On a recent trip to DC, I bought a pastel drawing of the cherry blossoms in bloom that was inscribed with a quote by Abraham Lincoln:
"Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."
I hung it in my office at work, and the response has been interesting...ranging from enthusiastic agreement to total scorn. The thing that kind of surprised me is that the younger the person, the more cynical their response, while older people seemed to be more accepting of the premise.
IDK...what do you think?
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I totally agree with Abe.
"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
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Abe said most people - most is not all.
I think Abe understood that happiness can be stolen away from a person as much as their freedoms, rights and other stuff.
I for one cannot 'choose' to be unhappy a lot of the time because way back in the ancient days of my childhood I had that stolen from me.
But most (not all) people didn't have their ability to choose their happiness or unhappiness and can make up their minds to be what they want to be.
There are other things that people have no control over that can take away their happiness. Depression is one of the all time killers of happiness - this is usually not an issue of one making a choice, but do to biological/chemical issues or situational issues that re-wires the brain causing a person to be down and sad all the time.
Assuming that a person is reasonably healthy (mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually) they can choose how they feel at any given moment and can form their own type of 'happiness' with any given situation.
But then being happy all the time is as bad if not worse than being sad all the time. This is known as mania....
I believe that contentment is the key to everything - finding that right balance of stuff in ones life, being satisfied with what one has can lead to a stable serenity and balance in life which opens the door to those moments of true happiness and everything else.
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I believe if you have some sort of direction you could talk yourself into being happy. Most of us just wander around like zombies thinking of what could have been rather than what is.
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Haven't you ever known anyone that you swore worked hard at being unhappy. The always looked on the dark side of everything or they seemed to enjoy wallowing in self pity.
I think President Lincoln was right.
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I agree with Abe....
I just recently realized that a few people I know want to slap me because I am a little too optimistic and pretty much always look for the silver lining...and it annoys people. I have my negative stuff too... but I don't stay in that place for too long...
I "get it"...and I understand why they want to slap me....
I am EXTREMELY annoyed by them as well... people who always negative...and I would love to slap them sometimes too...so we are even
I do believe it is a choice how you want to approach life...even with depression and anxiety and all the other things they manufactured so we could take their drugs..
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yep, you can be happy or reaching the moon to the end and be always unhappy...
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