Myths of Happiness

Why You’re Not Happy: 7 Myths of Happiness

August 26, 2015 By Uncoveries

Even for the simple things, everyone benefits from a reminder every once in a while.

I’ve found I need to remind myself of certain concepts around happiness, simplicity and mindfulness when I start to feel unbalanced.

This happens when something unexpected throws me off guard. When receiving some bad news. Or perhaps when there’s been a long string of hectic days or weeks.

Sometimes you just feel down. Tired. Frustrated. Or perhaps just plain unmotivated to do anything.

Whatever it is you’re feeling, don’t try to suppress it. It will only make it worse. It’s much more productive to let yourself feel with intention—without any apology, explanations or guilt.

There are too many people who believe if certain things don’t fit this or that, then something is wrong with them and their lives.

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The 7 Myths of Happiness, Part 7

July 26, 2015 By Uncoveries

It happens to the best of us.

It’s why Sunday evenings and Monday mornings are mixed with remorse and the first day after a vacation seems to drag on in a funk.

We’re suckers for happy endings that stay that way. After all, the stories we prefer usually end with happily ever after.

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The 7 Myths of Happiness, Part 6

July 20, 2015 By Uncoveries

Many of us have spent time stuck in the trickiest of the myths of happiness, focused internally but unable to gain a sense of meaningful progress.

Following my initial realization while I was in Prague, I realized something that led me down the less-traveled path I’m on today.

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The 7 Myths of Happiness, Part 5

July 14, 2015 By Uncoveries

We live in a culture that is conditioned to look outside of ourselves.

It starts when we transition from children into adolescence, when we stop placing the emphasis on what’s true to us—what’s natural to us as children—and turn to external influences and opinions.

We learn that there is a certain look, feel and sound to what’s considered desirable and worthy. We see others looking up to these sources. We begin to tie our values and priorities to external influences.

Sometimes, we look everywhere else but internally for validation, confidence, happiness and the like—things that can only truly come from within. Hence, we have #5 of the myths of happiness:

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The 7 Myths of Happiness, Part 4

July 5, 2015 By Uncoveries

At a young age, we’re taught to focus on the goal. Keep your eye on the prize, they say.

So when we want to achieve something, we focus our full attention, put in our best effort and keep track with measures along the way.

For the practical items—from simple tasks to longer-term projects—that’s a proven way to get things done. There’s a checklist, a formula to it.

It’s common sense when it comes to goal setting, but not when it comes to happiness.

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The 7 Myths of Happiness, Part 3

June 29, 2015 By Uncoveries

Warm sunshine. Bountiful smiles. Open laughter.

The popularized idea of happiness is free-spirited and effortless; it is less often associated with concentration, hard work or sacrifice. In addition to believing the myth of happiness is a must, we also have this idea that happiness is easy. There is often an odd sense of entitlement and lackadaisicalness that’s assumed with happiness. Many of us have an underlying belief that happiness is something that should exist without any effort on our part.

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The 7 Myths of Happiness, Part 2

June 22, 2015 By Uncoveries

Blame it on advertisements, TV shows or social media, but ultimately the responsibility is yours to detach yourself from the fairest of the myths of happiness.

Perhaps it’s the carefully airbrushed and crafted images of attractive, stylishly dressed celebrities in extravagant settings, giving off an impression of happiness and success, among other desirable aspects. Maybe it’s Instagram, Facebook and other social updates—the manicured snapshots of a second of someone’s life artificially representing a whole.

With these ideals of perfection flashing on multiple screens in your life, it’s reinforced repeatedly, “This is what happiness looks like.”

This leads us to the second of the myths of happiness series. In a capitalistic society where there are incentives to disempower and create insecurity in the masses, it’s hard to resist the tendency to misplace the emphasis on ideal conditions that you don’t have complete control over.

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The 7 Myths of Happiness, Part 1

June 9, 2015 By Uncoveries

Happiness doesn’t exist—not in the ways most people think of it.

There are many opinions of happiness out there, inaccurately portrayed by the media, advertisers, celebrities and other influential people and sources in our lives.

Big companies and marketers of all backgrounds prey upon these myths to get you to spend money in your continuous quest for the elusive state of happiness. The misleading epidemic is worsened by the masses of people who unknowingly fall prey and perpetuate the trend.

Of course there are true examples of happiness out there too. But most moments of happiness aren’t glamorous, big events.

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