ESSAY 3. SELF-LIBERATION
AND FOCUS ON HAPPINESS AND SATISFACTION
When you have developed the thinking and memory skills necessary to evaluate the mixture of electro-chemical signals that are transmitted by your hormones that are flowing in your blood veins and vessels and the electrical impulses that are traveling with lightning speed up and down your spine and in and out of your brain, you will be able to create more meaningful goals and achieve more meaningful productive plans.
Healthy habits are essential for a happy lifetime of satisfying relationships and creative solutions to life's problems. Your new brainpower knowledge will permit you to change your goals and plans so they will be more compatible with your new values and assumptions. A good working definition of happiness is contained in the following quote from the famous author, philosopher, and feminist Ayn Rand The quotations were found on Dr. Ellen Kenner's website by googling "A Rational View of Happiness:"
"Happiness is not the satisfaction of whatever irrational wishes you might blindly attempt to enjoy. Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy --- a joy without penalty or guilt."
"Happiness is possible only to a rational person, the person who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values, and finds his [or her] joy in nothing but rational actions."
"There are no victims and no conflicts of interest among rational people, people who do not desire the unearned."
A broader description of the concept of happiness can also be found on the internet on Dr. Ellen Kenner's website when she answered the question: What is Happiness?
"Happiness is an emotion. So is sadness, love, hate, curiosity, revulsion, excitement, jealousy, contentment, depression, anxiety, fear, guilt and anger. All emotions have causes that can be understood and controlled. The emotion of happiness is not caused simply by concentrating on achieving your whims. Whims are an obstacle to happiness. Happiness is not merely a life lived by accumulating moments of pleasure. On the contrary, happiness is a long lasting enduring enjoyment of life, it is being in love with living. It is your reward for achieving a good character and personal rational values in life."
"Some important values are a productive career, romance, friendship and hobbies. Achieving these values requires rationality and takes effort and skill. Two types of skills you can use are thinking skills and valuing skills. Once you learn to have confidence in your own mind and once you discover the virtues [namely, good thinking and feeling habits] that make it possible for you to achieve your values and that make your life worth living, then you will experience the result, which is an earned pride and a genuine self-esteem."
The following quick links refer to book outlines and excerpts about authentic happiness and lasting satisfaction, which both require the experience of being free to choose your own behavior. They illustrate the combination of "intellect and intuition" or sound practical, natural judgment based on the scientific values and assumptions that are the "factual evidence" discovered by the new brain science research in recent years:
Book Source: Authentic Happiness
Book Source: The Secrets of Happiness
Three Thousand Years of Searching for the Good Life
Book Source: It's All in Your Head ---
Thinking Your Way to Happiness
Book Source: Happiness ---
How to Find It and Keep It
Book Source: Happiness ---
Lessons from a New Science
Book Source: Neural Path Therapy ---
How to Change Your Brain's Response to Anger, Fear, Pain, & Desire
Book Source: The Happiness Hypothesis
Book Source: Happiness is a Choice
Book Source: The Happy Person
Book Source: Happiness ---
the Science Behind Your Smile
Book Source: Stumbling on Happiness
Book Source: Satisfaction ---
the Science of Finding True Fulfillment
Book Source: Excuse Me! ---
Your Life is Waiting --- the Astonishing Power of Feelings
Book Source: The One Who is Not Busy
Of all the hundreds of good books, magazines, and journals with stories about how to achieve authentic happiness and lasting satisfaction, the simple straightforward advice in the book, The Happy Person, clarifies important commonsense ideas that you can use to achieve authentic happiness and stay satisfied. This way of thinking is a process known as "Direct Decision Therapy", summarized as follows:
[1] Decide WHAT you want in order to be happy --- or happier!
[2] Find the decision BEHIND the problem
[3] Find the CONTEXT for the original decision
[4] List the PAYOFFS for the decision
[5] Examine your ALTERNATIVES to the behavior that is causing the problem
[6] CHOOSE your alternative and DECIDE to put it into practice
[7] SUPPORT your SELF in carrying out your decision
In addition, you can take advantage of another simple way of thinking from the book, It's All in Your Head, when you begin thinking about your philosophy of happiness. Happiness is not the supreme goal of life in itself. But it is the essential by-product of all rational humanistic ethical activities. The book recommends that you can be happier by doing the following four things: (p209)
[1] Use a blank piece of paper or a blank page from your personal journal or a new clear screen on your wordprocessor
[2] List all the things and activities that make you happy
[3] Once you find yourself struggling to come up with more items, STOP
and put your journal aside for a few minutes
[4] Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths of air and then go back and read the items on your list of happy things.
This is a simple way to clear your mind of the "cultural clutter" or distracting crap of the outside world. You can start focusing on your genuine personal inner need for accurate self-awareness, which is the result of self-analysis. According to the book, Happiness --- Lessons From A New Science, our nation desperately need a concept of the "common good" or shared purpose.
