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 Project Happiness will help you explore the idea of real and lasting happiness that remains with us regardless of the circumstances around us. |
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THINK about happiness:
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 “I really don't know what happiness is. There are times when I have felt happy but I am confused about true happiness. ... |
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 “I really don't know what happiness is. There are times when I have felt happy but I am confused about true happiness. I know that when I felt happy it was because of others and not something I did myself. I also know that when I am sad it is usually something I have done myself. And I know that after I feel happy I feel sadder than before.”
—KRISTEN (American) |
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 “Happiness for me comes from different places. Some of the places of happiness include knowing, who I am, that I have a community to count on, and knowing that there are myths and mysteries out there to explore that I can make a part of my life.”
—SOBONFU SOME (Indigenous African Wisdom Carrier) |
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 “I think happiness can never be defined in a short and precise words; it is a vast concept. Happiness is the inner peace of mind which one can neither buy from the market nor snatch from someone else.”
—TSERING (Tibetan) |
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 “Pleasure is addictive. Joy could be addictive, too. It’s a biological response. When you get the car, you press on the pleasure pedal, but you have a choice. You can choose joy and toddle along at 35 miles an hour. You're going to be able to go around the world a hundred times. If you choose the nitrous oxide pleasure pedal, you'll push it as hard as you can, go full-bore at 300 miles an hour; but you’re only going to go about a half a mile.”
—GEORGE LUCAS (Filmmaker)
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 “The reality is we can change: We can change ourselves, we can change our minds, we can change our hearts, and therefore the universe changes... You can own it in that sense, that now my mind and my heart have achieved a certain level of development that the outer reality reflects my inner reality.”
—RICHARD GERE (Humanitarian and Actor) |
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KEYS:
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 What is Happiness? We can think of happiness in several ways. We often feel happy when we fulfill our needs and desires... |
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As human beings, we all seek happiness. While this is a simple statement, finding lasting happiness is not so easy. To begin with, what we do share is the desire to avoid painful experiences and to look for ways to bring happiness into our lives. What we do not share with one another is a common understanding of happiness. What makes one person happy may not be the same for another because each of our characters and preferences is unique, and we also come from different families, communities, and cultures. At the end of the day, we must all create our own individual definition of happiness.
ACTIVITY: As a group or on your own, write or draw what comes to your mind when you hear the word happiness. If doing this as a group, use small pieces of paper or sticky notes to create a large collage of your ideas. |
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 The Cycle of Desire- Although meeting our needs and desires can give us feelings that are often quite pleasurable, they tend to be short term and eventually fade... |
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| The Cycle of Desire |
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Although meeting our needs and desires can give us feelings that are often quite pleasurable, they tend to be short term and eventually fade. We feel our mind and senses responding to that pleasure or comfort and we call it happiness. For example, when we have an extreme craving for something sweet (e.g., chocolate, ice cream, soda). Once we satisfy that craving, we might feel blissful or have a sense of well being, but this feeling is temporary. Soon, the craving returns. Another example would be the exhilaration we feel when buying or receiving a gift that has occupied our wish list for a long time (e.g., new shoes, favorite CD, the latest technology). After the pleasure of having this object fades, we desire something else.
The idea here is that happiness which depends on external objects or attainment of immediate desires will only bring temporary satisfaction. Then, when we find ourselves wanting something new, which we often do, we repeat the process. We end up creating a never-ending cycle as we constantly search for more objects and increasingly intense experiences that satisfy us... temporarily. |
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“Pleasure is addictive. Joy could be addictive too. It's a biological response. When you get the car, you press on the pleasure pedal, but you have a choice. You can choose joy and toodle along at 35 miles an hour. You're going to be able to go around the world a hundred times. If you choose the nitro pleasure pedal, you'll push it as hard as you can, full-bore at 300 miles an hour; but you're only going to go about a half a mile.”
—GEORGE LUCAS (Filmmaker) |
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 The Boomerang Effect- What we put into the world often comes right back to us... |
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Have you ever thrown a boomerang? Unlike a ball or Frisbee it actually comes right back to you.
Our thoughts are the same. We put our thoughts into the world and the result of these thoughts often come right back to us.
What thoughts are you putting out into the world? What has come back into your life?
“I’m so alone and invisible.”
“Life sucks.”
“I’ll never have enough money.”
“I hate my body.”
What you focus on, you attract into your life. Your thoughts are like boomerangs. | |
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 Waves of Appreciation- Why not intentionally attract more things into your life? |
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Waves of Appreciation |
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If thoughts are like boomerangs, why not use this to your advantage? Why not intentionally attract more things into your life? Start a Journal where you can reflect and write about what is good in your life — more of it might show up! Some people call this a Gratitude JournalÂ… call it what you like. We like to think of it as Waves of Appreciation! Here are a couple of ways you might ride the wave:
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1. During the day, take 5 minutes to look around you and notice anything at all, however insignificant, that makes you feel good. It might be, “I’m having a great hair day,” “That t-shirt looks cool on her,” “I like how Paul treats his friends,” “I don’t feel angry right now,” “I love how my dog is always happy to see me”… Have fun! You can either do this privately in your own mind (no one would ever notice). Or you can write in your journal.
2. Commit time each night or morning to write three things you appreciate or are grateful for. Over time, you might stop and think about how these simple forms of appreciation feel and how they affect your experience of happiness.
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| When thinking of how we can create this kind of happiness, we need to know what makes us happy in the long run, as well as what gives us pleasure now. Many people who have all the basic needs of life, such as food, housing, and family, still experience suffering, such as anxiety, stress, and depression. What makes us genuinely happy? |  |
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