Project Creative Vision

Happiness Found at Intersection of Pleasure and Meaning

Positive psychology has been on my radar screen for a while, and with my focus on purposeful careers it was probably only a matter of time before I finally delved into it.

Until now, I tended to lose interest in positive psychology because so many of its conclusions seemed like science catching up to something that spiritual traditions the world over have known for thousands of years. Its prescriptions sound like a mix of Buddhist and yogic philosophy, suggesting self-awareness and mindful action as the first steps toward happiness and fulfillment. 

On the other hand, not everyone is willing to take spiritual teachers at their word, and in the meantime, we as a society are getting increasingly more unhappy.  So any help in convincing people that happiness is in their own hands can only be welcome.  (One of positive psych's recent findings, reported in Sonja Lubomirsky's The How of Happines, is that, while 50 percent of our happiness depends on our individual
"happiness set-point" and 10 percent can be attributed to circumstances outside our control, we individually are responsible for 40 percent of our sense of well-being.)

A Long, Long Road...

You know that old saying about old habits dying hard? It's even more true with habits of the mind, and I marvel at it every time some mental habit I thought I'd kicked for good resurfaces with a vengeance. 

I'm reminded of it, for example, every Sunday night, when the usual pre-Monday morning blues washes over me.  You know - the blues about dragging myself out of bed in the morning and getting ready to go to the office. The blues about joining the commuter crowd of despairing masses fueling themselves with caffeine in the packed Metro cars...  The blues about the prospect of walking into the faceless office building and facing a mountain of tedious work...