X-Message-Number: 15893 Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 11:38:25 -0800 (PST) From: Scott Badger <> Subject: Re: Happiness Some selective thoughts on Happiness which I have shamelessly copied from the internet. According to the Dalai Lama - There are three legs to the stool called happiness: Peace, Passion, and Compassion. According to Carl Rogers The ideal human condition is embodied in the "fully functioning person" who is open to experience, able to live existentially, is trusting in his/her own organism, expresses feelings freely, acts independently, is creative and lives a richer life; "the good life" (Rogers, 1961). It should be noted that; "The good life is a process not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination (Rogers, 1961, p.186)". The needs for unconditional positive regard from others and positive self-regard must match organismic evaluation so there is congruence between self and experience. According to Albert Ellis - Unhealthy emotions are not caused by the bad things that happen to us. They are caused by the irrational thoughts we have about those events. Rigid beliefs -- that the world should be a certain way -- such as "I should have supportive friends" or "I absolutely shouldn't have all this pressure at work" -- are often at the root of emotional problems. They lead to three kinds of irrational thought pattern. The first is a low tolerance of frustration -- the irrational tendency to believe any event that turns out to be inconvenient for us should not have happened. The second thought pattern, known as "awfulising", is the belief that some events are so terrible that they cannot be countenanced; they simply should not happen. Finally, there are thought patterns that lead us to condemn ourselves or others, such as the view that if I lose my job I am worthless. These patterns are irrational because they make demands about events outside our control. They are self-defeating because they make it impossible for us to do anything about a bad situation except be anxious that it might happen or depressed if it already has. According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Flow describe his observations of humans happiest states. Flow he says is more or less being heavily involved in an activity - be it work, a hobby, sex, music etc. - in which you've tuned out to everything else. It s a sort of zen-like living in the present through immersion in a desired action. One key ingredient of flow is a challenge that can be reasonably responded to with existing resources. That tells us that it is important, if we are going to achieve Flow States, to challenge ourselves regularly. According to that singer whose name I can t remember - Don t worry, be happy. Best regards, Scott Badger :-) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15893