Happiness, by Jeff Shirippa

Happiness

What does it mean to be happy? The dictionary defines it as “a state of well-being and contentment.” Doctors tell us that it is the effect a bunch of chemical compounds being released in your brain. Religious figures say happiness is the light of God. Romantics call it love; hippies will say peace and freedom & patriots define it as the “American Dream.” Regardless of what you call it, the pursuit of happiness is the one thing that every man, woman and child have in common.

When you were a kid, your every waking moment was consumed with extreme curiosity and happiness. The world was a never ending playground filled with unlimited opportunities to have fun with little or no consequences or worries to hold you back. As we get older and experience different levels of pain, disappointment and loss, our brain matures and alters the perception filters that keep us “safe” from the risk of being hurt (emotionally, physically and mentally). Essentially, our ability to live a happy life is being crippled by the natural evolution & physiological modifications that have been specifically designed to protect us. With that said, too many people have grown into adults who are accustomed to living a routinely mundane life. Surviving only by quenching their emotional thirst with a false sense of contentment while hiding it from themselves by being “too busy” to realize how fucking bland their precious and only life has become.

The real problem is that too many people don’t allow themselves to enjoy the pleasurable emotions that are presented every day. They go throughout their daily lives completely numb, unconsciously blocking out or not taking the time to enjoy the vast quantity of chances to stimulate our senses, mind and emotions. These opportunities can be daily occurrences or they can be once in a lifetime opportunities… If you are either too timid to take risks, too serious & sophisticated to laugh out loud and smile uncontrollably, too cool & reserved to display emotions & the worst of all –if you are too scared to put your guard down and explore happiness, you are going to miss out on the countless blessings life is blessing you with; As the old saying goes “It is better to have loved and lost then it is to have never loved at all.”

So what exactly happens when you are happy? Physiologically your brain releases a number of “positive” chemicals such as endorphins, serotonin, dopamine and others which react to and stimulate our brains neuron receptors. Physically these chemicals produce a feeling of euphoria and joy that rushes over your body like a refreshingly warm wave of ecstasy. Tingling warmth usually starts in the pit of your stomach & center of your chest quickly spreading throughout every molecule in the body. Sometimes this intense feeling can not be held in without bursting out in laugher, smiling so big that your cheeks actually get sore and at it’s most extreme point can even bring you to tears. Psychologically you start to interpret things in a more positive manner, seeing beauty and peace in areas/situations in which we would commonly look over. Even all aspects of time get completely distorted as each moment slows down to a crawl, all while hours turns to minutes and minutes turn to seconds.

Obviously there are going to be very special people, activities & memories in which will make you feel more alive than anything else. But your happiness shouldn’t just depend on the people you love, big events or an important day. Life is designed to be filled with happiness every day, every where, no matter what. Living a happy life is all about appreciating the little things that surround us everyday. A slightly different “outlook” is the only true variance between someone who will live a long happy life versus someone who will tragically die bitterly unsatisfied.

Happiness is more than just a simple emotion, it is the absolute best natural medicine known to mankind. Think of happiness as the only true antidote to stress - the acid that is corroding your mind, body and soul. When the mind and body are positively stimulated: our immune system is heavily strengthened, blood pressure lowers, the brain functions at optimum levels increasing our ability to learn and be creative & improved breathing patterns cleanses our system by allowing more oxygen into our blood. Basically, people who are frequently happy have been statistically proven to live longer healthier lives compared to others.

There are millions of “legal drugs” being pushed down peoples throats by corrupt doctors prescribing addictive and poisonous “treatment pills” because it will produce profit for their practice and the greedy pharmaceutical corporations. Regardless what these bastards say, blurring out your daily discontent with any type of alcohol & drugs (legal or illegal), will only make matters worse in the long run. These activities will further deepen and prolong your unbalance. Why bother making real positive changes to your outlook and wellbeing by examining/exposing yourself to the reality of your displeasure when you can instantly (& temporarily) elevate your emptiness by popping a pill, jamming powder up your nose, smoking a blunt, or pounding some booz ?? Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with partying (we all know I love to party), but you can not rely on it as a crutch. When “stimulants” are used as a crutch for too long you will eventually find yourself too weak & distorted to happily walk on your own.

