| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Eris" |
| Date: |
11 Sep 2005 11:07:55 PM |
| Object: |
O.T. I choose to be happy? |
Someone said to me that their mother was addicted to alcohol and
drugs, but she (still living at home ) chose to be happy.
If you are happy, you do not have to choose anything.
If you are unhappy then you cannot possibly choose to be happy. Can
you?
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| User: "Peacenik" |
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| Title: Re: O.T. I choose to be happy? |
12 Sep 2005 01:29:46 PM |
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"Eris" <vithant@nospamgmail.com> wrote in message
news:o1e9i19h6i7ifnmd178f8u18sqm18k5not@4ax.com...
Someone said to me that their mother was addicted to alcohol and
drugs, but she (still living at home ) chose to be happy.
If you are happy, you do not have to choose anything.
If you are unhappy then you cannot possibly choose to be happy. Can
you?
Yes, of course you can choose to be happy. You can also choose to be
miserable. I prefer the former, myself.
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| User: "Elf M. Sternberg" |
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| Title: Re: O.T. I choose to be happy? |
12 Sep 2005 03:30:13 PM |
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Eris <vithant@nospamgmail.com> writes:
If you are happy, you do not have to choose anything. If you are
unhappy then you cannot possibly choose to be happy. Can you?
Maybe you can't choose to be happy, but you can choose to stop
doing those things that make you unhappy. You can choose to dump the
miserable girlfriend, the shitty job, the lousy nightlife. Admittedly,
people who are unhappy are probably unwilling to do the kinds of things
that help them do such things, like keep a utilitarian journal and go
back and review it.
Eventually, you can find what makes you happy and live with it.
Of course, 80% of anyone's day is filled with ordinary scut; if the rest
isn't enough, maybe Prozac will help.
Elf
--
Elf M. Sternberg, Immanentizing the Eschaton since 1988
http://www.drizzle.com/~elf
"You know how some people treat their body like a temple?
I treat mine like issa amusement park!" - Kei
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| User: "Eris" |
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| Title: Re: O.T. I choose to be happy? |
13 Sep 2005 06:31:30 PM |
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On 12 Sep 2005 08:30:13 -0700, "Elf M. Sternberg" <elf@drizzle.com>
wrote:
Eris <vithant@nospamgmail.com> writes:
If you are happy, you do not have to choose anything. If you are
unhappy then you cannot possibly choose to be happy. Can you?
Maybe you can't choose to be happy, but you can choose to stop
doing those things that make you unhappy. You can choose to dump the
miserable girlfriend, the shitty job, the lousy nightlife. Admittedly,
people who are unhappy are probably unwilling to do the kinds of things
that help them do such things, like keep a utilitarian journal and go
back and review it.
Eventually, you can find what makes you happy and live with it.
Of course, 80% of anyone's day is filled with ordinary scut; if the rest
isn't enough, maybe Prozac will help.
Elf
Zoloft 1 gram
Don't say damn, take a gram
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| User: "Michael Gray" |
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| Title: Re: O.T. I choose to be happy? |
11 Sep 2005 11:52:31 PM |
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On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 19:07:55 -0400, Eris <vithant@nospamgmail.com>
wrote:
Someone said to me that their mother was addicted to alcohol and
drugs, but she (still living at home ) chose to be happy.
If you are happy, you do not have to choose anything.
If you are unhappy then you cannot possibly choose to be happy. Can
you?
Yes.
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| User: "LP" |
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| Title: Re: O.T. I choose to be happy? |
12 Sep 2005 04:53:27 AM |
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On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 19:07:55 -0400, Eris <vithant@nospamgmail.com>
wrote:
Someone said to me that their mother was addicted to alcohol and
drugs, but she (still living at home ) chose to be happy.
If you are happy, you do not have to choose anything.
If you are unhappy then you cannot possibly choose to be happy. Can
you?
You choose how you look at life. Within limits, your choice determines
how happy you will be for any given situation.
There are those who have chosen NOT to be happy. The first step in
making this choice is to decide that it is not possible to choose to
be happy.
"Practiced consistently, self-responsibility implies my willingness to
be accountable for the ideas and values by which I conduct my life.
This entails intellectual independence: the willingness to think for
myself and act by the judgment of my own mind. I learn from others,
to be sure, but I do not grant to others authority over my
consciousness or follow blindly where I do not understand or agree. I
do not live secondhand. If I accept the principle of
self-responsibility I recognize that the achievement of my happiness
is no one's task but my own. No one owes me happiness. In a love
relationship I want the opportunity to share my happiness, not find
someone who will "make" me happy. Just as no one can make me happy,
no one can give me self-esteem. That, too, is my responsibility. In
sum, I am responsible for my life, well-being, and actions in all
those areas and issues open to my choice." - Nathaniel Brandon
"Whenever we see men and women of high self-esteem, we see a high
commitment to awareness as a way of life. They live mindfully. They
are concerned to know what they are doing when they act, to understand
themselves and the world around them - including the feedback they
receive, which informs them whether they are on- or off-course with
regard to their goals and purposes. The beginning of self-assertion is
the assertion of consciousness itself, the act of seeing and of
seeking to grasp that which we see, of hearing and of seeking to grasp
that which we hear - or responding to life actively rather than
passively. This is the foundation of good self-esteem." - Nathaniel
Brandon
"Anyone who out of the goodness of his heart speaks a helpful word,
gives a cheering smile, or smoothes over a rough place in another’s
path knows that the delight he feels is so intimate a part of himself
that he lives by it. The joy of surmounting obstacles which once
seemed unremovable, and pushing the frontier of accomplishment
further--what joy is there like unto it? If those who seek happiness
would stop one little minute and think, they would see that the
delights they already experience are as countless as the grasses at
their feet, or the dewdrops sparkling upon the morning flowers." -
Hellen Keller
"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it
today." -- Abraham Lincoln
One of the most important ingredients in your personal development is
taking real responsibility for your actions. This requires that you
consciously become the cause of the results that you want. Refuse to
behave like a victim … or to wait for someone to save you from life’s
problems. - Nathaniel Brandon
Article by Nathaniel Brandon on self-esteem
http://www.nathanielbranden.com/catalog/articles.php?tPath=1#
Do a search on google for, "choose to be happy", and you will find
many books on the subject, a few of which have credible advice on the
subject.
As with the books, here are many article on the subject, some are
good, some are not so good:
http://www.sap-basis-abap.com/motivation/
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| User: "Liz" |
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| Title: Re: O.T. I choose to be happy? |
12 Sep 2005 11:02:11 AM |
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On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 19:07:55 -0400, Eris <vithant@nospamgmail.com> in
news message <o1e9i19h6i7ifnmd178f8u18sqm18k5not@4ax.com> wrote:
Someone said to me that their mother was addicted to alcohol and
drugs, but she (still living at home ) chose to be happy.
If you are happy, you do not have to choose anything.
If you are unhappy then you cannot possibly choose to be happy. Can
you?
Yes. Your state of mind, your reaction to the circumstances of your
life, is the one thing you can consciously and effectively chose.
Your friend can not change her mother, but she can choose to change
her reaction to her mother. She does not need to act like a victim of
her situation. She can seek the things that add to her happiness in
spite of her mother, or she can wallow in hopeless misery. She is to
be commended for choosing the former.
Liz #658 BAAWA
It's an incredible con job when you think about it, to
believe in something now in exchange for something after
death. Even corporations with their reward systems don't
try to make it posthumous. -- Gloria Steinem
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