Thursday, November 7, 2013

If you could make any changes you wished that would make you happier, what would those be?

Besides the individual personal response (which can only be supplied by the asker of this question and/or the answerer), a psychologically sound answer would address the issues that were causing strife, conflict, or disharmony in the life of the responder. While the intuitive answer might suggest some addition – money, friends, opportunities, travel, etc. – the counterintuitive answer would ask for the removal of some impediment to happiness – a sickness, a rival, old age,...

Besides the individual personal response (which can only be supplied by the asker of this question and/or the answerer), a psychologically sound answer would address the issues that were causing strife, conflict, or disharmony in the life of the responder. While the intuitive answer might suggest some addition – money, friends, opportunities, travel, etc. – the counterintuitive answer would ask for the removal of some impediment to happiness – a sickness, a rival, old age, etc. There may be some universal desire built into humanity itself – absence of pain, survival tools, avoidance of death, etc. – and many people would want some altruistic change – good fortune for a friend, etc. Many might ask for the all-encompassing, such as "world peace" or "equality for all." The very phrase “make you happier” may often be more difficult to define than one would think. Finally, many psychologists will say that happiness is a state of mind entirely independent of outside change, but imbedded in the person’s attitude.  So you might say "The change that would make me happier is that I change my own attitude."

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