Happiness, Utopia or Necessity?
The 1950s hijacking of happiness
Greetings to all,
What is happiness?
Wikipedia defines it this way: “Happiness is a positive and pleasant emotion, ranging from contentment to intense joy. Moments of happiness may be triggered by positive life experiences or thoughts, but sometimes it may arise from no obvious cause. The level of happiness for longer periods of time is more strongly correlated with levels of life satisfaction, subjective well-being, flourishing and eudaimonia (good spirit, highest human good).”
To me, happiness is (or became) a decision, a choice. People can experience happiness even when they are stuck in difficult situations. It’s a state of being.
Many years ago, I decided that I wanted health and happiness in my life. Anything that did not fall in the “health and happiness” category had to be worked on and eliminated. I thus learned a lot of strategies and techniques that helped me to regain my health (I had been bedridden), and get out of the depression I had fallen into.
A key component of happiness is knowing Who You Truly Are, i.e. to remove the masks that we may feel obligated to wear, and to return to our authentic self. Below is a diagram of the journey many of my clients take.
Is it important to find out Who We Truly Are and live an authentic life? More and more research demonstrates that many diseases, especially cancer, are linked to our deviation from our authenticity. We experience emotions that we do not process and, little by little, we cover up our uniqueness to conform to the world we live in, as it seems to be a safer alternative at the time. It may work in the short term, maybe, but not in the long term.
Contact me if you would like to chat about how to recover your authenticity. We will have a complimentary and confidential conversation and look for a solution for your particular challenge.
I’ve known Dr. Gruder for many years. It’s thanks to him that I discovered the Tapping Techniques, which changed my life and which I’ve been teaching since 1999.
He had an excellent Ted Talk a few years ago, and here is an updated interview on Rumble, where he talks about the hijacking of happiness in 1950. The meaning of what it means to be happy changed at that time in the US, then around the world.
In my last Substack, I spoke about grieving. For me it was grieving the loss of my mother, which was pretty intense. One of my mentors reminded me about a Jin Shin Jyutsu technique which consists of holding a finger with the other hand, for grief, it’s the ring finger, until you feel a pulsation in the finger and the hand.
For other emotions, check the picture below. It’s also very useful to squeeze one finger after another before falling asleep or if you suffer from insomnia.
Do it… it can do no harm.
As always,
LIVE with PASSION, PURPOSE and DELIGHT!
Danielle