A Few Quick Thoughts on Happiness for 2018

I once heard an actor I admired reveal in an interview how he thought happiness was overrated. I remember the journalist sitting across from him nearly collapse, as he sat awestruck by the proclamation. 
   
But in some perverse way I actually understood where the guy was coming from. 

From Socrates to Freud, the remarkably elusive emotional state of well-being has been poked, prodded, and dissected for literally thousands of years. What is happiness and how do we all get more of it?

The most poignant observation of happiness I've heard in recent memory came from author and TV host, Rabbi Shmuley who said, "Happiness is a byproduct of living a life of meaning." 

In other words, happiness is not something you can actively pursue but rather the result of doing work YOU believe to be worthwhile.

Whatever your theory on attaining more mental contentment can we call agree there are a few vital ingredients to happiness?

Lucky for us, the ancient Greek Philosopher Epicurus thought so. 

Epicurus was born on the Greek island of Samos, roughly 270 miles from Athens. Perhaps best known for giving us words like, wait for it, "Epicurean," which refers to a person devoted exclusively to pleasure, the philosopher was also known for establishing schools and contributing his prolific doctrines on hedonism, pleasure, and materialism. 

But what did his philosophy entail exactly and is it accurate, or even fair to link Epicurus with only sensuality and self-indulgence? 

Or was there more to it?   

Unlike Socrates, whose main pursuits lied in uncovering the sturdy tenets of logic and sound argument, Epicurus's feelings on happiness evolved into appreciating something many of us already have but tend to overlook.

As Alain de Botton points out in, Consolations of Philosophy Epicurus valued the following above all else:

1. Friendship

2. Freedom

3. Thought

"Wealth is of course unlikely to ever make anyone miserable. But the crux of Epicurus's argument is that if we have money without friends, freedom and an analyzed life, we will never be truly happy. And if we have them, but are missing the fortune, we will never be unhappy."

Unfortunately, marketing, television, and even the circles we choose to surround ourselves with don't help a great deal in promoting those simple treasures. 

Instead, we believe material possessions to be valid solutions to wants we don't fully comprehend. 

In other words, we fail to understand our complexity, our delicate subtleties and as result look outside rather than in. 

Start 2018 by looking closer to the friends, freedom, and capacity for resourceful thought already at your fingertips.