A summary of the conclusions of the book follows:
[1] Happiness matters
(1) Happiness is an objective dimension of all our experience
(2) We are programmed to seek happiness
(3) It is self-evident that the best society is the happiest
(4) Our society is not likely to become happier unless people agree that this is what we want to happen
[2] Sources of happiness
(1) Humans are deeply social beings
(2) As social beings, we want to trust each other
(3) People are also deeply attached to the status quo
(4) Human beings are also status conscious
(5) Human beings are also very adaptable
(6) In any case extra income increases happiness less and less as people get richer
(7) In fact happiness depends on your inner life as much as on your outer circumstances
(8) Public policy can more easily remove misery than augment happiness
Happiness comes from both outside your body (your culture) and from within your body (your brain). The two sources are not in contradiction:
HAPPINESS IDEA #1 --- The secret of achieving true happiness is to STRIVE FOR COMPASSION towards oneself and others.
HAPPINESS IDEA #2 --- The ethical principle of the GREATEST HAPPINESS FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER OF PEOPLE is essentially the expression of that ideal.
In addition, a recent magazine article from the journal New Scientist (October 4, 2003) was summarized in the world famous Readers Digest (June 2003) magazine. It was entitled "10 Keys to True Happiness" and it emphasized the following ten essential ingredients for achieving happiness based on their scientific sampling results:
[1] WEALTH
[2] DESIRE
[3] INTELLIGENCE
[4] GENETICS
[5] BEAUTY
[6] FRIENDSHIP
[7] MARRIAGE
[8] FAMILY
[9] CHARITY
[10] AGE
Reader's Digest/Internet Source: 10 Keys to True Happiness
If you feel any resistance to learning and remembering the new science-based facts of life about your potential for happiness, it may be useful for you to experience a "turnaround" in your thinking about your brain by asking yourself the following four questions:
1) Is it true that my own happiness largely depends upon my own positive "attitude of gratitude"? (If your answer is "No," then continue to question #3)
Possible follow-up questions are:
[1] What is the "reality" of my quest for happiness?
[2] How did I learn the assumption that my happiness largely depends upon my own positive attitude of gratitude? Remember, moralistic "should" statements are not helpful when you are inquiring about the "reality" or "truth" of something. Try to phrase your ideas without feeling angry or fearful as you seek to understand what you mean by "authentic happiness" and "lasting satisfaction"?
2) Can you absolutely know that this core idea or assumption is real or true for you?
Possible follow-up questions are:
[1] Can you know more about the nature of happiness and personal success than you do now?
[2] What is your current awareness of your responsibility for your own happiness and satisfaction?
[3] Can you really know what is the best way to achieve happiness and satisfaction in the long run?
[4] Can you absolutely know that you would be happier, or that your life would be more successful, if you decide to learn more about the new brainpower science facts so you can apply the new brainpower knowledge in your life?
3) How will you react when you strongly believe that your happiness is largely due to your own positive attitude of gratitude?
Possible follow-up questions are:
[1] Where does the feeling hit you, where do you feel it in your body when you believe that thought?
Can you describe it?
What do your feelings reveal to you when you "think" about that thought? (Allow your feelings to "live," and notice how much of your body they take over. Where do those feelings take you?)
4) Who would you be without your thoughts about happiness and satisfaction?
Possible follow-up questions are:
[1] Who would you become if you started believing the new brainpower science facts?
[2] Close your eyes and imagine yourself remembering the new brain facts and applying them in your major relationships with others. (Describe to yourself how it feels. Write your best thoughts down on paper. What new ideas do you see when you re-read your own descriptions of your feelings about happiness and satisfaction?)
Your statements can be turned around to your SELF, or to others, or to opposite assumptions or conclusions depending upon how much you think about them and their full meanings in your life. Can you find at least three examples in your life where the "turnarounds" are as "real" or "truer" with respect to the new brain facts? (Be as specific and as detailed as you can.)
Possible follow-up questions are:
[1] Is this "turnaround" as true or truer than your original statements about your brainpower?
[2] Where do you experience this "turnaround" in your life now?
[3] If you lived this "turnaround," what would you do, or how would you live differently?
[4] Do you see any other "turnarounds" that seem as true or truer than applying the new brain facts in your life?
In short, you will be able to understand that you have the "personal power" to delete irrational or negative ideas.
Your brain or undivided "mind-with-body," makes YOU possible.
The following four links provide a basis for the rational humanistic ethical ideas essential for exploring the nature of your SELF:
Book Source: The Self ---
Explorations in Personal Growth
Book Source: The New View of Self ---
How Genes and Neurotransmitters Shape
Your Mind, Your Personality, and Your Mental Health
Book Source: The Evolving Self ---
Problem and Process in Human Development
Book Source: The Evolving Self ---
a Psychology for the Third Millennium
Regardless of what your social class status is, you can achieve authentic happiness and true satisfaction by realizing that the amount of your authentic happiness and lasting satisfaction depends on the amount of generosity you have toward others. It is the same idea as that expressed in the Beatles' famous song lyrics: "The love you get is equal to the love you give."
