There was a really interesting Diane Rehm show on this morning, and I actually got to listen to some of it! She was talking to Eric Weiner, an NPR foreign correspondent-turned-author about his book-- The Geography of Bliss. From the bits and pieces I could hear over H's nonstop babble and occasional screaming during lunch, it sounds like the book is about measuring happiness levels of people all around the world. I really want to read this book, but alas, as its publishing date is listed as today, the library does not have it yet!
The concept of this book is interesting to me- how do you measure happiness? The author was saying on the radio show that he has never been a particularly happy person. As a child, his favorite character in the Winnie the Pooh stories was, of course, Eeyore. He even joked about his last name being pronounced, oh so appropriately, whiner. But how do you know you're truly happy, or as the book description states, having moments of "un-unhappiness?"
I am a person who is all too aware of her emotions. Painfully aware. I worry about being worried too much, that kind of thing. Happiness has been fleeting for me at different times of my life. Depression is no stranger to me, and when coupled with its good buddy anxiety, it makes for a very downer time. Things have been better in the last few years, although this post-pregnancy period has had its moments that have been scary for me when I analyze my emotional state. So, the question of happiness is a difficult one for me. When I finally found a medication that brought me out of the dark depression a few years back, it was as if someone had opened the shades and turned on several lights all at the same time. I hadn't even realized how dark the room truly had been. If you wear contacts or glasses, it's like when you go too long between visits and the doctor puts that big funny lens contraption in front of your face and gives you new lenses to look through. Suddenly you're seeing farther and clearer than you had been, but you didn't even know you were seeing poorly. So is happiness like that- degrees of it, and you may not even be aware of higher points than you're at in the moment?
I think it's very easy for me to identify when I'm feeling irritated, annoyed, exhausted, angry, frustrated or just plain ticked off, than to acknowledge that I'm happy. I am that person that finds it challenging to just be in the moment- I'm always thinking of more things to do. I often find myself thinking, "I'll be so happy when..." When the baby sleeps in his own bed. When the house is clean. When the to do list is crossed off. But the thing is, there will always be another thing to wait for, another thing that is down the road. It's almost as if I'm delaying my happiness!
I plan to get this book, and maybe it will shed some light on how to recognize happiness. Or maybe it will tell me to move to Switzerland.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
