It has been a long time since I’ve written about a non-scriptural subject. In fact, in reviewing my over 250 posts, only 21% of them have been on other subjects. Due to recent conversations with a gent who feels unfulfilled and frustrated in life and finding a TED video that I hoped would encourage him, I felt it was time to capture something that I sense many more people could benefit from.
I have had thoughts like the following floating around in my consciousness for a while but I was never able to word them as beautifully as I felt the man in the following video did. His name is Shawn Achor and he is a research psychologist with a fantastic idea regarding pleasure vs. happiness, joy, positivity and mindfulness. Here is the link to his presentation. In addition, although he does repeat himself in this discussion group at Google, he does have some “fresh material” and there are other insights that you’ll enjoy.
I originally found the TED video while reading an article on Time.com. The title is: How to Make Your Mind Happy: 5 Secrets to Mindfulness. The article is full of links to other excellent articles including the aforementioned TED video. Taking all of the foregoing together, it brings me back to the title of my article. True happiness is indeed a journey through life, it is not a goal or destination. It reminds me of something I heard years ago -- in any actual trip we take, at least half of the joy is getting there. Indeed, if we view only the goal as being the joy, then we will tend to view the journey as a necessary evil when in fact it can be part of the experience that is very memorable. Perhaps you remember as a child the games that our parents would engage us in such as counting all the out-of-state license plates on cars, or getting truck drivers to honk their horns, or any other myriads of things to keep our minds engaged and active.
The same goes with our journey through life. Too many people live for a goal only to experience disappointment or having to set a new goal and never experiencing the joy of the ride. But this is covered excellently by Shawn. Please see the videos.
I have had thoughts like the following floating around in my consciousness for a while but I was never able to word them as beautifully as I felt the man in the following video did. His name is Shawn Achor and he is a research psychologist with a fantastic idea regarding pleasure vs. happiness, joy, positivity and mindfulness. Here is the link to his presentation. In addition, although he does repeat himself in this discussion group at Google, he does have some “fresh material” and there are other insights that you’ll enjoy.
I originally found the TED video while reading an article on Time.com. The title is: How to Make Your Mind Happy: 5 Secrets to Mindfulness. The article is full of links to other excellent articles including the aforementioned TED video. Taking all of the foregoing together, it brings me back to the title of my article. True happiness is indeed a journey through life, it is not a goal or destination. It reminds me of something I heard years ago -- in any actual trip we take, at least half of the joy is getting there. Indeed, if we view only the goal as being the joy, then we will tend to view the journey as a necessary evil when in fact it can be part of the experience that is very memorable. Perhaps you remember as a child the games that our parents would engage us in such as counting all the out-of-state license plates on cars, or getting truck drivers to honk their horns, or any other myriads of things to keep our minds engaged and active.
The same goes with our journey through life. Too many people live for a goal only to experience disappointment or having to set a new goal and never experiencing the joy of the ride. But this is covered excellently by Shawn. Please see the videos.
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