Meaning-driven Happiness

 

May 14, 2024

 

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Hi!  How is each and every one? Last Sunday we celebrated three feast days. Indeed we had an abundance of blessings on that day! As a family, customarily, we truly enjoy and must enjoy every occasion there is.  Let us continue celebrating and remembering all these blessings that come every year, whether it be in Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, or in our immediate family.  It is good to foster these celebrations no matter how simple the celebrations may be but to celebrate them with the family members especially on Sundays, the day of the Lord, considered as family day.

Value Sundays as they are, God’s day, for they are valuable occasions to celebrate firstly with Our Lord by attending Sunday Mass, a duty of justice and religion, then tighten the family bond among the older members and  the youngest ones through the years. Celebrate life together and grow old in life together. This is the way we can give life to our years. Overcome whatever barrier of time, comfort, rest, money.  May the ones who have more give more and those who have less give whatever they can give – time, service, love, peace, joy.  May be easier said than done for some who are in dire situations of distance, health or whatever.  But pray and express your hopes, you will find ways to do so.

I realized I missed sending you greeting cards for Mother’s day in the previous post.  Please allow me to send you one for the greatest mother of all, Our Lady, mother of God and mother of the whole human race

and another one to all the grandmothers, mothers and mothers at heart.

We still have the rest of the month of May to do a pilgrimage/s to Our Lady in her shrines with our family members and friends.  Let us make time and show Our Mother our love and affection for her.  

Now let’s get back to business and continue learning about our divine longing for abundance.  Following is on abundance happiness (From Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 4)    

If God desires our happiness so much, why is it so difficult for us to achieve satisfaction?  Perhaps it is because we are aiming at the wrong target.

Psychology reveals that there are two kinds of happiness:  hedonic (pleasure-driven) happiness, and abundance (meaning-driven) happiness (Ryan and Deci, 2001).  Pleasure-driven happiness comes from seeking enjoyment and avoiding stressful situations.  Abundance happiness (also referred to as “authentic happiness”) is the soul-satisfying joy that one experiences from living a good life (Seligman, 2002).  

Research shows that while both types of happiness can feel pleasant, pleasure-seeking happiness tends to be very fleeting, transient, and unstable while abundance happiness is constant, consistent, and can bring deep inner joy even through the ups and downs of life (Seligman, 2002).  Surprisingly, the difference between these two types of happiness is bone-deep.

One fascinating study examined how these two types of happiness affect the way genes are expressed (i.e., turn on or off based on environmental curs).  It found that people who are oriented toward a more pleasure-based pursuit of happiness exhibited gene expression that was consistent with a high inflammatory response in the body (think joint swelling and other pain) as well as suppressed antibody and antiviral responses in the body (leaving them more susceptible to disease and infection).  By contrast, the people who pursued happiness by living a good life exhibited gene expression consistent with a low inflammatory response and high antibody and antiviral production (Wheeler, 2013).  The researchers point out that it was not the genes that influenced the type of happiness the participants chased after.  Rather, it was the type of happiness the participants pursued that caused the particular genetic response.

In his theology of the body, St. John Paul the Great teaches that by prayerful contemplation of the way our bodies are designed, we can discover important things about God’s plan for a fulfilling life and relationships.  God has hardwired our bodies to crave abundance so that we might ultimately find the path to fulfillment and divinization through his love.  It is this hardwired, bone-deep, universally human ache for fulfillment that I call the divine longing for abundance, which is the first and most important of the seven longings of the human heart.

Abundant happiness

 

 

To Jesus, through Mary!  That is the way to go.  Go to Mary, and she will surely bring you to Jesus. Once you have found Christ, stick with Him, cultivate and nurture an intimate relationship with Him during the day and you will always be happy in spite of many other things around you. Moreover your happiness will overflow to your surroundings and those around you.  That is abundance happiness.

See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us together again.”

Affectionately,                  

Guadalupinky