Happiness is not a state of mind...

It’s a big part of my brain activity lately, after reading some columns, some studies and seeing a few documentaries and films. The search for happiness and why it so hard to be successful in finding it. Why even bother to chase it when it’s always disappearing at the moment you feel it’s close by. It seems that happiness became a business structure, some kind of a marketing tool as a reward for purchasing the right ingredients to have a happy life. To be exact, it’s the promise to encounter happiness that’s been used in so many adverts, political statements, lottery’s and lifecoach leaflets. Strangely enough, they come with a pricetag, the solutions offered by those who deal in happiness. In the end happiness can’t be bought, no matter how hard you believe in all the commercial solutions.

The modern world is functioning because of one common promise to everyone who is willing to consume the ingredients. Whether it’s a stylish car, some anti-aging lotion, an i-Phone X, an Ikea couch, the vote for a political party, having you lips injected with botox, sessions with a mindfulness coach, an overpriced cafe latte without caffeine, joining a terrorist group, some fancy brand sneakers or some plastic surgeon reducing the size of your labia, it all comes down to selling you that short misunderstood moment of happiness. It’s an addictive process and that chemical reaction in the brain lasts just a short period of time resulting in the need for purchasing more of the proven remedy. A few smart bastards in this world are fully aware of the process and are doing everything in their power to keep you just a few steps away from that horizon. It keeps the cash flowing, expanding the dependence on their promises which justifies higher prices.

I read an interesting piece on the matter of happiness by Dutch Lector Brain & Technology, Jan Willem de Graaf. A careful first step towards a scientific explanation on the subject of happiness.

“If people experience happiness, they buy less, and that is difficult in a world where economic expansion is the engine”.

  The conclusion that the discrepancy between expectation and reality can’t be too big in order to stimulate purchasing behavior, because than the promise towards happiness could be discovered as a lie, is a dangerous line for those dealing in it. Less satisfaction is obvious a powerful driving force, often used by politicians to gain votes by promising a better world. Lately people’s identity and the failing protection of their cultural history seems a good argument to explain the lack of happiness. It’s the same devious way in which religions are spread, hatred against all that’s different is planted and walls of exclusivity are build.

“Sometimes I'm afraid that our world (economy) unintentionally needs a lot more people as a consumer than a producer. The fact that a large group of people who do not directly have the skills needed for progress (currently mostly technical) are 'trained' especially to be consumers”

I’m living in the rural vicinity of central Portugal, a region that’s becoming more and more popular by people from the northern European countries to escape from that “happyless” society they’re living in. Away from an economy that flourishes with the purchases of brainwashed consumers. They are looking for those chemical brain reactions in living “off grid”, growing their own food and at a reasonable distance of the mainstream community concerning spendings on luxury and needles products. Pursuing a way of spending time more wisely, living more healthy and shaping their lives based on experiences that come with their decision. Slowly the individual search turns into a communicative goal, becoming some kind of a society next to historic and cultural grown one already existing. There’s a big resemblance with the way other societies evolved. The parallelism with how religious and economical societies, by means of promising happiness, were grounded in the past is frighteningly disappointing. It seems just a part of human nature, wanting to convince others of your ways instead of enjoying your personal discovery towards a happy life. Again history repeats itself and the promise of happiness is sold as a standard solution for all. The ones on a personal quest for a better life are convinced to become a paying consumer. A society with all kinds of retreats asking for a substantial contribution out of the parallel economical world for a medical mushroom ceremonies, to get shamanically healed, for drowning in Pusanga baths, to be awakened by meditation, to join session of qi gong, to relax deeply and discover the depth of who you are or finding your natural state which of course is not a happy one, otherwise there wouldn’t be a need to spend the money on it. Not that the consuming of those ingredients will make you find happiness other than maybe a few moments while being away from daily life with responsibilities, financial challenges, family relations and your own personality. It does however pay the bills for those selling it.

Life doesn’t come cheap, not even a spiritual one. Even people who have seen through the scam of consumerism won’t let go of the benefits from the modern society. They need an internet connection to spread the word, sell their therapy’s towards finding happiness and order yoga rugs and faraway spices and ingredients for ceremonies based on other cultures remedies. Happiness is not a state of mind, not a way of life or something you can search for. It will find you at certain moments, completely unexpected and the awareness of that feeling depends on the chemical reaction in your brain. It explains why so many religious people aren’t happy at all. They are told it’s homosexuals, women having abortions, people from other cultures or with a different skin colour that stand between them and their happiness. So many live with an implanted brandmark in their minds that happiness comes automatically with the purchase of a certain perfumes, cloths, cars, phones, furniture and all luxury items, that eating at the right food chain will help and that looking 30 when your 60 will contribute to happiness. Live gets much more meaningful if you stop hunting down happiness. If you manage to except life for that what it is, moments of happiness will occur in many forms, mostly when you are prepared to share it out of passion instead of personal gain. The more moments you encounter, the less you will feel the need to consume. The less you consume, the more independent your thoughts and feelings will get and you’ll discover you don’t need other people’s spiritual beliefs and rituals to grow your own....