Thought Picnic: Giving up easy pleasures for lasting happiness

Confused into conflation

How we have lost the meaning of the pursuit of happiness by thinking concatenating a stream of pleasures constitutes happiness.

The pleasure is however just for a moment, in fulfilling a need, a desire, some greed providing some sort of sensual gratification.

We are pleased to see, to touch, to feel, to taste or to hear, each moment as momentary as it is fleeting, coming and going as a series of events that we react to or chase after, but are never fully satisfied because it cannot be sustained.

Pleasure cannot last

Pleasure is a lustful pursuit and lust needs not be overtly sensual, but it comes with temptations, it exercises the weakest parts of our will and feeds on the things we too easily succumb to as it accentuates and exaggerates places where we strive to gain control and have purpose or direction.

Some pleasure comes with excitement and then the novelty of it wears off leaving us seeking the next thrill. Immediacy and impatience usually gives pleasure scope to bedevil us. Essentially, pleasure is not happiness.

Happiness is what you decide to have

Happiness is a state of the mind, a state of well-being which can have some pleasure. The words can be synonymous but the reality is happiness is lasting.

You can decide to be happy and with that might come some pleasure, however, how we please ourselves would necessarily mean we are happy.

It is when we confuse happiness and pleasure that we begin to depress ourselves, worry unnecessarily and vacillate between satisfaction and dissatisfaction that creeps ever so menacingly into every area of our lives.

The pleasure that ruins us

It gets to a point where we begin to abuse ourselves in the quest for pleasures that we think make us happy in ever increasing desperation to repeat the old pleasurable moment, yet we fail woefully at recreating the same feeling that draws us deeper into unhealthy choices and ruinous addictions. We become lascivious lacking all restraint and reserve.

When we learn to do without the props of ephemeral pleasures and still retain an outlook that is wholesome, positive, expectant and hopeful, we lay the foundations to the greater influence of happiness in our lives without being driven to either pleasure ourselves or please others in a downward spiral of despondent, depressing, dejected and damaging thoughts that fill us with misery.

Whilst you can be pleased, seek to be glad, be yourself rather than try to be something else, have your own voice and use it with confidence and watch how believing in yourself and what you can do brings you happiness that you can build upon and use to change your life for the better.