Is It This Easy?

I could have titled this post 'Walking in the Wind" or 'Beautiful Dawn" since it was inspired directly by my dawn walk this morning.  It was blustery as The Face of Evil and I walked through dead trees by the bayou, the sky lightening in the colors of the dutch masters.  I felt my spine tickling, a smile on my face, just joy.

I have described feeling like this before.  In fact, I have described feeling more intensely wonderful than this.  A feeling that I have shared with my sister, that life is so delicious that you feel sad that most people never experience it.  This is not the best I have ever felt, but I have felt basically like this for weeks and months, without interruption.  My wife has been confused by this constant cheerfulness, she doesn't know what to do with this, who is this person?  The last time I felt this consistently happy, for this length of time, was the summer of 1997, the summer I moved to Portland.

The reason for this is simply a magic pill.  For the last fifteen years my brain had been subject to wild chemical variations, beyond my control, and the chemicals in your brain are what your happiness is.  Your outside environment only has an effect on your happiness to the extent that it changes the chemicals in your brain.  I have been taking this medication since July, and I have felt great.

This has led me to the question, "Is it really this easy to be happy if you aren't ill?"  I see so much complaining, so much energy put into describing all the reasons that people can be unhappy.  I am happy, I think life is special and great, and all that has happened is that my brain is consistent and stable.  It just seems to me that this should be the case for everyone who is in a similar situation.  By the way, this isn't a criticism of people who are dealing with an illness, mental illness is a real thing, a painful thing, something largely beyond the control of the victim.

The answer to my question is somewhat equivocal.  On one hand it is not this easy for most people to be happy.  Most people do not put happiness as a high priority.  This sounds fundamentally wrong, but I am certain that most people put their priorities into prestige, wealth, looks, and reputation.  I think if asked most people would say that these things lead to happiness, that if someone becomes rich, with high status, good looks and a reputation of wisdom they will be as happy as they can be.  While these can help, they aren't the root of happiness.  Why do people concentrate on these things?  Because their brains are consistent.  If you don't experience random misery then you don't appreciate your own mental situation.  If you never experience ecstatic joy then you don't know how good life can be.  Under those circumstances it seems silly to believe that you can alter your mental state to be consistently more happy.  If something seems silly it is difficult to be motivated to do it.  The best example of this is that meditation is a scientifically proven method to reduce worry, increase compassion, and increase your awareness of the world around you.  It requires no equipment and you can start doing it in fifteen minutes a day.  I have told everyone I know this, shown them the proof for it, and I know of only one person who has then taken it up (to great effect).

To maximize happiness it is necessary to "know thyself", it is necessary to understand what happiness actually is, and it is necessary to put consistent effort into learning the skills to be happy.  Happiness comes from establishing a mental state that notices where you are, appreciates where you are, and only worries about things you can change (and then changes them).  I have been fighting deep misery for more twenty years, suicidal misery just about every year at some point.  Also every year I have experienced amazing joy, albeit far less often.  As a result my understanding of what produces happiness has been higher than most people.  this has given me far more motivation to study happiness, and then far more motivation to practice what I have learned.  I have learned skills to make depression bearable because otherwise much of my life would have been unbearable.  Now that I am not depressed I have not forgotten those skills, indeed these skills have largely been ingrained as habits.  This makes me happier, it makes me happy.  It is no harder for anyone else to learn these skills, practice those skills, and become happier on a consistent basis.

Optimism, compassion, calmness, awareness of what you have, all can be learned through simple practices.  They make you happier, they make your life better.  It is that easy.  You just have to choose to do them.  I wonder why people don't?