Manufacturing Happiness

[Jersey Girl]

*snip*

Well put, as well as by your Facebook friend. I wish more people were like your ‘freezer light’ friend.

What she's been through and is about to go through is simply unfathomable. And yet, it could save her life and she knows it. She knew these things were on the horizon in one form or another but she just got word that she has to start the first chemo on Monday. No time to adjust. Just get ready, grieve, and go.

But she's got that ability to see that blessing. The one good thing that went right. Even if it's discovering that a freezer light unexpectedly turned on and is working.

[Physics Guy]

I'm starting to really feel like there is a critical relationship between the reality of the universe and the act of humans observing it, that our consciousness is somehow bound up in that equation, influencing it. Hearing about quantum physics does that to me... but I won't pretend to understand what I'm hearing.

It bothers me because there's something mystical in that idea given that it sounds a lot like magical thinking.

We're pretty sure that what human observation does in quantum mechanics is also done whenever anything microscopic has any effect on larger scales, regardless of whether anything conscious is involved, or not. For example, there have been a lot of experiments in which information about which path a particle takes is picked up by some inanimate object, even another microscopic one, and never observed by any human being. This information transfer can have a dramatic effect on where that first particle ends up, but it is exactly the same effect whether anyone looks at the data, or not.

On the other hand, observing things certainly can affect them, even without quantum mechanics, simply because observation is always an interaction, even if indirect. Observing something is having it affect you. There is always an equal and opposite reaction. If it affects you, you do affect it.

How big the effects are—that's another question. They involve exactly the same amount of momentum, each way, but how much difference does that much momentum make? The momentum transfer that can kill you won't do much to a freight train.

Or so we might think. Actually, judgements about how significant a change is are usually subjective, human judgements. The strict laws of physics are as obsessively detailed as miserly Scrooge McDuck, who feels every penny he loses, even out of his billions. The tiny momentum loss to the freight train, from every mosquito it hits, is an exactly matching change, mathematically.

How much change does it take to mean something, though? Sometimes tiny changes, that don't seem to mean anything right away, turn out eventually to have caused things that we find important. I don't think there's anything magical happening in observation, even in quantum mechanics. To me the real point is that small changes can be important. Maybe sometimes paying attention to something can be that kind of small change.

[ajax18]

So, next month is Thanksgiving, which has slowly become my favorite holiday of the year (I used to be more partial to Christmas). Just recently, it feels like I've had a somewhat profound epiphany: giving thanks manufactures happiness.

In fact, I've come to realize that simply spending time appreciating what's good about my life puts me in a better mood.

My wife and I went on a little weekend getaway recently, and found this cute little town to spend a couple days touring, checking out the restaurants, breweries and wine tasting rooms, and absorbing the surrounding beauty. It occurred to me that the reason I love going on vacation so much is that my wife and I have a tendency to talk about how cool what we're experiencing is the whole time we're there. We're in maximum appreciation mode.

I've heard people talk about the benefits of giving thanks (always on Thanksgiving), but I'd never really internalized what they've been saying this whole time.

It's about one's focus. What do you choose to think about? What do you choose to dwell on? Lately I've been trying to focus on what I've got going for me (my wife and daughter, our house, our town, our financial stability, etc etc) and less on the things that concern or annoy me. I do this because I realize dwelling on the good makes me an overall happier person. I can create moments of happiness in my life by simply focusing on what's good.

In hindsight, this all seems obvious to me, and I suspect many of you reading this are thinking, well no crap, Sherlock, and that might be fair. I just thought I'd mention it because it seems to me to be one of the most valuable self-discoveries I've made. Be grateful, and happiness will follow.

I rarely agree with anything you have to say, but not this time. This post was pure genius. I'd even call it divine inspiration.