Who is Happier, a Lotto winner or a Paraplegic?
As per Harvard Psychologist, Dan Gilbert who cites scientific data, after a year lotto winners and paraplegics are equally happy with their lives. Dan Gilbert is the author of the book Stumbling on Happiness.
Toltec wisdom has stated for centuries that experience follows perception, and you have control over how you perceive life. You can either perceive life in a positive way or a adverse way. If you perceive a problem as a challenge that will empower you and help you grow, it will do just that - do good for you.
Gilbert talks about how Homo Sapiens possess a Frontal lobe or Prefrontal Cortex. This miraculous aparatus is an experience simulator. Human Sapiens are able to simulate experience before it happens.
In his labs Gilbert has found that our experience simulator doesn't function as well as it is supposed to. He calls this phenomenon, Impact Bias. The experience simulator causes us to believe that different outcomes are more different than they genuinely are. Things like winning or losing, gaining or losing a romantic partner, and so on, have far less affect, intensity and duration than people expect them to have. Gilbert cites a recent study of how major life traumas affect people suggest that, if it happened over three months ago, it has no affect on your happiness. This is also shown in Toltec writings such as The Four Agreements.
Gilbert says natural happiness is when we receive what we wanted. Synthetic happiness is what you make when you don't acquire what you wanted. Particularly in Western Society we have a strong belief that synthetic happiness is inferior to natural happiness. Gilbert says that our whole economic system is based on the principle that you must get what you want to be happy, that a shopping mall filled with Zen monks isn't going to be profitable because they don't want things.
Toltecs know that it is all about how you perceive things. A man compliments a woman bout her hair, for example. It makes one woman happy as she perceives what he said as a compliment. Another woman, who grew up with her brothers teasing her about her hair and has an emotional charge about it, will perceive what the man says absolutely different than the first woman. Because of, what Toltecs call one's inventory, Due to emotional charges from her past being stimulated by the man's words, she will have a adverse encounter. The experience simulator is not working properly.
From a Toltec or Metaphysical viewpoint, I would go beyond what Gilbert shows in his talk, that what he calls synthetic happiness is actually true happiness as it is not dependent on what happens to us in our lives. What Gilbert calls natural happiness is fleeting as when we don't get what we want, or lose what we had, we are unhappy. It is a weak type of happiness because we are 100% dependent on our external world.
Knowing this, we can no longer blame people, events or situations external to us for causing us to be unhappy. Only we can make ourselves happy by using the faculties we all have.
Now you know that you have all you need to be happy within you. Unless you are a Homo Habilis (an ancient man/woman), and doesn't have a Pre Frontal Cortex, you have the whole range of what you require to be happy right inside your brain. All you need are the tools to return it to a fine running machine. The Toltec Path provides these tools.
Life Coaching For An Even Better You
The flexibility of life coaching allows for a plethora of options when it comes to the practice of helping others. For instance you might try the tried and true master and grasshopper approach or you may use the telephone, email, or even online chat as your means of communication.
You Can Consolidate Debt But Nevertheless Begin To Regulate Spending
Managing debt is a problem many people face. Many individuals never understood a suitable way to handle their credit cards and are now facing a mountain of debt. Some people think that credit cards are free money to spend and never think of the consequences of overspending.
A Sensor Soap Dispenser To Support Customers Reach The Cleaning Soap Without Requiring Touching The Dispenser
A sensor soap dispenser allows you to be particular of the surfaces that you touch. Especially so with so many new diseases around such as swine flu .......
Several Advantages And Disadvantages Of Built In Dishwashers
There are many different benefits to a built in dishwasher. There are also a few benefits to a portable or stand alone dishwasher though it they are far less than with the built in.
Understand All About The Top Advice Clarifying The Satellite Telephone Technology
Even in the field of communication, there is no need for us to exert too much effort - unlike the past when it took quite a long time for our predecessors to pass a message from one place to another.
Top Notch And Also Best Benefits For Low-Priced Internet Hosting Provider
If you're looking for a cheap web hosting service, there are many companies that offer low monthly rates to host your site. Some examples are Yahoo, Vexxhost, Bluehost, Network Solutions and Hostgator, just to name a few.
Hydroelectric Energy Is Becoming The Greatest-Invested-In Alternative Energy Source For The Time Being
When it comes to talking about alternative energy resources, there really are quite a few. Throughout the many years quite a few discoveries have been made and it is only in this present era that people are actually harnessing the power of Nature.
The Iridium 9505A Satellite Phone Could Be Your Life Line
There is a lot of mining work that is done in Australia. Many people travel to the Great Outback to go exploring and check out the fantastic sights.