Q: Can someone believe they are unhappy when they really are [happy]?
I think happiness depends almost completely on mind-set, or "beliefs." People can understand that they are better-off than others in physiscal states ex-economically,health-wise, but it seems that "happiness" has a lot to do with how content/appreciative someone is with what we have. It was brought up in class the other day that celebraties will claim to be "unhappy" despite their having immense wealth/ access to a variety of opportunitites that would not be available to the general public. It had also been brought up that people always tend to want was is just beyond their reach, and when they achieve their goals, they continue to long for more. So basically, an individual can have all the wealth/social gratification in the world and still not be content, while on the other hand, it is possible to have only moderate/minimal amounts of those things and to feel "happy" out of appreciation for them.
So, if this "happiness machine" did really exist, what might you see/perceive by stepping into it? (In other words, what would make you the most happy?)
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ReplyDeleteThis is a response to your thought provoking question about the happiness machine..
ReplyDeleteI think that it would be hard for me to decide on every single thing that would be different in my happiness machine especially with respect to things that would be physically possible / probable. Assuming that anything could be different in this happiness machine, I would add some fun to life in terms of super natural ability: i.e. the ability to control given surroundings with telepathy, to be able to shoot flames out of my fingertips or the ability to fly :)
however, I think that if given the option to walk into my own happiness machine...
Where I am right now I don't think that I would go inside, because my life is pretty happy the way it is, and stepping inside would take away the things that I have worked for to get to where I am now. I would leave it to someone else who needed it.