Health and Happiness

We're leaving the world of Chinese medicine to look at the happiness and what common sense can add to it.

Happiness is a physiological state of being comfortable in one's world. It is a way station to bliss which is "complete happiness".

So if happiness is "being comfortable", bliss is "loving life". We all clearly desire the later one but somehow, over time, the modern culture settled on "the pursuit of happiness" as a more realistic goal. It doesn't have to be this way but before addressing bliss, let's dive into happiness...

Happiness is a skill, a muscle that becomes stronger with exercise as one makes their way towards bliss. Happiness is not something another person can give or sell to us, happiness is a result of a string of conditions that have been met.

What forms conditions for happiness is pretty straightforward and definitely available to each and every person.

Modern psycho therapy proposes that mental health (and also happiness) require two components: Agency and Gratitude. The former is a way of life that includes having a purpose for being here, the later is a state of acknowledging positive things we already have (instead of focusing on what we are missing).

This makes sense but there are other, just as important components that somehow get missed by modern scientific analysis.

Before being able to have any agency, some basic level of available energy has to exist. No person can serve any purpose if they can't perform work or focus on something or someone else - those things require a level of health, specifically "physical health".

In addition to having enough energy, happiness requires "no pain" - happiness is "being comfortable" and pain not only takes away comfort - it prevents a person from even registering happiness.

Happiness requires "positive outlook" - an optimistic state of mind that prevents our mind from " raining on our parade". This way of seeing the world is a consequence and the cause of happiness. It is a Catch 22, a "two way street" where the consequence becomes it's own cause.

These conditions for happiness (Agency, Outlook, Gratitude, No pain and Energy) all contribute their share on a different level. They too can be seen as part of Law of Five Elements approach as they match the elements:

Wood - Agency
Fire - Outlook
Earth - Gratitude
Metal - No pain
Water - Energy

Let's look at each of them and how could you benefit from this.