{"id":6345,"date":"2014-06-27T05:30:40","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T12:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellejolin.com\/wordpress\/?p=6345"},"modified":"2014-06-26T23:48:21","modified_gmt":"2014-06-27T06:48:21","slug":"how-to-measure-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=6345","title":{"rendered":"How to measure happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don’t you think it’s better to be extremely happy for a short while… than to be just okay for your whole life?
\n–Audrey Niffenegger\/the Time Traveler’s Wife<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s an important question, don’t you think? It’s a question that would determine a lot of things about how you live your life. Who you live with, what job you do, where you live, what sort of standard of living you have. Everything. <\/p>\n

Or is the question really if happiness is something for the privileged people to worry about?<\/p>\n

The cool thing is that we each have different things that make us happy. Some of us don’t even care about happiness in this life at all. Those of us who don’t believe in an afterlife think they are insane. <\/p>\n

And then, is happiness what it’s all really about?<\/p>\n

No, I’m not planning on answering any of these questions. Not right this minute. It’s not like I am any kind of expert on happiness, or anything really. <\/p>\n

I do think I am very lucky to have had at least one time in my life when I was perfectly happy. A fairly short time. Months, not quite years. And many times when I am fairly happy. I laugh a lot even when I am unhappy overall. <\/p>\n

Do I think that those brief, radiant times are better than a lifetime of being “just ok” though? <\/p>\n

How would I even go about deciding something like that?<\/p>\n

I know I wouldn’t trade that short time for anything, but in a way it also makes it harder. Maybe happiness like that sets a standard that can’t be maintained. Maybe not even matched. <\/p>\n

Maybe what is important isn’t happiness so much as serenity. <\/p>\n

Maybe this is such a First World problem that it makes me cringe a bit just thinking about it. <\/p>\n

Maybe I should just go to bed and try to sleep.
\nThis could be the night it happens.
\nI’ve always been a good sleeper. I just need to get my sleeping groove back. <\/p>\n

That. Would be happiness. <\/p>\n


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Don’t you think it’s better to be extremely happy for a short while… than to be just okay for your whole life? –Audrey Niffenegger\/the Time Traveler’s Wife It’s an important question, don’t you think? It’s a question that would determine a lot of things about how you live your life. Who you live with, what … Continue reading How to measure happiness<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/20140624-174657-64017215.jpg?fit=454%2C313&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7lr3R-1El","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8445,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=8445","url_meta":{"origin":6345,"position":0},"title":"On getting out of the happiness mafia","author":"Michelle","date":"December 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I can't tell one from the other I find you, or you find me? There was a time before we were born If someone asks, this is where I'll be, --Talking Heads\/This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) The Modern American World really wants us all to be happy. All\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5716,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=5716","url_meta":{"origin":6345,"position":1},"title":"The secret to happiness or indifference and why writers are screwed","author":"Michelle","date":"May 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The secret to happiness is letting everything be what it is instead of what you think it should be and accepting it. --Every Fucking Guru People who write are doomed to be unhappy because they think too much --the Daily Beast The happiness gurus say the secret to happiness is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/20140513-212504.jpg?fit=320%2C240&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11577,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=11577","url_meta":{"origin":6345,"position":2},"title":"Vicious circles with happiness","author":"Michelle","date":"May 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In much the same way that badness engenders more badness, happiness creates more happiness. ...and sex creates more sex. This is something I have been getting a lot of experience with lately. Sex or happiness? Never mind that. It's like a vicious circle, only it isn't vicious, it's happy. Well,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Random thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"Random thoughts","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=20"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6835,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=6835","url_meta":{"origin":6345,"position":3},"title":"Thinking yourself out of happiness","author":"Michelle","date":"August 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I think and think and think, I\u2018ve thought myself out of happiness one million times,but never once into it. --Jonathan Safran Foer Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so. --John Stuart Mill Be. Then, be happy. --Someone I used to know I became aware of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5458,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=5458","url_meta":{"origin":6345,"position":4},"title":"What I wonder about, wide awake 0200","author":"Michelle","date":"April 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Somehow, through the days I don't give in I hide the tears That wait within But then through sleepless nights I cry again --F. and B. Bryant\/Sleepless Nights Words. I wonder about words. Specifically: I wonder if there is a certain number of words that you have to know in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3482,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=3482","url_meta":{"origin":6345,"position":5},"title":"Being infected by joy","author":"Michelle","date":"January 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The other day in fat camp we were talking about the human tendency to focus on the negative, and some possible biological reasons for it. 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