If you have a roof over your head and food in your belly

So what you're saying is that you find happiness in material possessions?

Anyway, even the people in Africa have roofs over thei heads and I'm pretty sure they have some form of sustenance.

We live way more stressful lives than people in less developed countries do.

Pick any of those and prepare to ARGUE! if that sounds antagonistic, I apollogise; I'm watching Fight Club, and it has me in the mood to lock horns.

 

[quote name='"tHe LoNLy StOnR"']So what you're saying is that you find happiness in material possessions?

Anyway, even the people in Africa have roofs over thei heads and I'm pretty sure they have some form of sustenance.

We live way more stressful lives than people in less developed countries do.

Pick any of those and prepare to ARGUE! if that sounds antagonistic, I apollogise; I'm watching Fight Club, and it has me in the mood to lock horns.[/quote]

No matter the mood, I'd watch where you step with trying to pick battles.

 

That's very true. I was just watching a documentary about heroin and this drug called "krokodile", which rots your body from the inside out, and it's prevalence in certain parts of Russia. Like 20% of the people there are addicted to heroin... most by the ages of 14-20, with many dying in their 20s. It's just an utterly depraved place... literally, when you think of "run down" and "desolate"... this is what the people there live with all the time.

Makes me thankful for what we have here.

Yet at the same time... just because we have roofs over our head and food to eat, doesn't neccesarily mean that we should expect to be happy all the time. Many indigenous tribal cultures have basic shelter and food supplies met, but are without many of the physical, mental, and spiritual maladies many of us face in our complex, modern lives.

Although survival is the base, most essentially human need, there are many more levels to be addressed in order for a human to be "fulfilled", other than just the ability to breathe and have physiological function every day. I know that's not what you're getting at, but sometimes I find it annoying when people seem to imply that simply because we have food and shelter and warmth, we should be content, never down/depressed, and gratitude should solve everything.

I think that sure, we could all use a lot more gratitude, but there is more to it than that.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsUH8llvTZo]Krokodil: Russia's Deadliest Drug (NSFW) - YouTube[/ame]

 

Krokodil is basically nasty homebake shit made like meth, in the sense that they use OTC codeine pills to make it. It's terribly corrosive to the veins.

Sometimes when I'm feeling shitty and I smoke, I suddenly become very grateful for the simple things, like juice and TiVo

 

I'd like to point out that was can't really discuss other drugs on GC.

I just linked the video because drug addiction is relevant issue in terms of individual happiness... regardless of the type of addiction, be it drug or otherwise.

 

It could be said that as long as we have the simple things we should be grateful, and on some level this is right, feeling gratitude is a good state of mind to be in. But as LJ said:

I've been to places where people live in conditions that we might baulk at having to live in, yet their children play together without fear, their simplicity creates a feeling of community that we would do well to realise how much we have lost from our lives that our need for material superiority and complexity has brought us.

I'm not saying some of these people couldn't do with a little more access in the way of health care and education, and for many communities, especially those where lack of work is a real problem, alcohol and drugs starts to play a part as people look to escape themselves. Part of this feeling is that they see how rich we are in the West, and without understanding what we've lost, desire to experience what they've never had. Even in what appear to be the poorest neighbourhoods, they all have their mobile phones.

I remember seeing a woman, sitting on the street corner, dressed in dirty, soiled clothing, appearing unwashed and without shoes, attempting to sell a small pile of coconuts to make a living, talk on her mobile phone quite often.

 

A roof that you have to work your ass off for everyday to maintain, at a job you that you can prob lose at any given moment, and food riddled with pesticides, antibiotics etc.. but yea no reason to complain,
don't worry .....be happy.....

You are right in a sense though about having a positive outlook, but its just not always that simple.

 

It's all relative.

So, no matter what you are free to be as miserable or content as you want to be.

opinion = delusion

 

I think it's great to acknowledge and be thankful for the things that we have.
I also think it is OKAY to acknowledge and be uncomfortable with pain as well and I do not think that comparing our lives to other people's lives is a healthy way to live. We are all stuck in our own bodies, in our lives and with our own experiences; trying to place yourself in someone elses shoes is great for self-awareness but ultimately we are left to struggle on our own and it's perfectly okay to acknowledge that sometimes those struggles suck!

Personally, I have never truly thought "life sucks." Sometimes I think there is no real point, but that's an entirely different subject.

 

ohh but my dear boy... man is never truly happy, man presses on and bears the burden, man strives for perfection and attempts to make known the unknown.

 

It's all perspective. It's the way we are wired.

 

my momma always told me to be thankful that i wasnt born in a cave in iraq

 

We create a shithole for ourselves by not being high and real. Knowing we are creating a mess every moment in our lives and in everything we do, unless we strive to be higher, we can especially then see that others are messing things up constantly as well. Of course you have a right to complain about stupidity. It is prevalent and must be pointed at with a stark staring finger like the beast that is.

 

I don't see what a roof and food has to do with happiness. I'd give up both today if I could feel "blessed" or happy from then on.

It's simple when you haven't experienced unhappiness to proclaim it as a non-issue. It's also probably simple if you have come out the other side to say the same. But everyone is different, with differing needs and feelings.

Why don't you go fix all the depressed people? You know what's wrong with them - get 'em told!

 

As long as I'm alive and healthy then I'm good, I may be broke at times but I have achieved true happiness within rather than temporary which lasts for a while and not eternally.

 

The three necessities of life, Food, Shelter, and Love.

Now it's what people love, that make them either happy or sad.