JawZ wrote:If you wish to be happy, it is a choice. Focus on what you have, not what you want. Like a diet, it requires discipline.
Something you may wish to consider is what one needs. I do think that has some bearing on one's perspective.
...and not to confuse "needs" with "desires". How can a poor man be content and a rich man be unhappy?
The line of thought was derived from the Eight-fold path to end suffering.
Hell_Yes
Luck is where preparation meets opportunity - Seneca
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" - Isaac Asimov
It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book. - Friedrich Nietzsche
TonyT wrote:Actually, it does! The will, or the decision ALWAYS precedes the outcome. The trouble is that most people are unaware of their own decisions.
Pick up your right hand off the desk without consciously making the decision to do so.
The same holds true for all psychosomatic illnesses, approx 70% of all documented illnesses are psychosomatic in origin.
And to become ill with a virus or some other type of infection such as the flu, one must always be predisposed to becoming ill. A well rested, well fed, non-stressed person will never get ill.
At any given time there are millions of infectious bacteria and viruses in your body and in the environment around one. When one is in good condition the immune system handles these enemies. (provided the immune system is not damaged, can develop the necessary antibodies or the foreign enemy is not brand new to this world)
But we sometimes make stupid decisions such as having that 3rd or 4th or 20th drink that one knows will inhibit ones functionality the following day. Or one decides to remain awake and watch a movie instead of going to sleep and getting the needed rest. Such actions throw the body into a state where the immune system does not function optimumly and one becomes predisposed to illness.
Or one has a fight with the spouse and it does not get resolved immediately. Such fights don't just happen by themselves, they are created by the people who are fighting and arguing, their decisions to say and do things that cause stress in each other. A stressed individual is more prone to illness.
One can even make onself ill by the decision alone. Ever see a kid who wanted to get out of going to schollo by feigning illness? Tells mommy his tummy hurts. And mommy buys it. And the kid gets so good at it his tummy really does hurt!
TonyT wrote:Our wants, will, desires, whims, postulates, etc, DO have everything to do with it.
The idea that man's will, desires, intentions, etc. are minimal came from those that were unwilling to assume responsibility for their creations. The very first time someone made a decision that harmed another he quickly justified the act by stating "it wasn't me that did it". And the idea caught on and was adapted by others. And today we have a society that seeks to assign blame rather than ownership.
One's ideas, one's intentions and decisions, the mind, is senior to the mechanics of the material. We just forgot how to use them effectively!
David wrote:Not blame, but the Will to Sloth, the path of least resistance.
As our tools increase in sophistication, we soften.
"The idea that man's will, desires, intentions, etc. are minimal came from those that were unwilling to assume responsibility for their creations. The very first time someone made a decision that harmed another he quickly justified the act by stating "it wasn't me that did it". And the idea caught on and was adapted by others. And today we have a society that seeks to assign blame rather than ownership." - TonyT
"Not blame, but the Will to Sloth, the path of least resistance." - David
Actually, it's just a philosophical theory; it is neither an excuse or the path of least resistance.
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Stephen Hawking
jeremyboycool wrote:
Actually, it's just a philosophical theory; it is neither an excuse or the path of least resistance.
Calvinistic predetermination or primal Will to Power?
Hell_Yes
Luck is where preparation meets opportunity - Seneca
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" - Isaac Asimov
It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book. - Friedrich Nietzsche
