I've just seen another life-changing program on KQED. It's called "Happy" directed by Roko Belic. This documentary is life-changing to understanding what life is truly all about! It's exactly what I've been saying here on this blog and what I want to do in my life. It's about community, about giving, about connection, compassion. It's not rocket science. Happiness is a skill, just as much as learning to throw a football or shooting a basketball is a skill. When you really boil it down to the nitty and gritty, happiness in life is all about three things:
1) Meaningful relationships with others --> connection, love, camaraderie
2) Personal growth of ourselves --> new experiences, challenging ourselves beyond our limits, learning about things and curiosity of things around us and things bigger than ourselves, self-esteem
AND
3) Contribution to others and society --> compassion, empathy, unconditional love, and as a by-product: legacy to leave behind
The documentary mentioned the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, the extrinsic motivators being status, money, and image. These extrinsic motivators may seem to give us a boost in happiness but fade real quickly. It's been proven that money can raise happiness level only to a certain point, and once it meets our basic physiological needs: shelter, food, water, it does not raise our happiness much more. The level of happiness difference between a person making $5,000 a year to that of a person making $50,000 is a lot, but the difference between the $50,000 person to that of a $50,000,000 is not much according to the study shared in this documentary! And when it comes to status and image of being successful, it breeds envy in others around you and promotes schadenfreude rather than compassion and empathy. True happiness is not about competition. It's about those three things listed above. All three of those criteria lead to feelings of sustaining satisfaction, connection, camaraderie, love, self-esteem, compassion, empathy, appreciation, gratefulness, and all of the feelings of what's known as "spiritual emotions".
This documentary is truly life-altering and I absolutely thank PBS and KQED for their community and public based programs, from this one, to "Earth Songs" by Michael York, to NOVA and Nature programs - and certainly not to forget mentioning the PBS kids shows I grew up adoring.
Great time today with a good friend of mine who I've not seen in a long time - and got to see Captain Phillips which turned out to be such a great movie. He's done with his stint with the Navy and I'm grateful for the friendship I have with him. He's going to be going to LA soon and may be parting ways for a long time again but keeping in touch with friends is what I want and need to do.
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