HAPPINESS SUCKS: Why joy is bad for you.....

That's the title of the short article I found on msn.com today. Here is is.

HAPPINESS SUCKS: Why joy is bad for you.
By William SaletanUpdated Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008, at 8:02 AM E T(source msn.com)

A study suggests extreme happiness may be bad for you. Findings: 1) "The highest levels of income, education and political participation were reported not by the most satisfied individuals, but by moderately satisfied individuals." 2) Extremely happy people "earned significantly less money" and earned lower school grades than moderately happy people. 3) They "may not live as long," either. Theories: 1) Happiness makes you complacent and kills your drive. 2) It makes you slow to adapt. 3) It makes you too optimistic and insufficiently vigilant about your health. 4) It may overstimulate your cardiovascular system. Researchers' conclusions: 1) "Happiness may need to be moderated for success." 2) "Extremely high levels of happiness might not be a desirable goal." Human Nature's conclusions: 1) Success may need to be moderated for happiness. 2) Extremely high levels of success might not be a desirable goal.
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Let’s take a look at this because it’s such a great example of 3-D, limited, old paradigm thoughts and conclusions. In a logical, rational, left-brain world, this research and these conclusions may make perfect logical sense. However, in a quantum Universe with infinite possibilities waiting for you, it doesn’t hold water. Not even close.

Perhaps the researchers were equating happiness or joy with complacency. Then it would make sense, right? A lot of people feel that ‘if nothing is going wrong, then I’m happy’ An ‘under the radar’ kind of thinking. Or some folks may equate happiness with adrenaline stimulating activities that create a temporary high feeling. Fine and dandy, but not my definition of joy or happiness. And then there is the idea of 'the lower your expectations, the happier you are.' Right. What fun.

What I know from personal and professional experience is that there is a new breed of individual that has evolved into a place of recognizing and celebrating the magic of changing the way they think and believe, and then observing and experiencing how their lives change for the better. These people would not accept the premise that the happier they are, the shorter their lives will be. In fact, most of them would claim that the more joy they experience, the less stress they have, and that enhances health and longevity.

Why do you suppose it is that The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, and Happiness NOW! by Robert Holden,Ph.D in which he writes "...happiness doesn't come and go; what comes and goes is your attunement to happiness.", and other books about self empowerment, changing your thinking to change your life, and yes, increasing your joy quotient are finding their way into the big discount warehouse stores, like Costco, as well as being featured on the endcaps in Target, WalMart, Kmart, etc. Who you think is buying them, and why? And do you think these people experience that the happier they are, the more their health suffers? Do you think they believe that expansive, elevated thinking will make them sicker and shorten their lives? Come on!

This new thought paradigm is proposing that we are vibrational beings, and that the higher our vibration, ie., the more joyful we are, the more we are in sync with our True Selves, and the less stress, disease, conflict, ‘stuckness’, etc. we experience, and the more success and synchronicity or ‘happy coincidences’ we see occurring in our lives. The expansive, logic-busting new thoughts are based on very real research in quantum physics—research that tells us that we really ARE the creators of our reality. So if you get to choose which reality to create, will you really opt for less happy? Will you actually ‘moderate’ your joy? Even if the so-called research tells you to?

You decide. And then tell that to the woman whose tumor disappears before the doctors operate on her; or the man who finally meets his soul mate when he misses a flight to go on vacation; or the couple who decide they want to adopt a baby and have that baby arrive in their arms in record time, or the writer who dreams of writing a book for more than a decade and finally holds it in her hands…. We all know the stories, and we all get goose bumps of recognition because they activate our knowing about what magnificent, radiant, joyful beings we humans, are in our very nature.

Decide for yourself. Your thoughts become things. So choose carefully what to believe. Let yourself know what you know. Be your own expert. As for me I’m choosing joy and happiness every chance I get.

I’m The Everyday Joy Coach. Find me at www.EverydayJoy.com and let me help you create your own buzz about the power of joy and happiness to be the cause of dreams coming true, not just the effect!
© Janice Masters, 2008