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文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12499.html
Spring Outing and Drowning文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12499.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12499.html
Li Run once asked me how happy I would be with my life, on a scale of 1 to 100. I said ninety-eight. He was very surprised, “How come so high?” I was a bit puzzled by his reaction, “Why, aren’t you happy?” He told me that he had asked many people and most answers were less than eighty. He wondered why I was so happy.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12499.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12499.html
I also wondered why so many people didn’t feel as happy, and I asked him, “What exactly makes you feel bad?” He couldn’t pinpoint anything specific but just said that he felt he wasn’t that happy. It dawned on me that for many people to be happy meant to feel joyful all the time. This is indeed a little too much to expect. In fact, an over-high expectation of happiness is often one of the main reasons for unhappiness.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12499.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12499.html
What’s the opposite of happiness then? Is it unhappiness? Well, I believe it is a sense of numbness.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12499.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12499.html
A person who becomes less and less sensitive to happiness will gradually be unable to experience it. I still clearly remember an apt analogy about happiness from a Positive Psychology course I took. It says that adults today experience happiness in either of two ways. One is the “drowning model”, which implies the moment of happiness comes from surviving a painful experience. This is like suffering before reaching one’s goals. For example, one may feel happy after getting rich, falling in love, or starting a business. Everything before that is painful. The second is the “spring outing model,” according to which the whole process is pleasant from beginning to end. We all went on such outings when we were young. The news made us jump for joy and rush home happily to prepare. Then we boarded the coach and chatted with our classmates in high spirits. Each moment at the destination was filled with delight. The whole outing from start to finish was full of excitement and pleasure. However, as we get older, it’s hard to have such feelings anymore, and our sensitivity to happiness gradually goes from “spring outing” to “drowning”. This, in fact, shows we are losing our sensitivity to happiness.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12499.html
I treasure what I have and I am satisfied, probably because I’ve witnessed a great deal of pain and sickness.
It may be hard to fully appreciate the joy a blind person may feel to have eyes that can see, or how much 10,000 yuan would mean to someone too poor to afford medical treatment. All these seem obvious to most, yet I have actually met such people. That’s why I often feel greatly blessed. I can see the sky each day when I open my eyes; I have a home which shelters me from both heat and cold; I can walk to the subway station; I have a stable job… all these fill me with profound gratitude.
I believe that people and people, people and nature are all connected in a way that goes beyond words or actions. Positive thoughts towards the world will in turn trigger positive responses. The past is gone, and the future is uncertain. All I have is the present. Watching a leaf spiral down from a tree in graceful loops, and tasting the fresh burst of sweetness from a segment of orange, a gift of nature’s generosity – all these little things bring happiness to cherish and enjoy. When I live with such an attitude, I am truly happy for each and every moment.
Happiness should not be defined solely by specific goals. Instead, we should live our lives and look to the future in a positive and optimistic light. We’ll then feel happy no matter what happens. Tianci and his father, Weiwei and her mother are good examples. They have never ceased to appreciate the beauty and goodness around them, so they still remain hopeful for a seemingly bleak future. Even though the children are totally blind now, I continue to feel their happiness and optimism. Happiness is therefore not a given. It comes from the heart, as we learn to be content and more satisfied with life. When we help those less fortunate, we will feel rewarded. As we see what others have, we appreciate more what we have. As we give to others, we feel further validated. Is this not in itself a form of happiness?
