Professor Bonja Lyubomisky's " Is It Possible to Become Lastingly Happier? : The Scientific Pursuit of Happiness" (Psychologytoday.com, Apr. 27, 1008) is a very good article. It explains how to be happy specifically and clearly.
However, as a layman in psychology, I would like to write a shorter one by means of our everyday common sense. Let's hope it will be easy to understand and simple to remember:
Goal of Life
Obviously, the goal of human life is to propagate offspring or keep DNA alive. (Re #1)
What's Happiness?
Apparently, happiness is the momentarily feeling of things beinga step betterfor propagating offspring. This is the very reason that human can survive. (Re #1)
How to Be Happy?
Easy! Do simply on instinct (or up to 10,000-years-ago norm) the things that makea step betterfor propagating our offspring, including following:
(1) Eat ---- (Living cells, Re #1,2,4)
(2) Drink ---- (Mostly living cell water, Re #1,2,4)
(3) Wear ---- (For protection, Re #1,2,5)
(4) Dwell ---- (Close to conditions 10,000 years ago, Re #1,2,6)
(5) Sleep ---- (12 hours a night, Re #1)
(6) Exercise ---- (Like a gather-hunter, Re #1,7)
(7) Act symbiotically (Re #1)
- Love ---- (strengthen symbiotic group)
a) Form or expand family ---- (the closest symbionts for keeping DNA alive)
b) Make friends，help others, be generous, practice charity, be patriotic,
and be green ---- (make wider symbionts)
- Be moral ---- (rules of symbiosis)
- Be brave, confident and optimistic (positive psychology) ---- (benefiting
both individual and symbiotic group)
(8) Meditate ---- (mostly resulting good ideas for propagating offspring. It gives us hope, which benefits our propagation of offspring and thus makes us happy.)
(9) Create ---- (mostly make something good for propagating offspring. It is "engagement" or "flow".)
10,000-Years-Ago Norm
In addition, the most important determinant for happiness is the10,000-Years-Ago Norm. It will make us content with our present lot because most of us have far more than what we really need by the norm. (Re #1)
It means what we diligently pursue hard is actually the invalid happiness without substantially profits for us as well as our offspring. (Re #3,)
Reprogram Instinct
This pursuit of invalid happiness is due to the new conditions today, which are out of the effective scope of our instincts. Hence, we need reprogram it. To reprogram it is easy but takes time; it just needs repeat what mentioned above enough times. Then, we will have the unconsciousness we want, though it can not be passed to our offspring yet. Let call it pre-instincts. (Re #8)
Conclusion
To become lasting happier is easy as far as we know the 10,000-years-ago norm and stick to it.
.References:#1. W. Ying,articlesbasee.com, "Happy Life, Instincts, Wisdom, and Human Computer System." #2.ibid, "Valid Happiness, Instinct and Wisdom." #3.ibid, " Competing Instinct-Blindly or Instinct-Wisely?" #4.ibid, "Delicious Taste, Health, Instinct and Wisdom." #5.ibid, " Our Clothing Makes Invalid Happiness Mostly." #6.ibid, " The Harmful Invalid Factors of Our Living House: Not 100% Natural Air, Inadequate Real Sun light, and Imperfect Peaceful Darkness, Etc." #7.ibid, " Exercise at Optimal Point, Health, Instinct and Wisdom." #8.ibid, " Greed and Reprogram Instinct: On Robert J. Samuelson's 'the Perils of Prosperity'."
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