a unified theory of happiness…

In my experience, “I choose to be happy” is one of the most ineffective and counterproductive slogans on happiness there are. I have always thought it obvious that if we could will ourselves to happiness, we would do so readily. People do not choose to be unhappy either. It just isn’t how we human beings operate. While we are bestowed with the ability to think andinitiate change with thought, while we are able to communicate like no other animal, write amazing blogs like this one, create cathedrals, cure diseases and discover quantum physics, we are not and will never be that cerebral. Robert Ornstein writes inThe Evolution of Consciousness, “The brain evolved primarily to control different body reactions. It is more like the liver than it is like a computer. It isn’t organized for thought.” 

If anything can be considered the chief organizing system, Ornstein contends, it is emotion. (more…)