy.
I have known people who wouldn't permit themselves to say they were happy.
Happiness need not depend on outer conditions.
Hugh Prather has an excellent quote about this: "I realized that things did not have to go right for me to be happy.
And people did not have to behave for me to love them."
We can set up an internal state of being that recognizes the external happenings as events that we interact with.
We can exert control over some of the events.
Like the Serenity Prayer, we can learn to have "the patience to accept the things we cannot change.
The courage to change those things we can, and, the wisdom to know the difference."
Our lives are partially the result of heredity, but mostly the result of our decisions.
We choose to exercise and eat a balanced diet or not.
We choose to have a strong social support network or not.
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