Contentedness

[mdrnprometheus]

The other thing that recent NH trip taught me was a reminder in contentedness. I meet a lot of people on these trips. Some are friends or prior mentors who are well ahead of me in the tangibles -- money, houses, vacations, etc. Some are college students getting in a whole lot more "exploration" than I ever did. Some are new acquaintances doing

Comments

[beeporama]

At the very least, we can wire ourselves to find pleasure in different things. I'm with you: I spent a few years working my butt off to further my career, but I've hit a point where taking it further faster would require sacrifices that are not worth it. Money and prestige are nice; so are time, family, friends, and leisure.

Unfortunately I think that even if we are "wired for certain levels of happiness," we are also wired to covet more, and it's hard to manage that. I'm not sure I've figured out any secrets of life other than being aware of this tendency and trying not to let it control you. (We humans are full of base instincts that work against a happy, civilized society.)

[turnberryknkn]

(smile)

We have family who love us, friends who fill our lives with wonder and joy, and the chance to try to make life better for them all, through the work that we do.

And that's not even considering where your grandparents and my grandparents started out in the world, to where we, their grandsons, are now.

We *are* pretty lucky blokes, Alik. And we *do* have it pretty good. I'll toast that sentiment. :-)

[rebeccavich]

so if we're just wired for certain levels of happiness, what is the point of your job, then?

(it's confrontational rebecca week, sorry).

[mdrnprometheus]

Well, it's not making people happy. You can be miserable and still have absolutely no psychiatric illness. My job is solely to deal with the times when one leaves the realm of reasonable emotions and crosses into the your-brain-is-broken.

Mind you, just because we're wired to a certain endogenous level doens't mean that one couldn't in theory reset that level. It's just likely to be very difficult. Some forms of advanced psychoanalysis, or serious mindfulness practices, might get close.

[ottomatic02]

It's nice to have finally figured out what you need, rather than what you thought you were supposed to want, isn't it?

[mdrnprometheus]

Oh, I doubt I've gotten that far. I still want stuff I may never actually get. I just can deal with that fact better than I used to be able to.

[shmike95]

What a great sentiment. /applause

And well timed at that...from my perspective anyway.