By using sound thinking and memory skills, you will be able to evaluate your goals and your plans in a balanced way according to your own personal values which determine your predictable motivational needs. This factual idea makes it possible for you to consciously create more meaning in your lifetime by taking successively bolder steps toward accomplishing your most important goals even when challenged by self-destructive cultural values.
You are challenged every day by the constant assault on your consciousness by advertisements that associate the idea of instant pleasure with shopping. The global economy entices you to choose instant gratification by purchasing products and services instead of basing your decisions on your core personal values and assumptions. Continuous education or lifelong learning is essential for your personal survival and economic success now and especially in the future.
The "mass media-oriented" consumerism culture of the global economy attempts to influence you to ignore your own true needs related to the development of your SELF. Nevertheless, you can create the power to perform at your best against the cultural forces that tempt you to ignore your own basic human needs. Your authentic happiness and lasting satisfaction can be based on realistic scientific expectations about your future opportunities and possibilities with an attitude of gratitude for this verifiable objective practical knowledge about yourself.
The parts of your brain tissue that are responsible for your ability to think are brain cells called "neurons." Neurons are connected in "neuronal networks." Your neurons contain "dendrites" that depend upon your unique experiences and relationships to grow and create new neuronal networks. Also, the chemical switches that send signals up and down your nervous system and inside your brain are called "synapses".
If you did not have a healthy brain with a programmable mind, you would never be able to think about your own happiness or anyone else's happiness. The profound truth in this empirically based assumption is that you would never be aware of your SELF as a separate individual person without having a fully functioning "healthy" brain and nervous system. Also you would not be able to read this sentence.
Without the ability to empower yourself by using your amazing brain to define and explain your SELF to yourself, you would not be able to think and feel or be conscious of being YOU!
Remember the devastation that Alzheimer's Disease causes people when their brain tissues become damaged with sticky plaque. They lose their ability to access their memories and, therefore, lose their awareness of time. Knowing this fact can influence you to want to know more about how you can maintain or improve your brain health now.
As you consciously think about the new meanings that the "brainpower science facts" compel you to experience, the new neuron connections in your brain and nervous system will give you the power to change your values. your Self-Creation, your Self-Esteem, and your Self-Actualization potentials by adding new memories to your consciousness of your SELF. Together, your new brainpower knowledge will result in a true holistic synergy of "mindfullness" that you can experience as Self-Liberation.
Book Source:
Neural Path Therapy
How to Change Your Brain's Response
to Anger, Fear, Pain, & Desire
When you consciously combine the three phenomenal potentials, your newly empowered SELF will experience new opportunities and possibilities. As long as some of your "unconscious brainpower" is used to make sure that your heart beat is strong enough to pump fresh blood to your brain, and your breathing is strong enough to provide new oxygen to enrich your blood supply every moment, your "mind-with-body" will benefit greatly.
There is no need anymore for any "religious dualism" that has traditionally separated your MIND from your BODY when you explain the great philosophical issues to yourself and your friends. Self-Esteem is simply defined as having "good feelings" about your SELF. Even though your Self-Esteem is your "subjective" measure of your own self-worth, it is essential for you to keep it positive!
When you perceive your Self-Esteem as being "high," then your positive attitude about yourself will give you the courage to learn and choose among competing alternative ethical values or behaviors depending upon the consequences you can expect from your perceptions of reality. Simply stated, you need to use your new brain vocabulary and continuously develop your memory so you can think accurately and create your own personal unique identity and lifestyle.
That can be your a major purpose in your life, to facilitate your own brainpower through improving your memory. Because you can think for yourself and change your feelings, you can reach your greatest human potential.
You can plan to be happier in the future by simply evaluating what you are most grateful for each night before you go to sleep. Each night before you fall asleep, if you think for about five minutes about what activities were most satisfying and important during the day, you can give yourself credit for surviving the day and for accomplishing your most important goals for those particular hours and minutes of your life. This positive recognition that you accomplished worthwhile things can increase your Self-Esteem in a healthy way that will lead to more happiness the next day.
This assertion about the power of the attitude of gratitude to increase authentic happiness and lasting satisfaction in your life is based on hundreds of anecdotal psychological reports of historic figures and scholars during the past 3,000 years as well as in books on happiness and satisfaction published during the last few years that report the latest scientific results. You can review the findings in the recent books on happiness and satisfaction by using the following link:
You can make the process of memorizing the essential new factual ideas about your SELF an exciting personal research project that can have a lasting impact on the rest of your life. The ultimate issue for you now is to discover how you can determine the quality of life that will give you authentic happiness and lasting satisfaction both today and in the future.
You can ask yourself what kind of legacy that you want to leave for those who follow you after you die?This question focuses your thinking about what has been and what might be meaningful in your life.
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