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The Reason We’re Unhappy
What if everything we learned about happiness is wrong?
The inspiration about this post came from an article I read which mentioned about the backward law from British writer and philosopher Alan Watts.
So what’s the Backward law? What can it tell us about Happiness?
Alan Watts says
When you try to stay on the surface of the water you sink. When you try to sink you float. When you hold your breath you lose it. Which immediately calls to mind an ancient and much-neglected saying “Who’s ever would save his soul shall lose it.”
You can apply that same thinking to our pursuit of happiness. The more we think about the things we don’t have, the more we remind ourselves that we don’t have them the more we chase happiness the more we remind ourselves that we aren’t. We are stuck in a paradox. The more energy we exert, the less we feel like we have these things and when we constantly tell ourselves that same story of poor old me, the poorer and older we will feel.
We’ve conditioned to believe that happiness is a destination. A place that will arrive at once we’ve checked off all the…
