Nickyitis – An Epidemic of Humorous Proportions

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Aristotle

He beat Dale Carnegie by a couple of millenia! And Eleanor Roosevelt, with her "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent," was merely presenting a variation on old Aristotle’s theme. Of course, Aristotle may have gotten it from some Sumerian – we’ll never know for sure. But, whether completely original or not, it’s pithy and totally, totally correct. Happiness is a state of mind and the mind involved is our own. Ultimately it’s up to ourselves to be happy (or not). Put two people in a rain shower and it’s very possible we’ll see one sprinting for shelter while the other kicks up his heels and starts singing in the rain.

I used to think that Aristotle was making a trite observation and one that didn’t really make sense. After all, if bad things happen that you can’t avoid, how can you be happy about it? And the key is, you won’t usually be happy when things go wrong but you CAN realize that oftentimes things that seem bad at first ultimately turn out to be positive. It’s happened in the past and so it will continue to happen in the future. Examples are all around of people who were fired from their job (bad) but ended up with a better one (good).

Beyond that, it’s become clear to me over the years that some people are happy with just a little and some are relentlessly unhappy with a lot. So the key isn’t having "stuff," clearly. What distinguishes the two is an internal attitude. If you feel happy, you ARE happy. I even believe research has shown that the mere act of telling yourself you’re happy acts to actually increase your level of happiness. Self-brainwashing, as it were.

So what if you don’t happen to feel happy? Well, what I try and do (and I’m not a trained happiologist so what works for me may not work for everyone) is to try and find a good spin on whatever is happening. Essentially I try to reorient my attitude into a positive one. Things are bad? They’ll get better. I failed at my latest endeavor? Opportunity for growth. It’s all about how I view and react to life, not what life does to me. Just as Aristotle said.

- And that’s today’s word from the bird