As each new year begins, I always ponder about what would make me happier.
Many people seem to think happiness is too much to hope for in this vale of tears, and we should settle for being contented. Or at least not miserable. But others, like Gretchen Rubin, say that happiness is contagious, and that's reason enough to strive to be happy. And it was Abe Lincoln who said most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Turns out he was right. Here's Dan Gilbert's take on how the brain (or as he refers to it, the "three-pound meatloaf") synthesizes happiness. He puts a lot of things in perspective, with a generous dose of humor. How did Nature get us out of the trees and into the shopping mall?
Interesting, isn't it, how the prefrontal cortex can get bogged down with predictions of how miserable we're going to be, if we don't get what we want, if we lose what we have or don't survive a trauma completely unscathed. Think of all the leaders—Herod, Hitler, Idi Amin, Saddam, Richard Nixon—who have squandered most of their time and resources bolstering their security and control, thinking all that power would bring them happiness.
Kurt Vonnegut's "Galapagos" is based on the theory that we'd be happier without all that extra brain matter, but here we are, stuck with it. So it seems a good idea to make better use of mine, while it's still functioning. I hear my guitar calling...