Are you happy?

I found the interesting article in Weekender last year edition. Dont ask me why last year. It is not my magazine. It is my office's. Well since it considers as a garbage, I collect it as a knowledge. It's interesting to have something free but worthy, isnt it? *found new motto..

Happiness..
For me, it's a bit hard to define that word. It's beyond everything. Happiness is not about a routine and it's a new thing. A routine is an activity that you always do in daily: working, playing, school, learning, everything that you feel bored easily. And the exciting thing is when you cross the border. You just moved for a while and feel the differences. That's happiness. My friend told me once about the idea to do the crazy thing that never came up to my mind once. He asked me to do not pay for lunch. Well, we never do it before and wish never do that in the future. But he always ask me to do that. "It's just testing our adrenaline", he said. But, I refused and it's a joke. It's probably one thing that is beyond our mind. And If I or have a brave heart to do it, it will be posted in this blog for sure. hehhehe...

Oya..Like i said before, I will quote one of the scientist perspective from the interesting article. Enjoy it!

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Social psychologist Daniel Gilbert, who has spent the past few years studying the traits of human happiness, is of the belief that people in general have “inaccurate, flawed ideas” of what happiness is. Known to most of his Harvard students as Professor Happiness, Gilbert is the author of The New York Times’ best-seller, Stumbling on Happiness, in which he discusses at length the methods we apply in a bid to attain happiness. 

“The problem is in expectation,” says Gilbert, as quoted by the Times. “What we’ve been seeing in my lab, over and over again, is that people have an inability to predict what will make [them] happy — or unhappy … If you can’t tell which futures are better than others, it’s hard to find happiness.” 

More than that, the problem also lies in the way we perceive happiness. When we hear someone utter the words “I want to be happy” or “I deserve to be happy”, we immediately nod our heads in an agreement as though we knew exactly what was being said. However, the phrase “I want to be happy” suggests that happiness can be attained at will, or as if it were a place we could arrive in and leave behind whenever we pleased. 

“Few of us can accurately gauge how we will feel tomorrow or next week,” says Gilbert. “That’s why when you go to the supermarket on an empty stomach, you’ll buy too much; and if you shop after a big meal, you’ll buy too little.” 

And why the grass always seems to be greener on the other side. 

When our neighbors have a bigger house, fancier car, better job than we do, we readily assume they are happier than we are — at least, until we manage to get our hands on the biggest house, fanciest car and best job anyone can ever have; then the roles are reversed. 

Quoted from http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/09/30/the-price-happiness.html
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