Happiness...What do you THINK?

[Paige]

Hi all,

I found this article on yahoo news today. Thought it was interesting. If you care to read it, here is the link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060228/sc_space/thekeystohappinessandwhywedontusethem

I'd be interested in your thoughts :)

Paige

[Amie]

Happiness is 50 percent genetic, says University of Minnesota researcher David Lykken.

I think that Lykken is onto something, yet I wonder if he is taking into consideration 'generational' unhappiness.

People in the same family will be biologically similar because experience is passed on. I advocate that the source of chemical imbalance is not the chemicals themselves, it is experience during (brain) development OR an issue with electrical impulses within the brain (which can be the same thing, but isn't always).

If family 'A' only knows joy through eating, and shares that with their children, then their children will also experience joy (dopamine related) from food. It is not impossible for that child to find joy in other ways. It is however less easily recognizable (cognitive awareness as was developed growing up) and therefore more difficult to process (and for the brain to turn to 'happy chemicals').

I'm not suggesting that this has no effect genetically. Generationally, biological differences become locked in and affects the genes. If environment never effects genes, then how in the world do short-haired animals begin to have offspring with long hair after being moved to colder environments? (<--adaptation)

The brain adapts generationally also imo, and people really can "behave their way to success". The article supports that:


One route to more happiness is called "flow," an engrossing state that comes during creative or playful activity, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has found. Athletes, musicians, writers, gamers, and religious adherents know the feeling. It comes less from what you're doing than from how you do it.

Consider the biblical generation as compared to what we see as a generation today. This reflects the progress of time. Way back when (we were just talking about this too Paige, lol) people lived in tribes. Each household might have 40 people under it. The patriarch was generally understood to be the head of such a household.

That household was held by that patriarch's view on things and did not grow experientially unless he did, or until he died. Nowadays, each modern generation grows past it's parents and we (at least I do) encourage that growth.

If a biblical curse lasted four generations (around 400 years), by today's standards we should have such a curse licked in about 80 - 100 years (Exodus 20:5).

(I believe that a biblical generation is 100 years, and Israel wandered the wilderness for the remaining 40. I'm open for correction and ask that you please be gentle if you do.)

We were created to respond to our environment (evidence of that is the generational curse). Consider the "feral children". A child growing up in a chicken coupe (true story) identified only with the chickens. He crouched like a chicken, his bones curving over time to make physical adjustments. We are mirrors.

We are now able to see past our own reflections to God. That child's ego had developed into a chicken identity to protect the self. The child was absent any superego that might create laws about which chickens are better, or why he could call himself a chicken (protecting the ego). The child never developed the ability to speak - ever. He never recovered.

If he had fathered a child, he would have passed on many of his pleasures, displeasures, behaviors, and preferences. If possible, the child would seek a mate with such similarities. After so many generations with such similarites in such an environment, I believe that the children would be born with curved bones (structural and behavioral adaptation).

So what in the world am I saying? If I teach my children how to enjoy more of life, then they will marry someone who enjoys more of life, and eventually some of my grandchildren will be genetically predisposed to happiness.


Polls show Americans are no happier today than they were 50 years ago despite significant increases in prosperity, decreases in crime, cleaner air, larger living quarters and a better overall quality of life.

My opinion: People feel bad for feeling happy which cancels out that happiness. IE:

"You shouldn't feel happy, look at how people are starving in Hade." (None of my mysery has ever fed one hungry soul) The thinking that we shouldn't be happy because others are suffering or have suffered sounds like "survivor guilt".

"If such worldly pleasures bring you happiness, you are of the devil." "We are called not to be of this world or to partake of the pleasures therein." This is superego, which exists as lawmaker and protector to the ego. The ego is how we define us. If a person calls themself "Christian" (ego) for example, and they define "Christian" as "one who is not of this world" (ego) AND they find themselves enjoying their new car (self), then the superego is called in to protect that ego.

There's A LOT of new pleasures to enjoy in this world and it looks as though they will keep increasing. Grace will allow people to enjoy them without guilt and to have that happiness imo.

Amie

[Amie]

Barry may not remember this one, lol:


We IMO are all beneficiaries of the covenant of truth and grace. Whether that this abiding in us or not depends on our mind set. God can be at peace with me but there may be little peace between my ears.

[Paige]

Wow, Amie...Great thoughts! I'm headed out the door to "happily" clean someone else's house ;)

I plan on getting back here (hopefully tonight) to add my 2 cents.

Thanks,
Paige

[Paige]

Amie,

Your thoughts are very much in line with mine on this topic, only much better worded, lol!

There is something very simple said in scripture and I think it bears on all aspects of life. "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he." Prov. 23:7 Whatever the context that this was said originally, the more I think about it, the more I see the profound truth behind the words.

As for generational unhappiness, I think you hit it. We very much pass on our views and attitudes to our children. This is why I feel self-examination is so very important. We have all been handed paradigms by those who have come before us. We think certain things are true because everyone else has thought they were. (Classic example: Jesus is coming again soon...We heard countless sermons and sang countless songs.) When I read the article, what popped into my mind right off was the example given by Michael Crichton (I know, his article keeps coming up time and again) about hex-death. The mind so strongly believes in the shaking-of-the-bone, or whatever method is used, the body just gives up on living. The connection then that our thoughts have with our feelings of happiness is vast.

The Apostle Paul lived through some unimaginable (to me) conditions in which he declared himself content. His thoughts were so focused on the love of Christ and what Christ was in the process of doing for mankind, that even chained he could feel as if he was soaring above it all in heavenly places. His mind told him what his true reality was all along. I hold out great hope for what what the message of God's love and grace for all mankind can actually accomplish on earth. If we can help get this into the mind of man...Look out!

Paige