Are you happy?

[I, Brian]

There are actually a lot of people here who believe in God - we even have a few Christians at CR!

I tend to take the view of different cultures perceiving God in different cultural ways - sort of like how 100 people of 100 different cultures and languages saw a beautiful flower, each would write of it in a different and unqiue way.

I've actually just started a thread on different perceptions of God here.

By the way, have you read any of okie's short pieces here? Definitely something recommended if you ever have a few minutes between doing more important things.

[MadHatter]

Those writings are pretty good, I will take a look at them more when I have some time.

[mandrill]

One has to wonder if some members of those churches don't suffer from guilt if they are not happy all the time .. I mean, if belief in Christ is equated with happiness, does this mean they are a bad Christian if they have a bad day like the rest of us?

Anyway, for myself I've noticed that, in general, I am less happy than acquaintances who seem to never consider the deeper issues, who never question their belief system or way of life or .. much of anything. But I am certainly not miserable by any means.

I tend to think that one's focus has a lot to do with it, and that one can, to a large extent, make oneself habitually happy or miserable. Happiness and sadness exists in us in equal measures .. we've all had experiences with both and its often the weight we assign to one or the other that rules our lives. I've had days when the best I could do was to tell myself, well its not raining .. and to hold that thought to get me through. I do go through periods when its harder to practice this technique, but I am never unaware of my potential, I just sometimes seem to choose to allow myself to feel the sadness as a matter of course, as something I need to learn from at the moment or understand .. I don't know .. hard to explain .. but sometimes sadness seems .. "necessary." I've had some of my deepest and most rewarding insights during periods of sadness. I kind of accept my various feelings as they arise as just parts of who I am and I try not to cling overmuch to any of them .. not even the happiness, as I would not really be a complete, truly rounded self if I experienced just one emotion all the time.

[Erynn]

I would say that I'm a pretty happy person these days. Like one of the other posters, I do suffer from clinical depression, but I'm on decent meds for it. Where my life used to be one long string of wanting to toss myself off a bridge (which I successfully resisted, as you'll probably guess), once the antidepressants started kicking in and working properly, I started feeling like what I imagine "normal" people feel like. This is not to say that I was *never* happy before the meds started working, just that it was a lot harder to cut through circumstances and my state of mind. Even in the depths of my worst times, I would have moments of bliss -- they tended not to last very long, but they did happen.

There are a lot of components to happiness. I don't always have good days, but I feel a sense of being in a good place in my life. I feel connected to my deities and the spirits of the land and my ancestors. Questioning and examining things, including my own beliefs, makes me happy. Learning new things makes me happy. I'm capable of awe and feeling joy and incredible inspiration in the face of nature's power. I feel a sense of bliss when I see the beauty of a sunset or watch lightning cross the sky deep in the night. I feel an intense connection with the world when walking the beach in the mists of autumn. Seeing the nesting eagles over the lake across the street brings a feeling of being truly blessed by life and the Gods and Goddesses.

I find happiness in doing ritual, communing in prayer with the spirits that surround me and aid me. I find happiness in creating rituals, speaking with friends who are pursuing the same spiritual path and goals, and in the research I do that helps us find ways to bring ancient traditions forward.

I find happiness in cooking for friends, unpacking my things into my new home, and finding new restaurants in the area. Bookshops make me happy, and a good cup of tea. Art, good poetry, a well-told story, and a quiet day all make for happiness.

Pursuing a spiritual path gives focus to happiness, but it isn't the only thing that can produce it.

[Susma Rio Sep]

For myself, even though I am a postgraduate Catholic, I want to give thanks to God for all the good things that come in my life.

Yes, I am happy, because, and honestly, I have adequate materials things to keep me in a life of conveniences and some luxuries to boot.

I am doing all right with my family and I have a good satisfying circle of friends.

In other words, I am not at the moment suffering any kind of material need, nor health problems. And by God's mercy and grace I hope and pray that He would continue to be thus favorably disposed toward me -- even though I confess to being a relativist atheist and only also correlatively a theist of a relativist sort.

What do I enjoy a lot of? Writing opinions in message boards, this is much better than talking, because you can't talk as much as you want to in a live-talk group; but in a message board, we all can write as much as we want and have something to say, which we think is interesting or useful or new or a 'discovery' from our own part.

This sounds like a kind of a testimony; so be it.

And again from a postgraduate Catholic now attending service in a free evangelical church, and also a relativist atheist and relativist theist:

PRAISE THE LORD!

I guess I am basically a materialist with religious attachments, or to my own vanity, a rationalist.

Pachomius2000

[Susma Rio Sep]

After writing the previous post I feel that I might have lapsed into the 'vice' of self-complacency, and also felt the involuntary chill of a fear that God might decide to try my patience and loyalty with some trials.

So, I pray to the Lord to stay His hand.

Primitive isn't it?

Yet, religion is I observe basically a very primitive emotion, that of anxiety that the powers that be might just get envious or naughty or malicious when they see some humans apparently getting on pretty well.

And that is why I am a rationalist, in order not to act out all the primitive fears of man, face to face with the unknown powers of the invisible world, which invisible world is also endowed by man himself with personalistic traits -- like us humans.

Pachomius2000

[ISFP]

i remember a few years ago, i went through a period of intense religiosity. central was a very comforting, assured faith in the existence of God or a sort of all-powerful, transcendent goodness. taking refuge in this faith brought me a good deal of happiness, though my willingness to listen to points of view unlike my own was very low. i think i could say that i was happy in my faith, but it wasn't a happiness that let in much of the world beyond what i felt would help strengthen my particular beliefs or world view. i was only happy within my faith and religiosity, not with the greater world. which may be one of the reasons this formerly intense faith eventually wore down and no longer brought comfort.

[Thoth]

I've asked myself this question quite a bit.

I would say that "happy" is not descriptive enough for how a person feels about their life. Terms such as "hopeful perserverance", "deep understanding", and "calmness of mind" are what I view as the major forerunners of an overall "happiness". Transversely, ideas such as "confusion of ethics", "image crisis", and "social paranoia" would be found in the camp of "unhappy".

Striving for happiness, imo, simply leads to a rebound effect when imminent failure occurs. I would say that it is less of a rocky road if one can become aware of the roots of thier unhappiness and accept it, and only then begin working towards a solution.

Dwelling on the past or worrying about the future seems to be my main source of confusion of self and socail paranoia. I try to become aware of why I tend to think of these things, and this helps me to, in turn, be more aware of how I act in the present (which thoughts of past and future stem from). This makes life less about doing away with depression and attaining happiness, and more about continually building towards something better.

[I, Brian]

I'm not happy. I'm faced by constant challenges and problems to overcome. Have I got anything to really complain about? Not really - just need to plan some personal leisure time, and work more efficiently to earn it.