Luckily we don’t need to utilize drugs and alcohol as a crutch. The “Facial Feedback Hypothesis” concluded that your facial expressions have a direct impact on your emotions, basically saying: lead the body and your mind and emotions will follow. Rockin a big smile has the proven ability to reduce stress and drastically increase your emotional wellbeing and mental peace. The human brain links memories and happiness to the stimulation of our body/senses and mind. This is why specific facial expressions, music & sounds, smell, touch, taste & visual images (such as the beach, Christmas music, physical activities/expressions, the scent of a loved one, etc.), can spark a happy memory in the depth of your brain, unconsciously enhancing your mood in an instance. So, if we know what people and things make us happy there is no need to rely on drugs. All ya gotta do is make the active decision to fill your life with the people and things that make you happy…

About nine years ago I was kruizin on the highway listening to Bob Marley, sipping my morning coffee, bitterly enjoying a summer sunrise as I mentally prepared myself for another full day of intense manual labor in a sweat shop… Out of the corner of my eye I saw an 18 wheeler swerving across the road coming straight for me. With out any time to think, the moment before impact I jammed on the brakes and swerved away narrowly avoiding a 70mph collision. Unfortunately I was left skidding at top speed across four lanes of traffic before hitting the guard rail head on… Once the initial “holy shit!! daze” faded, I sat in my completely demolished car on the side of the highway with my brain racing in a million different directions, my heart rapidly pounding, trying to rationalize how amazingly close I just came to death. As the initial fear and panic subdued, I found myself in a state of tranquil happiness. My shoulder was sore, my eyes were burning like hell from the airbag powder, yet I couldn’t have possibly been happier. I vividly remember feeling so happy for my safety I couldn’t refrain from laughing aloud as I started shedding my first tears of joy.

I look back at that specific moment in time and realize how uncommon it is for us to let go of our current circumstances and allow ourselves to experience such a beautiful moment. That day, I was sitting in a crushed car, filled with smoke, no one around to help me, yet I embraced my emotions rather than overanalyzing them. Today I realize how tamed we have all been conditioned to be. People don’t smile all the time because they are suffocating in their own inner tension brought on by suppressed emotions. We all do it whether we realize it or not; we hold in laugher, pretend not to be hurt, fight off a smile by keeping a straight face, we even refrain from holding eye contact with people in order to hide our deep emotions.

The other day I asked a friend “Aside from work and your family, what makes you happy on a daily basis?” After a brief pause I sadly watched her struggle to produce more than a couple answers…. So why is it that such an easy question can provoke such mental discourse in most people? I think the main problem is that we accept and have surrounded our lives with things that are nothing more than “tolerable” rather than focusing our energy solely on what we find enjoyable. Truth is that we are so damn complacent that it’s hard to judge our routine-ridden life in terms of true happiness. Only when things become “intolerable” do we look to enhance our “wellbeing”. Once you reach that painful extreme it is all too easy to be brought back to our own commonly comfortable life of mediocrity... Becoming a happier person means you need to reconfigure your (mental, physical & emotional) outlook, filters and perceptions by acknowledging & appreciating every single fucking thing that is in your life and everything (& opportunities) else that the future holds.

I personally know exactly what makes me happy: family, music, friends, lifting weights, laughing all the time, reading, chillin with Spaz, writing, drawing, work, playing guitar, animals, nature, and the one thing that constantly makes me happier than anything else (on a daily basis) is making other people happy. More so, I concluded that the reason I am always happy is not due to some weird chemical imbalance (which is still up for debate), it is because I go out of my way to surround myself with happy people (or make them happy) while not only thinking about, but actually enjoying & being grateful for everything that surrounds my day.

If you can’t come up with at least a handful of things that make you happy on an average day there is one of two things in which NEED to happen. You either need to really start thinking about, taking notice of and utilizing everything which is currently being undervalued and lost; or you need to completely change the way you live your life… It breaks down to a simple choice: You can willingly turn a blind eye & live an emotionally depraved existence; or you can choose to take a “leap of faith” & embrace the big things (family, love, friends, work) and fill your void by appreciating all the little things that make up every single happy day in your fulfilled life.

Happiness is not just a state of wellbeing and contentment; it is a state of mind that’s governed by our senses. Therefore we can all be happy, all the time, by understanding that the mind controls the body while the body leads the mind. We’ll start off with the simple task of instructing our brain to pump out some chemical compounds by producing a nice big smile. Then we’ll allow ourselves to enjoy the ecstasy and soothing warmth given by the light of God, all while appreciating & utilizing the Freedom we have to dictate our own life & perception/pursuit of the American dream. Finally it will all come to a pinnacle where we will find peace in our soul from constant laugher and Love in our hearts by passionately embracing all those you truly care for.

Similar to what they say in Vegas “You can’t win if you don’t play.”
In life, “You will lose if you don’t play.”

Now get your timid ass up and go play!