Happiness

 

 (this certainly brings me happiness!)

The topic of happiness fascinates me.  A couple of years ago I read a number of books on the science of happiness, sometimes called positive psychology. I was fascinated to see how the things that the Lord asks us to do actually scientifically contribute to an increase of happiness in our lives.  (And then I persuaded Ken to let me give a talk about that in church, which of course was awesome!)  

Last week I was reading through the new Reader's Digest and came upon this paragraph from a book description.  

Happiness is a tricky word because it is not a destination you arrive at or a sustainable state of being.  It's a feeling that you experience, just like any other, and it comes and goes.  You can generate it, but you can't keep it; you can make it, but not necessarily hold on to it...

and then the part that really stood out to me,  

The unhappy woman believes she should be happy all the time.  The happy woman believes that there will be times when she is unhappy.

I've just started a new happiness book; it's called The Happiness Hypothesis.  It has some fascinating things to say already about new understandings of the way the brain works and what that means about happiness.  Maybe I'll blog about that more later.  For now, though, I'm going to be thinking about this..,

The unhappy woman believes she should be happy all the time.  The happy woman believes that there will be times when she is unhappy.