While standing in line for a post-yoga treat at Jamba Juice, my co-worker and new yoga pal asked "What do you think is the difference between joy and happiness?" I thought we were about to get into a deep philosophical think session, prompted by the recent chanting. "I think" she continued "joy is innate but happiness is external, it's an expression." I had never really thought of it that way.
Our society is obsessed with happiness and have somehow been convinced that it's unnatural for us to be unhappy and it should be fixed, preferably with pills. I'm not really sure that it's realistic to expect happiness all the time. Every period of history is rife with tragedy, unhappiness, suicide and depression. Yet, it seems that each generation idealizes another era, somehow hoping that those people had happiness figured out.
In a recent conversation with a friend's teenage daughter, she stated that she would prefer to live in the 60's or any decade prior. I shared that I held the same sentiment as a teenager and believed that life was simpler then, less stressful and more innocent.
These days I hear lyrics that I didn't notice at that age, like The Beatles' 1965 hit "Run For Your Life," and realize it's never been true:
Well I'd rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man
You better keep your head, little girl
Or I won't know where I am
You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand little girl
Catch you with another man
That's the end little girl
Yikes! I replied to my yoga friend that I agreed. Joy IS innate and happiness is something people think we need to BECOME. Really what we should be doing is stripping away that which keeps up from being joyful. Greed, deceit, selfishness, hostility, over-indulgence and the stress caused by those things. It's like when you go on vacation or leave town; most of the reason we feel joy is not because of where we went but because of what we left behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment