I am Always "Happy"

bykunalk269

40 followers

2 years ago

What is pleasure?

Well for starters, if you ask any drug addict than he might be able to tell you exactly how his definition of pleasure turned his life upside down. For me it’s a value and a horrible one, to prioritize your life around. It is the most Superficial form of satisfaction, easy to gain-easier to lose.

Some people confuse pleasure with happiness; they think it’s the cause of happiness and joy. But in reality it’s the Effect, effect of getting things done, especially the difficult ones, the ones you don’t want to, the ones way out of your comfort zone, the ones who stimulate a feeling of fear (Within reasonable limits). And when you do those things on a regular basis, happiness naturally occurs as a by-product.

Research shows that people who focus their energy on superficial pleasures like binge drinking alcohol, drug abuse, porn or even procrastination, end up more anxious, more emotionally unstable, and more depressed.

Now let’s dive a little deeper. In today’s economy and world feeling positive is considered as the ultimate solution to every problem you are facing. It has been bombarded so many times through almost every book, every ad or commercial, every movie on Netflix, every banner on roadside, that if people notice you feeling down or worried about something which is actually worth worrying (And that means 90% of the life problems) than they will either consider you sick, mentally depressed, OR they will start advising you on “Why you should never ever feel negative” even when they really don’t care or may even be happy that you are suffering in the first place. And since everyone is now telling you that there is something seriously wrong with you when you are thinking a way out of your difficulties, slowly & steadily you will also start believing that there might actually be something "wrong" with you. Then what happens is, you let yourself off the hook during the time when you actually need to be the most focused in your life. And as a result, things start falling apart and after that the same crowd who told you not to worry will tell you that “You should have been more careful”. How ironical is that?

And what do you think “Being more careful” looks like, being careful means paying attention, it means you will be thinking– DEEPLY. And that will reflect on your face, or may be your life style for some time. Until you get that problem solved. And sometimes that can take longer than expected, much longer. But that’s okay. Things go wrong. Accidents do happen. You will feel like shit and that’s fine. Negative emotions are a necessary component of emotional health. To deny that negativity is to prolong the problems rather than solving them.

Denying negative emotions leads to experiencing deeper and severe emotional dysfunctions. Constant "positivity" is a form of avoidance, not a valid solution to life’s problems. Problems which, by the way, should be invigorating you and motivating you.

Problems add a sense of meaning and importance to our life. Thus to duck our problems is to lead a meaningless (even if supposedly "pleasant") existence.

Its quite self-evident. For example completing a marathon gives us more satisfaction than eating a chocolate cake, starting a small business feels better than doing the job we hate. Activities like these are stressful. They require solving problem after problem, like sticking to a healthy diet, waking up early, going to the gym or park, sweating, pain, failures, sometimes anger or despair- yet once accomplished, we look back and tell ourselves that it was worth it.

As Freud once said, “One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”

Some of the greatest moments of one’s life are not pleasant, not success, and not positive. And yet they are the ones who made us what we are. Now, wherever you are right now, or wherever you will be in the coming future, will be defined by what you decide to face today.

Good luck!