I wanted to share this with you all. It's a screen shot I took of a comment by Skado. Maybe some of you saw it, maybe some didn't. These words are now important to me. @Skado I hope you don't mind me sharing but I just love too much what you said. Thank you for these words! I've had a shitty decade. And a few more years before that decade. I'm not gonna get into details about how shitty my life has been but I'm angry at myself for allowing things to happen. A lot of the shit I'm in is my fault. I've dealt with depression, low self esteem and worse. But I always tried to work on it and not let it take control over my life. I am working on being happy regardless of my less than ideal situation (I have been separated for years but I live in the same house with the ex in separate bedrooms and sometimes I have to keep myself from hurting him) and I want it all to change. I fooled myself into thinking I was happy by denial, adaptation and disconnecting myself. I am working to find happiness in the areas of my life that need it and I'm not going to wait until I have the "right conditions" to be happy! Jeebus do I sound cheesy hahahaha I never lose my sense of humor
Right before deconverting, I came to the realization that statistics apply. Meaning that I may study and work hard to get that dream job, but I just might find myself holding the short stick. What if I find myself in my 60s still working as an engineer and just making ends meet? That is the opposite of what christian churches, especially evangelical, preach: that Gawd wants you to be the happiest person in the world, and if you are not then you just have to be patient (or it's your fault). That part got deconverted early and was transformed into "find things that make you happy in the life that you lead or by making small, incremental adjustments to it". However, it is taking a lot of effort to convince my wife of that -- I am the only apostate in the whole extended family.
I cannot say I have found happiness. Being the only skeptic around and having no opportunity to do the things that I would like to sucks. But I am finally being able to make some big changes that will allow me to make smaller ones... or take a harsher course, who knows?
@GeekLeen indeed... when I talked about happiness I meant the kind that you look back and feel pleasure in what you have done or achieved. What Kahneman would attribute to memory. But then there's the experience of happiness -- [ted.com]
And also we can create happiness -- [ted.com]
I find the subject just fascinating
But what if you require certain conditions to be happy? In the end I've always found happiness to be mostly subjective.