I passed some people the other day in a local park. Something was uproariously funny for they were laughing to a point of guffawing: it was truly wonderful to see. I reflected on how long it had been since I had seen such a non-rehearsed scene: a very, very long time – perhaps never. It would appear that one of our basic tenets of being human – happiness — is not present throughout much of the average person’s life, Why, I wondered? I proceeded down the path. There it was: the answer.

A young mother was admonishing her child about something – for whatever reason. She was literally screaming at the child who was quite obviously in a state of shock and sobbing in a most pitiful way. The answer to my question: training. From a very early age, we are trained not to be happy. To make matters even more dire, we are shown that unhappiness is the norm; joy and happiness are exceptions.

Now, standing back from this, you would have to remark, “Come on: how is this possible that sensitive, caring, and loving beings are mostly unhappy?” There is the rationale, once again: work. I must work on my life to open the door to my true happiness. To make it additionally problematic: from the time we can remember, our original sentient moments are associated more with pain than with pleasure. When we are very young, into adolescence, we can do little about the exterior stimuli for we do not consciously know that we are even alive. This realization changes, however, at about twenty years of age. The “floodgates” (1) of fear and trepidation open: “Will I finish my schooling?” “Will I get a good job?” “Will I meet Mr. or Mrs. Right?” “Will I be rich?” The questions and the self-doubt are only amplified with the passage of each moment of time. We are quite literally inculcated with dread.

And, no one tells us the truth: all power lies within. We are our own God-inspired, nuclear reactor: I take in the world through my five senses – the senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. My six sense: my connectivity with the universe and infinity is, quietly sadly, accessed by very few. People are less and less interested in the power of prayer in this “age of the cell phone” with its instant pleasure and gratification.

Still, with the realization of the power of my five senses, I can acknowledge that I control how I feel and how I react. When “I” am unhappy, for whatever reason, I have accepted the outside influences that are now making me despondent. To be fair, this concept is very easy to say and yet stunningly hard to accept as real. I am too old to be naïve; you do not take a lifetime of education away from a person, a collective or a society in an instant. Nonetheless, we must slowly uncover the self and give ourselves the power that we deserve.

Try an experiment: the next time you feel profoundly “blue,” reflect on your moments of happiness, be it if they are romantic, physical or philosophical.  Within the space of half an hour, or so, your mood will begin to change. This is because you have self-medicated yourself, so to speak, with Dopamine, (2) a natural opiate. The poet, Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) leaves us with her poem:

  Solitude

  Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

  Weep, and you weep alone;

  For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,

  But has trouble enough of its own.

  Sing, and the hills will answer;

  Sigh, it is lost on the air;

  The echoes bound to a joyful sound,

  But shrink from voicing care.

  Rejoice, and men will seek you;

  Grieve, and they turn and go;

  They want full measure of all your pleasure,

  But they do not need your woe.

  Be glad, and your friends are many;

  Be sad, and you lose them all,—

  There are none to decline your nectared wine,

  But alone you must drink life’s gall.

  Feast, and your halls are crowded;

  Fast, and the world goes by.

  Succeed and give, and it helps you live,

  But no man can help you die.

  There is room in the halls of pleasure

  For a large and lordly train,

  But one by one we must all file on

  Through the narrow aisles of pain. (3)

A closing thought: We are all born with four natural traits: we are naturally happy, we are naturally peaceful, we naturally exist in a state of love, and we are naturally seeking to improve ourselves and the world at large. If any one of these four is out of alignment, we are distressed. I think that few could say they have even one maximized to its full potential. This is why it is such fun to be alive: we have so much work to do and only one lifetime: let us get to work!

To sum up: This week we spoke about happiness and how to access it in life. We said that work is a necessary component of all self-development. We concluded that life is fun and exciting – but work!

Just for fun – Shawn Mendes

A philosophical question: When I say, “I must get up on Monday and go to work!” don’t I realize that that is not true? I have 100% free will so I don’t have to do anything. It is quite simply “me” making me go to work, is it not?

This week, please reflect on the last time you were truly happy: what did it feel like?

  Every day look for something magical and beautiful.

Quote: I must realize that when I woke up this morning, “I” woke up. I knew it was me because of my memories of yesterday. I must thank God and the universe for giving me one more day of consciousness. People often forget that when they die, they are not simply dead, they are not.